In his Wall Street Journal op-ed on August 15, 2002, former National Security Advisor “Brent Scowcroft warns that in the event of an invasion [of Iraq], ‘Dire consequences would be the effect in the region.’ Among these would be ‘an explosion of outrage against us’ and a threat to ‘stability and security in a vital […]
Category: quotes
8/15/2002
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “523. By late August 2002, the Government was troubled by intense speculation about whether a decision had already been taken to use military force. In Mr Blair’s words, the US and UK had been ‘outed’ as having taken a decision when no such decision […]
8/15/2002
“…Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, warned in a [August 15, 2002] Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled ‘Don’t Attack Saddam’ that an invasion of Iraq would be both a diversion from and an impediment to the war against al Qaeda. He felt ‘our preeminent security policy…is the war on […]
8/15/2002
“In August 2002, Vice President Cheney stated that Iraq was actively developing nuclear weapons. He claims that the evidence came from Saddam’s son-in-law, who defected from Iraq in 1995. But, in fact, the defector had said the opposite- that Saddam had done no work on nuclear weapons since 1991.” [The 15th of the month for […]
8/15/2002
” ‘Saddam’s goals have little in common with the terrorists who threaten us, and there is little incentive for him to make common cause with them,’ [former National Security Advisor Brent] Scowcroft wrote in a [August 15, 2002] Wall Street Journal op-ed urging the Bush administration not to attack Iraq. ‘He is unlikely to risk […]
8/15/2002
When the Bush Administration was coining the term ‘axis of evil’ in January 2002–which included Iraq, North Korea, and Iran–“the extent of Iran’s nuclear ambitions wasn’t fully documented–it would not be until August 2002 that Iranian dissidents would blow the whistle about two nuclear power plants in Arak and Natanz, in central Iran–and the country […]
8/15/2002
In August 2002, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice “created an inter-agency group of people from State, the CIA, the Joint Chiefs, and the White House who were charged with coordinating the government’s preparations leading up to the invasion [of Iraq], including securing bases in the region and getting overflight permission from other countries. The body […]
8/15/2002
Former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft wrote an op-ed for the August 15, 2002, Wall Street Journal titled ‘Don’t Attack Saddam.’ ” ‘There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations,’ he wrote, ‘and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks.’ To attack Iraq, while ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, ‘could turn the […]
8/15/2002
In August 2002, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas “Feith put together the Office of Special Plans (OSP) in the Pentagon. A larger, more powerful successor to the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group that Feith ran with [neoconservative scholar] David Wurmser and [Defense Department official] Michael Maloof, the OSP’s mission was to ferret out evidence that […]
8/15/2002
In his August 15, 2002, op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled, ‘Don’t Attack Saddam,’ former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft “wrote that ‘scant evidence’ connects Saddam Hussein to terrorism and that Saddam was ‘unlikely to risk his investment in weapons of mass destruction, much less his country, by handing such weapons to terrorists who […]