In an interview conducted by journalist Con Coughlin in February 2002, former U.S. diplomat “David Mack insisted that Washington did not sell any arms to Iraq. ‘We never provided any military equipment to Iraq,’ he said. ‘The only U.S. equipment we ever sent to Baghdad was two pearl-handled revolvers which Saddam asked for especially to […]
Category: quotes
2/15/2002
On May 6, 2003, journalist Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times, regarding the Niger-Iraq yellowcake situation: ” ‘I’m told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president’s [Dick Cheney’s] office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. ambassador to […]
2/15/2002
“In February [2002], Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a nuclear watchdog office, reported to the United Nations, ‘We have found to date no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco, Page […]
2/15/2002
“A former acting ambassador to Iraq, Joe Wilson, was asked by the CIA [in February 2002] to travel to Niger to investigate the allegations that Saddam Hussein had been seeking yellowcake uranium. …He said that he found that there was no such effort.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – […]
2/15/2002
“According to one former NSC [National Security Council] official, Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith argued in a White House meeting in February 2002 that counter-narcotics was not part of the war on terrorism, and so Defense wanted no part of it in Afghanistan. ‘We couldn’t get Defense to do counter-narcotics in Afghanistan,’ recalled the former […]
2/15/2002
The Department of Defense’s ‘Militarily Critical Technologies List,’ updated in February 2002, read: ” ‘When the Iraqis produced chemical munitions they appeared to adhere to a *make and use* regimen. They had to get the agent to the front promptly or have it degrade in the munition.’ Their conclusion was that the shelf life of […]
2/14/2002
” ‘It doesn’t mean that an invasion [of Iraq] is imminent,’ [Secretary of State Colin] Powell told the Financial Times [on February 14, 2002]… Sanctions and support for the Iraqi opposition were still firm pillars of [Bush] administration policy, he said, and ‘if there is ever a point where we believe it’s necessary to do […]
2/13/2002
“The next day [February 13, 2002] at a press conference the president [Bush] said of Iraq, ‘I will reserve whatever options I have, I’ll keep them close to my vest.’ “ – Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, Page 103 […]
2/13/2002
In an op-ed piece he wrote that appeared in The Washington Post on February 13, 2002, former Assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Ken Adelman, wrote: “Hussein constitutes the number one threat against American security and civilization. Unlike Osama bin Laden, he has billions in government funds, scores of government research labs working feverishly […]
2/13/2002
“In February [13] 2002, the New York Times revealed to the public that a branch of the Defense Department headed by John Poindexter–a former National Security Advisor to [President] Ronald Reagan…was working on a secret program known as ‘Total Information Awareness [TIA].’ This program, under the motto ‘Knowledge is Power,’ aimed to design a gargantuan […]