On February 23-24, 2003, the UNMOVIC’s (UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission’s) College of Commissioners convened to prepare a report for the UN Security Council. “We concluded: ‘It is only by the middle of January [2003] and thereafter that Iraq has taken a number of steps which have the potential of resulting either in the […]
2/24/2003
On February 24, 2003, “The United States, supported by Britain and Spain, introduces a second resolution to the UN Security Council, authorizing the use of force against Iraq.” – Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, A Time of Our Choosing, Page 295 […]
2/24/2003
“At a secret NSC [National Security Council] briefing for the President [Bush] on February 24, 2003, entitled, ‘Planning for the Iraqi Petroleum Infrastructure,’ a State Department economist, Pamela Quanrud, told Bush that it would cost $7 billion to $8 billion to rebuild the oil infrastructure, if Saddam decided to blow up his country’s oil wells…” […]
2/24/2003
In the February 24, 2003, edition of The Scotsman, Tim Cornwell wrote: ” ‘The highest ranking defector ever to turn informant on Saddam Hussein’s government told United Nations weapons inspectors in 1995 that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks after the Gulf War. But UN inspectors hushed up that part of […]
2/24/2003
Following the National Security Council’s February 24, 2003, briefing on what would happen to the Iraqi oil industry in the event of war: “The president [Bush] affirmed the need to enlist Iraqis and Americans knowledgeable about the oil business to help run the sector. ‘We want to put an Iraqi face on the temporary oil […]
2/24/2003
“The morning of Monday, February 24 [2003], the president [Bush] attended a secret NSC [National Security Council] briefing called ‘Planning for the Iraqi Petroleum Infrastructure: Issues for Decision.’ The president and the others had high hopes that the Iraqi oil industry, if freed from UN sanctions, could be the fast track for a new regime […]
2/23/2003
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on February 23, 2003, former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle said: “I find the accusation that this [Bush] administration has embarked upon this policy for oil to be an outrageous, scurrilous charge for which, when you asked for evidence, you will note that there […]
2/22/2003
In a rehearsal and post-Iraq planning conference held February 21-22, 2003, at the National Defense University, key staffers noted the following problems a month before the war began: *’Current force packages are inadequate for the first step of securing all the major urban areas, let alone for providing interim police. …We risk letting much of […]
2/21/2003
“On February 21, 2003, [counterterrorism czar] Richard Clarke resigned from the Bush administration. Three weeks later, he was asked how he was adjusting to leaving government. ‘I already don’t miss it,’ he said. Then he elaborated. ‘You know that great feeling you get when you stop banging your head against a wall?’ ” – Craig […]
2/20/2003
“On February 20, 2003, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, again on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer program, said… ‘To the extent he [Saddam] is persuaded that it’s inevitable that he’s going to lose his position and his regime is going to be cast out, it’s at least possible …is it one percent? I don’t know. […]