- of three fraudulent stories* involving Iraq have caused us to conclude the U.S. and British governments are completely untrustworthy in matters of foreign policy. They have been peddling outright falsehoods, often supported by documents that just "happen to show up". This has the look and feel of a Special Operation conducted by intelligence agencies. We consider this to be a very serious development.
* - bogus accusations against France; Labor MP George Galloway framed; the "rescue" of Jessica Lynch that wasn't.
Here is a table of the more notable instances.
| | | | | |
| Outright frauds |
| when | where | source | story | reference |
| Sep 2002 | New York Times | | France and Germany had supplied Iraq with high-precision switches used in detonating nuclear weapons. | WashPost |
| 5 Nov 2002 | Washington Post | "American intelligence source" | France possessed prohibited strains of the human smallpox virus. | WashPost |
| 17 Dec 2002 | U.S. State Department paper British Intelligence | "Nigerian state documents" | Contact between Nigeria and Iraq with the aim of exporting uranium. | BBC |
| 5 Feb 2003 | Sec. Colin Powell @ U.N. | British dossier,
"the fine paper that United Kingdom distributed yesterday" | "Describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities." | Newsday |
| Spring 2003 | | U.S. officials | Hans Blix withheld information about an Iraqi drone aircraft from the Security Council. | MSNBC |
| 7 Mar 2003 | Washington Times
Bill Gertz | "U.S. intelligence source" | Two French companies had sold Iraq spare parts for airplanes and helicopters. | WashPost |
| 13 Mar 2003 | New York Times
William Safire | | France had permitted the delivery of sensitive equipment to Iraq. A French intermediary had facilitated Iraq's acquisition, through Syria, of chemical components for long-range surface-to-surface missiles. Safire "had been told" that the Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs had signed a contract in April 2002 to provide Iraq with 5 tons of dimethyl hydrazine, a chemical that can be used for missile propulsion. | CNN |
| 2 Apr 2002 | | Pentagon | Jessica Lynch had stab and bullet wounds, and she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated. Army Rangers and Navy Seals stormed the Nassiriya hospital. They were said to have come under fire, but they made it to Lynch and whisked her away by helicopter. | Guardian |
| 2 Apr 2003 | MSNBC
Joe Scarborough | | France was selling Iraq "planes, missiles, armored vehicles, radar equipment and spare parts for Iraqi fighter planes," and offering to sell nuclear reactors. | CNN |
| 21 Apr 2003 | Newsweek | | "possible" discovery of French Roland 2 missiles by coalition forces in Iraq and implied that they had been manufactured in 2002. A charred Roland 3 missile launcher was also allegedly found. | CNN |
| 6 May 2003 | Washington Times | "American intelligence source" | France had helped Iraqi leaders by providing them with French passports. | WashPost |
| May 2003 | Washington Times | "intelligence sources" | France and Russia seeking to sign oil contracts with Iraq just before the start of the war. | CNN |
| Apr 2003 | Daily Telegraph
David Blair | "found documents" | "Papers" showed that Labour MP George Galloway took millions of pounds for supporting the Iraqi dictator. | Daily Mirror |
| | | | | |
| Peddling dubious information |
| when | where | source | story | reference |
| Sep 2002 | Il Sole 24 Ore | Richard Perle | The U.S. has proof that Mohammad Atta met with--not just Iraqi agents--but Saddam Hussein himself | TMWorld |
| Oct/Nov 2002 | 11 times on campaign trail | George Bush | Saddam has got connections with al Qaeda | White House |
| 5 Feb 2003 | Sec. Colin Powell @ U.N. | an Iraqi chemical engineer,
an Iraqi civil engineer,
[someone] in a position to know,
an Iraqi major who defected | "[We claim] the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents" | speech |
| 5 Feb 2003 | Sec. Colin Powell @ U.N. | not cited,
gave example of what UAV would look like | drones / Unmanned Aerial Vehicles:
"Iraq has been working on a variety of UAVs for more than a decade."
"... we detected one of Iraq's newest UAVs in a test flight that went 500 kilometers nonstop on autopilot ..."
"should be of concern to everybody" | CSMonitor,
Daily Telegraph (Au) |
| 5 Feb 2003 | Sec. Colin Powell @ U.N. | | Aluminum tubes: "Most U.S. experts think they are intended to serve as rotors in centrifuges used to enrich uranium." | speech |
| 5 Feb 2003 | Sec. Colin Powell @ U.N. | satellite photo | "[There is a] biological weapons related facility." where a truck caravan appeared. | speech |
| 22 Apr 2003 | New York Times
Judith Miller | U.S. Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) Alpha,
"an Iraqi scientist",
later revealed to be Chalabi/INC | "... those stockpiles [of chemical and biological agents] that we've heard about ... have either been destroyed by Saddam Hussein ... or they have been shipped to Syria for safekeeping.." | News Hour
WashPost |
| | | | | |
| A matter of emphasis |
| when | where | source | story | reference |
| Oct/Nov 2002 | 14 times on campaign trail | George Bush | Saddam has weapons of mass destruction | White House |
| 25 Apr 2003 | ABC News | Officials inside government and advisers outside. | The administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's WMD's to gain the legal justification for war. | ABC |
| | | | | |
| Suspect stories |
| when | where | source | story | reference |
| 27 Apr 2003 | Sunday Telegraph
Inigo Gilmore | found documents after being allowed into the intelligence headquarters in Baghdad by US troops guarding the site. | A link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. | BBC |
| 28 Apr 2003 | Daily Telegraph | files from the looted Iraqi foreign ministry | France colluded with the Iraqi secret service to undermine a Paris conference held by the human rights group Indict. | Daily Telegraph |
| | | | | |
has penned some thoughts about the Bush administration's veracity - or lack thereof. Excerpts: (link via
