"U.S.
Report Finds No Evidence of Iraq WMD"
"We will never lower our heads as long as we are alive, even if we have to destroy everybody." (Saddam Hussein)
News and commentary on the Duelfer report.
2004/10/06 -
October 2004
Thursday, October 14, 2004
"Have War Critics Even Read the Duelfer Report?" (Richard O. Spertzel, Wall Street Journal/Benador Associates, 2004/10/14)Wednesday, October 13, 2004
"Duelfer to France: J'accuse!" (William Safire, The New York Times, 2004/10/13)
"Is This the Flag To Help Rescue Iraq?" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2004/10/13)Monday, October 11, 2004
"The Iraq Survey Group report" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/10/11)Sunday, October 10, 2004
"The sordid truth about the oil-for-food scandal" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/10/10)
"The Other Weapons Threat in Iraq" (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, 2004/10/10)Saturday, October 9, 2004
"The Duelfer report's case for war in Iraq" (Michael Barone, USNews.com, 2004/10/09)
"The Report That Nails Saddam" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2004/10/09)Friday, October 8, 2004
"Quai d'Orsay 'Astonished' at U.S. Report" (Eli Lake, The New York Sun, 2004/10/08)
"Saddam’s Sugar Daddy" (Claudia Rosett, National Review, 2004/10/08)
"Saddam's web: the network he used to fool a corrupt UN" (Fraser Nelson, The Scotsman, 2004/10/08)
Thursday, October 7, 2004
"France disputes Iraq bribe claims" (BBC News, 2004/10/07)
"Saddam's Personal Involvement in WMD Planning" (USA Today, 2004/10/07)
"Saddam and the French Connection" (Fraser Nelson and James Kirkup, The Scotsman, 2004/10/07)
"Report links U.N. to Iraq bribes" (CNN.com, 2004/10/07)
"A Leader With an Eye on His Legacy" (Bradley Graham, The Washington Post, 2004/10/07)
"U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons" (Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, 2004/10/07)
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
"U.S. Report Finds No Evidence of Iraq WMD" (Ken Guggenheim, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/10/06)
"Have War Critics Even Read the Duelfer Report?" (Richard O. Spertzel, Wall Street Journal/Benador Associates, 2004/10/14)
"While no facilities were found producing chemical or biological agents on a large scale, many clandestine laboratories operating under the Iraqi Intelligence Services were found to be engaged in small-scale production of chemical nerve agents, sulfur mustard, nitrogen mustard, ricin, aflatoxin, and other unspecified biological agents. These laboratories were also evaluating whether various poisons would change the texture, smell or appearance of foodstuffs. These aspects of the ISG report have been ignored by the pundits and press. ...
The chemical section reports that the M16 Directorate "had a plan to produce and weaponize nitrogen mustard in rifle grenades and a plan to bottle sarin and sulfur mustard in perfume sprayers and medicine bottles which they would ship to the United States and Europe." ...
It is asserted that Iraq was not supporting terrorists. Really? Documentation indicates that Iraq was training non-Iraqis at Salman Pak in terrorist techniques, including assassination and suicide bombing. In addition to Iraqis, trainees included Palestinians, Yemenis, Saudis, Lebanese, Egyptians and Sudanese.""Duelfer to France: J'accuse!" (William Safire, The New York Times, 2004/10/13)
Duelfer XVII: "Powerful officials and their profiteering friends in France had a reason to try to stop the U.S. from overthrowing Saddam Hussein: they were pocketing billions in payoffs through a United Nations oil-for-food front. ...
The former French ambassador to the U.N., Jean-Bernard Mérimée, is listed as receiving vouchers for 11 million barrels of oil from Saddam, the proceeds from which would beat a diplomat's pay. Another of President Jacques Chirac's friends receiving Saddam's U.N. largesse is Patrick Maugein, "whom the Iraqis considered a conduit to Chirac," according to the report.
Maugein, 58, whose association with Chirac has occasionally been chronicled by the French journalist Karl Laske, is chairman of Soco, an oil company active in Vietnam. He's down for 13 million barrels. French oil companies Total and Socap got about 200 million barrels.""Is This the Flag To Help Rescue Iraq?" (Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, 2004/10/13)
Duelfer XVI: "Certainly, given how much importance is sometimes attributed to the United Nations, it is odd how little notice has been taken of what may be the worst U.N. scandal ever. Tucked away in arms inspector Charles Duelfer's report on Iraqi weapons -- this is the report mostly remembered for its "no weapons" conclusion -- are allegations that the United Nations' oil-for-food program had, at the time of the invasion of Iraq, degenerated almost entirely into a money-laundering scheme. ...
A decision to "send in the United Nations" is never going to be the full solution to any problem. And in light of what we are learning about the United Nations' appalling record in Iraq, it's pretty clear that calling upon "the United Nations" to save us in Iraq is tantamount to a cry of desperation.""The Iraq Survey Group report" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2004/10/11)
Duelfer XV: "There is a further fascinating paragraph which appears to have gone completely unnoticed:'According to presidential secretary Abd Hamid Mahmud Al Khatab Al Nasiri, during the mid-to late 1990s Saddam issued a presidential decree
directing the IIS [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to recruit UNSCOM inspectors, especially American inspectors. To entice their co-operation, the IIS was to offer the inspectors preferential treatment for future business dealings with Iraq, once they completed their duties with the United Nations. Tariq Aziz and an Iraqi-American were specifically tasked by the IIS to focus on a particular American inspector.'So who was this inspector? Was it perhaps Scott Ritter, who suddenly and bafflingly turned upon the US and refuted the conclusions he had previously drawn, giving immense ammunition to the anti-war lobby? If it was not, he should surely make this clear."
"The sordid truth about the oil-for-food scandal" (Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/10/10)
Duelfer XIV: "The real scandal contained in the long-awaited report of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) that was published last week concerns the fecklessness of the United Nations, not to mention the treacherous conduct of some of its security council members, in its dealings with Saddam's regime between the end of the 1991 Gulf war and last year's Operation Iraqi Freedom. ...
Between them, France and Russia received 45 per cent of the vouchers, with China coming third. In late 2002 and early 2003, France, Russia and China led the anti-war movement at the UN. In France, the vouchers were given to a number of politicians with close links to Mr Chirac, while in Russia they were paid directly to Mr Putin's private office, providing him with his own ready-made slush fund. ...
By November 2001 — just two months after the 9/11 attacks — Saddam was so confident of breaking the UN's sanctions stranglehold that Baghdad hosted a trade fair that attracted hundreds of foreign companies in the expectation that they would soon be able to establish lucrative trade links with Saddam's regime. As Charles Duelfer, the author of the ISG report commented, by 2001 Saddam's 'long struggle to outlast the containment policy seemed tantalisingly close.'""The Other Weapons Threat in Iraq" (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, 2004/10/10)
Duelfer XIII: "Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. Investigators said one group recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June.
U.S. officials say the threat is especially worrisome because leaders of the previously unknown group, which investigators dubbed the "Al Abud network," were based in the city of Fallouja near insurgents aligned with fugitive militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. ...
For now, the leaders and financiers of the network "remain at large, and alleged chemical munitions remain unaccounted," the report says. It adds that other insurgent groups are "planning or attempting to produce or acquire" chemical and biological agents throughout Iraq, and says the availability of chemicals and munitions, as well as sympathetic former Iraqi weapons scientists, 'increases the future threat.'""The Duelfer report's case for war in Iraq" (Michael Barone, USNews.com, 2004/10/09)
Duelfer XII: "'U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons' read the headline on the October 7 Washington Post. "Report on Iraq Contradicts Bush Administration Claims" read the subhead. But these headlines conceal the real news in the report of Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer. For the report makes it plain that George W. Bush had good reason to go to war in Iraq and end the regime of Saddam Hussein. ...
If the weapons inspectors had been given more time to conduct inspections, as John Kerry has on occasion advocated, we now know they would not have found any WMDs. Nor does it seem possible that they would have uncovered Saddam's attempts to maintain WMD capability. There would have been heavy pressure then from France, Russia, and China — whose companies were given kickbacks and windfall profits from the Saddam-administered U.N. Oil for Food program, Duelfer reports — to disband U.S. military forces in the Middle East and to end sanctions. And once sanctions were gone, there would have been nothing to stop Saddam from developing WMDs." (See also: "U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons" (Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, 2004/10/07))"The Report That Nails Saddam" (David Brooks, The New York Times, 2004/10/09)
Duelfer XI: "I have never in my life seen a government report so distorted by partisan passions. The fact that Saddam had no W.M.D. in 2001 has been amply reported, but it's been isolated from the more important and complicated fact of Saddam's nature and intent.
But we know where things were headed. Sanctions would have been lifted. Saddam, rich, triumphant and unbalanced, would have reconstituted his W.M.D. Perhaps he would have joined a nuclear arms race with Iran. Perhaps he would have left it all to his pathological heir Qusay.
We can argue about what would have been the best way to depose Saddam, but this report makes it crystal clear that this insatiable tyrant needed to be deposed. He was the menace, and, as the world dithered, he was winning his struggle. He was on the verge of greatness. We would all now be living in his nightmare.""Quai d'Orsay 'Astonished' at U.S. Report" (Eli Lake, The New York Sun, 2004/10/08)
Duelfer X: "The French foreign ministry spokesman, Herve Ladsous, said he was "astonished" by the charges that a former French interior minister, Charles Pasqua, had received Iraqi vouchers to sell 11 million barrels of oil as part of an extensive network of bribes. The spokesman protested that the charges were "against exclusively non-American companies and individuals without having made the effort to verify them in advance, either with the people themselves or with the authorities of the countries concerned."
The French ambassador to the United Nations was blunter. "These allegations are unacceptable," Jean Marc de la Sabliere said. "I'm talking about the whole allegation." ...
Meanwhile Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy, who Mr. Duelfer's reports says received vouchers to sell 53 million barrels of Iraqi crude, as saying "I never took a single dollar from Iraq or any other country."
One American diplomat told The New York Sun yesterday that the allegations were "a diplomatic nuclear bomb." The diplomat added, "Most of our ambassadors pleaded with the White House not to release the information." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "the report looked solid to us." (See also: "France disputes Iraq bribe claims" (BBC News, 2004/10/07))"Saddam’s Sugar Daddy" (Claudia Rosett, National Review, 2004/10/08)
Duelfer IX: "The standard U.N. defense, offered up periodically by Annan and his subordinates since Annan finally conceded this past March that there had been, perhaps, quite a lot of "wrong-doing," is that Oil-for-Food performed as well as possible under difficult circumstances. A little corruption, we are given to understand, can creep into even the loftiest humanitarian endeavors.
This was not simply a little corruption, however. And it was not vague, and it was not faceless, and it was anything but benign. The Duelfer report takes us right into the caverns of corruption, political rot, arms traffic, and U.N. complicity that under cover of a relief operation was allowing Saddam to to prosper. As we begin to absorb the details, the very least Kofi Annan can contribute is to pursue — with the same kind of zeal he brought to expanding Oil-for-Food — a campaign for the kind of U.N. transparency that should have been the first line of defense against this monstrous travesty ever happening in the first place.""Saddam's web: the network he used to fool a corrupt UN" (Fraser Nelson, The Scotsman, 2004/10/08)
Duelfer VIII: "Saddam Hussein believed that the United Nations system was so corrupt that it would protect his dictatorship from American aggression and allow him to complete quickly his quest for weapons of mass destruction (WMD). ...
His officials believed they could make WMD within two years — but the only flaw in their strategy was to think that Tony Blair and President George Bush would not invade Iraq without explicit UN permission. ...
His strategy was to use Iraq’s vast oil reserves as a lever to pull apart the international community, by bribing Russian and French officials. The report shows this policy carried out to a breathtaking degree.
Given that only 15 of Iraq’s 73 proven oilfields were being developed, Saddam’s officials started to offer lucrative deals to Russian and French oil companies, while personally targeting politicians considered corrupt.
Jacques Chirac, the president of France, was top of the list. Some 11 million oil-for-food vouchers were allocated to a businessmen named Patrick Maugein, who was "considered a conduit to Chirac", according to the report.
It also claims that Saddam’s officials paid the equivalent of £600,000 to the ruling French Socialist Party — and that Baghdad’s then ambassador to Paris handed the money to Pierre Joxe, the then French defence minister." (See also: "Saddam and the French Connection" (Fraser Nelson and James Kirkup, The Scotsman, 2004/10/07))"France disputes Iraq bribe claims" (BBC News, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer VII: "Allegations that French officials were offered bribes by Saddam Hussein are unverified, France has said.
An official US report said that the former Iraqi leader sought to influence world figures with "oil vouchers" in an attempt to get UN sanctions lifted.
French businessmen and politicians were among the recipients, it said. ...
The report, published on the CIA's website, claims the French recipients included the former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and businessman Patrick Maugein - both of whom deny the allegations.
Other officials include Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Benon Sevan, the former head of the oil for food programme for Iraq, who have also denied accepting bribes.
The report does not say if any attempt was made to verify the data, and notes that some vouchers were issued legitimately.
The French foreign ministry said that it was important to first discover if there was any truth behind the accusations.
"As far as we understand it, the accusations... are unverified either with the persons concerned or the authorities of the countries concerned," spokesman Herve Ladsous said.""Saddam's Personal Involvement in WMD Planning" (USA Today, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer VI: "The Iraq Survey Group recovered this recording of Saddam and senior officials discussing the use of WMD. This discussion was part of a more general meeting that appears to have taken place during the second week of January, 1991. ...
Saddam: I want to make sure that — close the door please [door slams] — the germ and chemical warheads, as well as the chemical and germ bombs, are available to the "concerned people," so that in case we ordered an attack, they can do it without missing any of their targets? ...
What is it doing with you, I need these germs to be fixed on the missiles, and tell him to hit, because starting the 15th, everyone should be ready for the action to happen at anytime, and I consider Riyadh as a target. ...
We will never lower our heads as long as we are alive, even if we have to destroy everybody."
"Saddam and the French Connection" (Fraser Nelson and James Kirkup, The Scotsman, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer V: "Saddam Hussein believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.
Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France — having been granted oil contracts — would veto any American plans for war. ...
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.
Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" and spokesman for his re-election campaign.
They even assessed the chances for "supporting one of the candidates in an upcoming French presidential election." Chirac is not mentioned by name.
A memo sent to Saddam dated in May last year [sic] from his intelligence corps said they met with a "French parliamentarian" who 'assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the UN Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq.'""Report links U.N. to Iraq bribes" (CNN.com, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer IV: "The alleged schemes included an Iraqi system for allocating lucrative oil vouchers, which permitted recipients to purchase certain amounts of oil at a profit.
Benon Sevan, the former chief of the U.N. program, is among dozens of people who allegedly received the vouchers, according to the report, which said Saddam personally approved the list.
The secret voucher program was dominated by Russian, French and Chinese recipients, in that order, with Saddam spreading the wealth widely to prominent business men, politicians, foreign government ministries and political parties, the report said.
The report names former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, and the Russian radical political figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky as voucher recipients, for example, and other foreign governments range from Yemen to Namibia.
The governments of Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt did a brisk illicit oil trade with Iraq as well — more than $8 billion from 1991 until 2003, the report said.""A Leader With an Eye on His Legacy" (Bradley Graham, The Washington Post, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer III: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was so worried that a phone call might be detected by the United States and pinpoint his location for an attack that he used a phone only twice after 1990. Toward the end of his rule, he grew more reclusive, fearing increasingly for his own safety and relying more than ever on members of his Tikriti clan.
But even as he felt threatened by U.S. military power, Hussein showed a fondness for U.S. movies and literature, one of his favorite books being Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." He hoped for improved relations with the United States and, over several years, sent proposals through intermediaries to open a dialogue with Washington. ...
Indeed, Duelfer says, Hussein views himself "as the most recent of the great Iraqi leaders like Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar and Saladin." In the reconstruction of the historic city of Babylon, for instance, bricks were molded with the phrase "Made in the era of Saddam Hussein" — mimicking the ancient bricks forged in Babylon and demonstrating Hussein's "assumption that he will be similarly remembered over the millennia," Duelfer writes.""U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons" (Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, 2004/10/07)
Duelfer II: "The 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. inspections destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capability and, for the most part, Saddam Hussein did not try to rebuild it, according to an extensive report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq that contradicts nearly every prewar assertion made by top administration officials about Iraq. ...
"We were almost all wrong" on Iraq, Duelfer told a Senate panel yesterday. ...
Duelfer concluded that while the U.N.-imposed sanctions kept Hussein in check and devastated the country, Hussein had become more successful in finding ways to bypass them and worked to erode international support for the trade restrictions.
"The sanctions were in free fall," Duelfer told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday." (See also: "Corrections" (The Washington Post, 2004/10/08): "An Oct. 7 article and the lead Page One headline incorrectly attributed a quotation to Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq. The statement, "We were almost all wrong," was made by Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Jan. 28.")"U.S. Report Finds No Evidence of Iraq WMD" (Ken Guggenheim, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/10/06)
Duelfer I: "Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector reported Wednesday that he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991. He also concluded that Saddam Hussein's weapons capability weakened during a dozen years of U.N. sanctions before the U.S. invasion last year.
Contrary to prewar statements by President Bush and top administration officials, Saddam did not have chemical and biological stockpiles when the war began and his nuclear capabilities were deteriorating, not advancing, according to the report by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group. ...
But Duelfer also supports Bush's argument that Saddam remained a threat. Interviews with the toppled leader and other former Iraqi officials made clear to inspectors that Saddam had not lost his ambition to pursue weapons of mass destruction and hoped to revive his weapons program if U.N. sanctions were lifted, the report said." (See also the report: "Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD" (CIA, 2004/10/06))
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