Bad Intelligence on Iraq

Either the American public's collective memory is short, or most of us are not paying attention. It was only a year ago that people like .:Scott Ritter:., former Iraq Weapon's inspector, .:Hans Blix:., former U.N. Weapons Inspector Chief, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, were dismissed by officials in the Dubya administration, and the media, as being non-credible, whacked out, or pro-terrorism nuts.

The general public was warned by these people, as well as the millions of ordinary folks comprising the anti-war contingency, that the charge of hording or stockpiling weapons of mass destruction was actually a smokescreen of weapons of mass distraction. Scott Ritter appeared on a number of news shows telling all that he knew and learned while he was a weapons' inspector. Hans Blix was adamant that the non-violent inspections be allowed to continue because he saw no indications that WMD existed. The .:IAEA fact sheet:. from April 25, 2002, entitled "Iraq's Nuclear Weapons Programme", stated "There were no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."

It is amazing that the White House can now say, with a straight face, that all the intelligence it had to rely on said there was WMD in Iraq. There should be a hue and a cry from a nation's citizens when they are lied to so blatantly. But, no real protest of any kind can be heard.

How could the tumultuous events of a short 12 months ago be so quickly forgotten?