The link is extremely troubling and I predict the MSM -- dutiful Bush loyalists to the bloody end, will largely ignore this important story.
Posted by Christopher at November 2, 2006 07:57 PMWe still don't know who met with Cheney's Energy Task Force, but now the terrorists know more about building a nuclear bomb. I think this should be enough to start impeachment hearings as soon as speaker Pelosi is sworn in. Hoekstra and Roberts should be expelled from congress.
Posted by MarvToler at November 2, 2006 08:12 PMAll while at the same time having the National Archives reclassify thousands of pages of harmless Cold War era documents.
Once again politics trumps national security with the GOP.
Posted by snark at November 2, 2006 08:14 PMJust when you think they've maxed out on stupidity, something like this comes up.
The level os sheer incompetence they've been able to maintain for years now is breathtaking.
Posted by Stranger at November 2, 2006 09:01 PMWhat, Iraqi documents containing a "how to build a nuclear bomb"
"The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs." NYTimes
No WMD's in Iraq, yet there's this stuff. How did Iraq get this stuff? Where did this 'advanced' knowledge come from? Did you tell them Steve?
I'm Shocked, Just shocked to see Democrats admit Iraq had this knowledge and technology to assemble one of these if they wanted to.
Steve, you just exposed yourself bigtime here. All this talk of no WMD's in Iraq with this stuff found in Iraq. Now you want to gripe about national security over some country that had no national security issues with America. A "cookbook" from a country that had no WMD's!!!
"The Iraqi document is marked “Draft FFCD Version 3 (20.12.95),” meaning it was preparatory for the “Full, Final, Complete Disclosure” that Iraq made to United Nations inspectors in March 1996. The document carries three diagrams showing cross sections of bomb cores, and their diameters.
On Sept. 20, the site posted a much larger document, “Summary of technical achievements of Iraq’s former nuclear program.” It runs to 51 pages, 18 focusing on the development of Iraq’s bomb design. Topics included physical theory, the atomic core and high-explosive experiments. By early October, diplomats and officials said, United Nations arms inspectors in New York and their counterparts in Vienna were alarmed and discussing what to do."
Yet they had no WMD's. Whats the problem, this Iraq was no danger to America. They had nothing to concern America, just let them be. "never before seen on the internet", no danger to America's national security. We should never have interupted their work on this stuff. Just let them be, sanction them some more. Yes thats the answer, more sanctions. Why this great alarm now from a country that was NO danger to America?
“a road map that helps you get from point A to point B, but only if you already have a car.”
yellowcake anyone?
Posted by peter at November 2, 2006 09:14 PM""The bottom line is that Iraq did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in 2003 when the war began. There simply is no there, there. Saddam Hussein did not have an active nuclear, chemical or biological weapons program. Considering the statements that were being made by the Administration and the intelligence that was presented to Congress which said otherwise, this is quite disturbing and points once again to failures in the analysis, collection and use of intelligence."
http://feinstein.senate.gov/04Releases/r-isg.htm
Again, what's the concern? Your reps said there's no there, there to this many times over. DiFi said it was so.
Posted by peter at November 2, 2006 09:29 PMDoesn't this Republican fiasco fall under the heading of giving aid and assistance to the right-wing religious terrorists?
Doesn't this Republican fiasco fall under criminal provisions of the Patriot Acts and the recently passed Military Commissions Act?
Shouldn't some Republicans in the Bush administration and some Republicans in Congress be going to jail?
These inept and stupid Republicans have once again endangered our democracy and our nation's children. Enough is enough.
Vote for the Democratic Party candidate on November 7th ! ! !
Posted by The Oracle at November 2, 2006 09:35 PMIraq must've got it from al qaeda! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Keep it up and you'll end up being an assistant secretary of defense in the Cheney Administration.
"former nuclear program". What's the important word there, peter? Come on, you can do it....it's a one out of three chance at the very least.
Posted by euzoius at November 2, 2006 09:38 PMSeeing that the MSM pretty much ignored the story that the kidnapped US soldier has been abandoned to his fate by the
Bushies, it's no surprise that they'll ignore this story as well. The abandoned kidnapped soldier story might be the most grievous atrocity this administration has committed, yet almost nobody (Horray to Jack Cafferty for making a case of this) seems to care or notice.
Go to jail for what? DiFi said theres no there, there. Final, no danger to American national security. "Bush lied" wasn't that the montra? This has got to be a lie. Iraq didn't have anything for us to invade them for. "We should have never bothered these people. They weren't harming anyone but themselves. Leave them be. Let the sanctions take care of this." Isn't that what you people said?
What a November surprise, WMD's in Irak!
Posted by peter at November 2, 2006 09:42 PMpeter
I'm puzzled. If your point is valid, why hasn't your dear leader been trumpeting these documents as the proof you say they are?
It's because the docs were generated before the first Gulf war and because Saddam had no more capability to carry on a weapons program. The fact that there was residual information and technical knowledge did not make him more than a toothless nuclear tiger.
But if, according to you, he was dangerous just because he had the information, what do you say about all the other anonymous terrorists out there who have just been enabled by Bushco, who have been brought up to speed, so to speak, on nuclear bomb-making, by the Most Impeachable President Ever? He wouldn't even listen to Negroponte.
Posted by Merle at November 2, 2006 09:47 PM"The bottom line is that Iraq did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in 2003 when the war began. There simply is no there, there." Senator Feinstein.
What's the concern, they had nothing in 2003?
Is this something? Were we lied to by Senator Feinstein? Maybe the future chairperson of the Senate Intel Cmtee? She had to know, didn't she?
Posted by peter at November 2, 2006 09:49 PMPeter, keep trying your misdirection attempt. Plainly put, your Dear Leader is giving Iran and Al Qaeda the bomb.
Posted by Steve Soto at November 2, 2006 09:53 PMDoh! Merle, stop using logic!
It's simply not fair! Let peter have his fun.
But peter, can you see how what DiFi said was true in 2003, while it was also a big bone-up for Team Republican to insist on putting these 1990 documents on the internet? Come on, think reeeeeall hard....
Posted by euzoius at November 2, 2006 10:03 PMPeter,
Nice try but Iraq was trying to make a nuclear bomb prior to Gulf War I - remember? Or did you suffer amnesia on behalf of your Dear Leader once again? Amnesia that conveniently "forgets" the massive piles of pre-1994 and pre-Gulf War I documents - which includes information relating to how to make nuclear weapons.
I understand your desperation but it's been pretty obvious for a few years now that George W. Bush has been the greatest gift to Al Qaeda, terrorists and dictatorial regimes in American history. Now that it has become apparent his incompetence on behalf of corrupt Congressional Republicans (and right-wing bloggers) has led to every terrorist in the world getting free access to how-to-manuals for making a nuclear bomb let's just say that the debate on which party is better for national security is conclusively over.
Posted by eriposte at November 2, 2006 10:14 PMDarn it. Peter's left and gone back to freeperville. That didn't take much more than an hour. Where are all the trolls when you need one?
Posted by Merle at November 2, 2006 10:36 PMIf the Democrats speak out in a concerted effort, this story will have legs. The Corporate media will not be able to hide this story in the midst of a democratic verbal assault on the administration for this massive f**k up.
We should contact our representatives and demand a response.
Posted by smooth at November 2, 2006 11:50 PMI emailed my senators. We should also call their offices and request their involvement in exposing this stupidity.
Posted by smooth at November 3, 2006 12:02 AMI wonder if those documents helped N. Korea explode a nuclear device. The Republicans care only about politics not the safety of Americans.
Posted by americanforliberty at November 3, 2006 12:46 AMDamn MF'ers. Every f*cking day I get up there is some new major headline. Two more years? WE CAN'T AFFORD TWO MORE YEARS!!! We don't have a choice on whether or not to impeach and prosecute this man. The LAW and the CONSTITUTION DEMAND IT.
Posted by Judith at November 3, 2006 01:42 AMBy-the-way Pelosi, you don't speak for me. I want him charged with crimes against this Country as a traitor.
Posted by Judith at November 3, 2006 01:48 AMGood God Peter! One would think that you, of all people, would have known what the rest of the world already knew. That, yes, as probably many other countries have been doing since the nuclear age came to become one bloody such, even prior to the first Gulf War Iraq was trying to build WMD’s. So, surprise! Surprise! Another country with some scientists in its midst having the gumption (the rascals!) of doing their thing.
Obviously, the only thing left to do is round up each and every scientist on earth (excepting the ones that the good guys deem angelic), take them to the nearest wall, and shoot them!
Anyway, as most of the world citizenry not blinded by a bloody self-induced case of terminal gullibility painfully remembers, the out of the realm of possibilities case for unleashing this horrible war against Iraq was made under the scary premise that Iraq had WMD’s and, with it, apparently the capability of raining deadly blitzes all over creation without a shred of shame.
Yep, good old Blair, the supreme lap-dog, used the story to try to scare his citizens (though, in view of the massive marches against the bloody war, the British citizenry didn’t buy it); good old Aznar, the second rate lap-dog, used the same tale to try to scare his citizens (though, again, and also in view of the massive marches against the bloody war, the Spanish citizenry didn’t buy it), and good old Bush, the almighty mongrel, used it as well to scare his citizens. Though, yes, one has to admit that, in the States, there were also plenty marches and the lot to protest against the unleashing of this horrible war that has turned the world upside down, soon it became painfully obvious to the rest of the world that self-indulged blindness had to have taken hold of a, too large, portion of the American citizenry (thus, of course, in view of what happened when re-election time came about).
Anyway, Pete, get with the bloody program and have the guts to admit the obvious: The new “discovery” demonstrates, at the very least, a couple of things. First, that it is quite possible that, now (and thanks to the timely disclosures), there are probably more souls besides scientists with plenty of knowledge to make WMD’s. And, secondly, that the need to build more firing walls seems to, now, have become acute.
Hum, wonder if this has anything to do with the one being planned between the US and Mexican borders...
PAZ, amigo, and may the good Lord take care of all of us, ALL
How's that memory of a Dumsfeld enabling Hussein 1980's handshake working out for repukes these days?
Good Lord these people are idiots. They wanted to "leverage the Internet?" In their zeal to prove that once upon a time Saddam was a potential threat to the US so bad that they didn't think long term. Of course not, because all they think about is the political angle of every issue. BushCo was getting hammered for not finding any WMDs after his administration swore, over and over that Saddam was an immminent threat, minutes away from sending WMDs to the US through the hands of terrorists. So, he thought he's put up a myspace ad to prove that Saddam was really, really scary? What a bunch of mentally challenged people we have in DC.
Posted by ann at November 3, 2006 05:12 AMOh, and as for the MSM covering this....I already heard it on CNN this morning.
Posted by ann at November 3, 2006 05:14 AMIt's also the lead story on the NYTimes site.
Posted by ann at November 3, 2006 05:14 AMExcuse me for diverting a bit. It seems to me that websites like the WayBack Machine and other archive sites around the world have this information and it is not scrubbable. AQ Khan could not have done a better job comunicating this kind of information the any nuclear wannabe. This is far more serious than an election year issue. Far more. And I will bet within 24 hrs you will be hearing "oh, well the information is not all that valuable in and of itself.." blah-blah-blah. Lowering expectations of nuclear war, spinning it away. As with Iraq, we have offered a new incentive for any able bodied psycho to try to make his bones in the terror community, to get find any opportunity to connect A to B in the wiring diagram of a bomb. Bush has amolified the number of terrorists and the impact of their threat in 6 yrs.
Worst President Ever. Possibly worst American ever.
Posted by gtash at November 3, 2006 06:13 AMp is next to o---should be "amplified".
Posted by gtash at November 3, 2006 06:15 AMThe attempt to obfuscate is incredible.
Yes, Iraq was trying to develop a nuclear weapon in the 1980's and early 1990's. This is a well established fact.
The concept behind non-proliferation is to LIMIT THE AVAILABILITY of nuclear technology and know-how.
The Bush administration, in their zeal to find a smoking gun showing that Hussein was still intent on pursuing these weapons, did in fact proliferate nuclear technology that should be kept secret.
See, it's really simple. Once again, the Bushies have shown that with them everything is political. They thought they could use their partisans to sort through the documents to find the goods on Hussein and it didn't even occur to them that in that process they were providing to the public crucial info about how to actually build a nuclear bomb.
In a word they jeopardized national security.
Sheer incompetence.
Posted by snark at November 3, 2006 06:32 AMSeems these same documents have references connecting Saddam to bin Laden written four days AFTER 9/11 or a fear that the US would discover Iraq's ties to Osama bin Laden. Which way to you want to go? These docs fakes or they're real and Bushco shouldn't have placed them out on the web? Remember the second alternative says there were WMD's in Iraq.
NYTimes also reports some of these docs come from 2002 not pre Gulf War I.
Posted by peter at November 3, 2006 07:55 AMSeems these same documents have references connecting Saddam to bin Laden written four days AFTER 9/11 or a fear that the US would discover Iraq's ties to Osama bin Laden.
Gosh! Perhaps someone better tell Bush about these documents!
Which way to you want to go? These docs fakes or they're real and Bushco shouldn't have placed them out on the web?
You really are a sad excuse for a troll.
NYTimes also reports some of these docs come from 2002 not pre Gulf War I.
Correct. You might remember, or maybe not, that the Iraqis were requested to submit a detailed accounting of all their previous wmd activity to the UN. That info was put together in....you guessed it...2002! Shortly before George Bush dismissed the submitted document and ordered an invasion. That same Times article points out that the documents are infact identical to the documents included in the submission to the UN in 2002. Only when the UN got them in 2002 the sensitive nuclear info was blacked out for security purposes. This time Bush decided it was best to let the entire world see what it takes to build a nuclear bomb. Mighty nice of him, no?
Posted by snark at November 3, 2006 08:19 AMPoor petey. Flunked reading comprehension, did you?
The article says:
Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war.
Dang you, snark, beat me to it!
Posted by iamcoyote at November 3, 2006 08:30 AMsnark, It's much funner for idiot peter to cherrypick words, sentence fragments, and sentences from the article in order to prove his belief system. He doesn't need no stinkin context of pesky facts pointed out to him in print that contradict his beliefs. No,it's all about making a few words or sentences pulled from here and there and strung together carefully in order to make it fit his preconceived wishes/beliefs.
Reading comprehension (or for that matter any factual comprehension) has never been a strong suit of repukes...it's all about creating their own reality and making a few tibits of half-truths fit their thesis...and then actly blindly on that thesis with a preconceived outcome and never budging from that. They did it with the pre-Iraq War intelligence,the pre-War/post War invasion plans, and they even just did it recently with Kerry's botched jokeline. Everything is taken out of context, full of half-thruths, and cherrypicking.
It's really amazing to see him totally contort/distort the whole gist of the article and make it fit his "reality". He'd never pass a reading comprehension test that is required to get a highschool diploma in many states these days. That is for certain!
emal, some people just want to be led and to be told what to do because it's hard work to think about...stuff. petey is definitely in the sheeple category. And really really proud of it.
Posted by iamcoyote at November 3, 2006 09:38 AMiamcoyote, Yeah I know, and I usually (but unfortunately not lately) ignore the stupid troll....sigh...
Hanyway, I read Condi attempted to trot out the same debunked talking point that petey used. Apparently, they must have been emailing those last nite to the gullible masses like petey. Even more amazing is that apparently interviewer Mrs. Greenspan corrected Ms. "These Boots were made for Walking Liars" and reminded her those documents were pre Gulf War.
Watch for this lie to be spun by those on the right in attempt at confusing the masses and the media...and more importantly let's see if the media calls them on the bs like Mrs. Greenspan did.
Posted by emal at November 3, 2006 10:15 AMemal, I was just coming to tell you that I'd seen digby's post on Mitchell! Great minds and all that! Yeah, they sent out the blast fax last night, and ol' bendover pete couldn't wait to vomit the talking point.
Posted by iamcoyote at November 3, 2006 10:36 AM