animaux

Rationalizing War Crimes

By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified in part because Saddam
Hussein retained scientists capable of building nuclear weapons, Washington's
top arms control official said Thursday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, John Bolton, undersecretary of state
for arms control, said that whether Saddam's regime actually possessed weapons
of mass destruction "isn't really the issue."

"The issue I think has been the capability that Iraq sought to have ... WMD
programs," Bolton said at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

Bolton said that Saddam kept "a coterie" of scientists he was preserving for the
day when he could build nuclear weapons unhindered by international constraints.

That fact, combined with Iraq's history of deceiving U.N. inspectors, showed
that Saddam could not be trusted to abandon his ambition to develop
unconventional weapons, Bolton said.

"Whether he possessed them today or four years ago isn't really the issue," he
said. "As long as that regime was in power, it was determined to get nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons one way or another."

"Until that regime was removed from power, that threat remained — that was the
purpose of the military action," added Bolton, who was in Paris for a two-day
conference on interdiction of shipments of weapons of mass destruction.

Disarming Saddam Hussein was the Bush administration's top rationale for the
war, which started in March, and officials said beforehand that they knew where
weapons were hidden.

But they have not reported finding any weapons in five months of searching.
Government officials, however, still express hope that evidence of weapons
programs will be found in Iraq.

The lack of success so far, after warnings that Iraq posed an immediate danger,
has led critics and some former government ****ysts to suggest the
administration exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam.

During a news conference before the interview with the AP, Bolton said that CIA
weapons adviser David Kay, who is leading the hunt for weapons, would soon
release a new report on his mission.

He did not say whether he expected the report to contain proof of Iraqi weapons
programs.

"I have been confident that under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqis were determined to
break the U.N. inspections and sanctions regime," he told reporters. "And that
that's why the elimination of Saddam Hussein's regime was critical, and the
evidence to support that I think is there."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4620.htm

gogarty

In article <402hlvo639m4dish1c8994avsa9f470ldo@4ax.com>, animaux@gbsftgus.com
says...

(Snip)

I guess Bolton's solution would have been to send hit men after these guys.
How far we have sunk. How desparate the arguments become.

lawson english

Is there any country on earth that doesn't have scientists capable of
building nuclear weapons?