As Bush and Rummy are ‘distancing’ themselves from Cheney’s Sunday talk show regurgitation that Saddam was linked to 9\/11, Colin Powell planted new seeds for a popular opiate. Unfortunately the WP failed to mention his reference conjures up one of the more despicable contradictions in this entire charade for some of us.<\/p>\n
[LINK<\/a>]<\/p>\n Secretary of State Colin L. Powell asserted today that a 1988 poison gas attack that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds in this farming town nestled in Iraq’s barren northern mountains was ample evidence that former president Saddam Hussein’s government possessed weapons of mass destruction and justified the U.S. decision to go to war. <\/p>\n In an emotional defense of the invasion of Iraq, Powell visited a mass grave site, toured a new museum commemorating the attacks and listened as Kurdish political leaders proclaimed that the Halabja massacre provided sufficient legitimacy to go to war.<\/p>\n “If you want evidence of the existence and the use of weapons of mass destruction, come here now to Halabja today and see it,” Powell said after walking through the museum. “What happened over the intervening 15 years? Did [Hussein] suddenly lose the motivation? Did he suddenly decide that such weapons would not be useful? The international community did not believe so.”<\/i><\/p>\n Excerpt;<\/a><\/p>\n A 1994 investigation by the Senate Bank Committee found that U.S. companies had been licensed by the Commerce Department to export a “witch’s brew” of biological and chemical materials, including precursors of anthrax and botulism. The report also noted the exports included plans for chemical and biolgical warfare facilities and chemical warhead filling equipment.<\/p>\n Yet even after Saddam began gassing his own people in Northern Iraq, the flow of goods continued. In November 1989, Bush approved $1 billion in loan guarantees for Iraq in 1990, and from July 18, 1989, to Aug. 1, 1990, the U.S. approved $4.8 million in advanced technology sales.<\/p>\n “Only on Aug. 2, 1990, did the Agriculture Department officially suspend the (loan) guarantees to Iraq — the same day that Hussein’s tanks and troops swept into Kuwait,” a Los Angeles Times expose on Feb. 23, 1992, noted.<\/p>\n Postscript: According to a Washington Post story, when United Nations weapons inspectors were allowed into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, they compiled long lists of chemicals, missile components and computers from American companies that were being used for military purposes.<\/p>\n This is Roger Schlueter’s final Wartime Answer Man column. See his regular Answer Man column every Sunday in the Lifestyle section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Bush and Rummy are ‘distancing’ themselves from Cheney’s Sunday talk show regurgitation that Saddam was linked to 9\/11, Colin Powell planted new seeds for a popular opiate. Unfortunately the WP failed to mention his reference conjures up one of … Continue reading