WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs: No Evidence of Massive WMD Caches

WMD -- weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, Saddam Hussein

/ AP/CBS

The nearly 400,000 Iraq war log documents released by WikiLeaks on Friday were full of evidence of abuses, civilian deaths and the chaos of war, but clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction - the Bush administration's justification for invading Iraq - appears to be missing.

Wired's Noah Shachtman, who researched the recent trove of documents, wrote:

"An initial glance at the WikiLeaks war logs doesn't reveal evidence of some massive WMD program by the Saddam Hussein regime - the Bush administration's most (in)famous rationale for invading Iraq. But chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam's toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict - and may have brewed up their own deadly agents."

Shachtman found that the Iraq war logs contain hundreds of references to chemical and biological weapons, but nothing that would indicate a major find of WMD material. He wrote:

"In the summer of 2008, according to one WikiLeaked report, American troops found at least 10 rounds that tested positive for chemical agents. 'These rounds were most likely left over from the [Saddam]-era regime. Based on location, these rounds may be an AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq] cache. However, the rounds were all total disrepair and did not appear to have been moved for a long time.'"

At this point, history will still record that the Bush administration went into Iraq under an erroneous threat assessment that Saddam Hussein was manufacturing and hoarding weapons of mass destruction.

In his forthcoming book, "Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight," Bush adviser Karl Rove reflected on the course of history if the Bush administration had been more skeptical of the WMD intelligence reports: "Would the Iraq War have occurred without W.M.D.? I doubt it. Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without the W.M.D. threat. The Bush administration itself would probably have sought other ways to constrain Saddam, bring about regime change, and deal with Iraq's horrendous human rights violations."

[ill2day]

all use who say they didn't and if they did it was a small amount wake up..............what if they unleashed a biological weapon say a vial full into a water supply. would that cause mass destruction? or doe's it only have to be nukes or so called fresh chemical weapons. lol you all are missing the big picture. it's not how much damage to buildings but to people and he had a lot and there are still a lot out their buried and hidden. also i think syria may have some that were smuggled out before we struck them. i just don't get you progressives. if it happened to use or someone you loved you would still stick to your talking points and be in denial. lol

[Jmac5280]

Iran's fingerprints are everywhere in Iraq
Given WikiLeaks' strident anti-war leanings, say Wired's Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman, "it's more than a little ironic" that the Iraq war logs probably "just bolstered one of the Bush administration's most controversial claims about the Iraq war: That Iran supplied many of the Iraq insurgency's deadliest weapons and worked hand-in-glove with some of its most lethal militias.

[Jmac5280]

Iraq had chemical WMDs
Reviving a battle over "the Bush administrations most (in)famous rationale for invading Iraq," says Noah Shachtman in Wired, the WikiLeaks dump revealed that "U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction" long after the war started. Mostly, these were remnants of Saddam Hussein's mustard gas from the Iran-Iraq war. Even if Hussein wasn't "stockpiling new WMDs" or trying to build nukes, says Ed Morrissey in Hot Air, this is vindication of Bush's "primary" rationale that Hussein was flouting U.N. no-WMD resolutions.

WHat the leaks prove is that CBS is an organization of crooks and liars.

[Jmac5280]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20101025/cm_theweek/208564_20101025091500

[Molly-Pchr]

The inept politicians that can send troops to war on a whim and the resulting nonsense that goes on in the name of free speech, are going to have a dampening effect on anyone's enthusiasm to volunteer to serve this country of spoiled babies. The volunteer army will become a thing of the past, and we will welcome back the draft.

[Reality-Checker]

A couple of years ago, CBSNEWS.com already reported that Sadaam Hussien's Confessions while captive and extensively questioned by CIA interrogators revealed that no WMD existed after the Gulf War. The real fear in Hussien was an Iranian invasion, so he kept the ruse going to irritate the UN weapon's inspectors. It did manage to keep Iranians deterred. After the fall of Hussien, it has long been known that Iranian insurgents had invaded and been the resource for weapons. Sadaam Hussien also confirmed that he had no involvement with Osama Bin Laden. Since the fall of Hussien, Iraqi government has inherited Hussien's problems with Iran and internal dissentors. WMD is absent from the picture, but now the disclosure of it makes Iraq a more unstable place than before the USA led invasion. The area has never been more insecure than now. The think tank used by the NSA and Republicans were DEAD WRONG and escalated regional conflicts into highly destabilizing entities.

[JustYourAverageReader]

... and if you actually believe what you wrote, then you may as well believe that LiLo is drug free and that no 76-year old woman would ever possess cocaine. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20020452-504083.html?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.6 ----- AND, Since 1) WMD was sold to Iraq under the Reagan administration, 2) it was used by Hussein against the Kurds, 3) there is no evidence that it left the country before the invasion, and 4) when it was searched for - not all stone or earth was turned over or every cave or bunker searched, the odds are excellent that it is still there.

[JustYourAverageReader]

Your "Reality-Checker" sensors need extensive calibration.

[guyfrompa46]

If you idiots would pay attention. It say no evidence of MASSIVE amounts.. There were however numerous findings of labs to create the chemicals as well as the chemicals themselves.. How much of it do you think is needed to be affective, Just ask the million that hussain killed with it in the past you morons.

[samael2014]

Dear stupid jackass. The United States has MASSIVE amounts of WMD's. Your talking about authorization from the U.N. and the U.S. Congress to invade Iraq on the condition of an eminent threat of attack from WMD's. A real arsenal ready to launch an attack at the U.S.

The U.N. clearly was waiting for Hans Blix and his team to uncover THESE WMD's, and REFUSED the U.S. authorization to do anything at all even remotely like invade or attack Iraq -- in fact, Hans Blix and his team had to get their ***** out of Iraq so that the sociopathic war criminal Bush could ignore the U.N. and Congress and INVADE.

This MF is still enjoying himself in Crawford, Texas waiting for due process and the rule of law to bring his ass to justice. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and/or been mutiliated because of this stinking, steaming pile of rotting dog $hit.

And you would have to be far sicker, disgusting, un-American, anti-Christian and stupid than your basic MORON to not see what God Himself can see.

[ill2day]

they can't or wont. they live on talking points not facts...lol

[JustYourAverageReader]

Since 1) WMD was sold to Iraq under the Reagan administration, 2) it was used by Hussein against the Kurds, 3) there is no evidence that it left the country before the invasion, and 4) when it was searched for - not all stone or earth was turned over or every cave or bunker searched, the odds are excellent that it is still there. FOR those of you who whine, bash and complain about the oil-based reason - do something about it. Volunteer to pay triple what you pay every time you fuel up. Find out what oil-based products you use such as plastics, etc. Pay triple for those and quit your bit-ching.

[jeff-fla]

Look Bush needed to remove a million barrels a day from the market to drive up prices. Iraq was perfect. It had nothing to do with anything except the oil. It worked. Oil went from $9.00 under Clinton to $148.00 under Bush. What is sad is that with the higher oil prices it gave the ter*iost unlimited money to keep fighting around the world. So it turned out to be a lose lose situation for Americans no matter how you look at it.

[ill2day]

ok do tell me then if it's about the oil how much are we getting from iraq now. and tell me who is number 1...lol...typical liberal talking points blah blah blah show me the facts...lol

[Blackrain4xmas]

The nature of WMD is that you don't need a "massive" amount of it to cause MD Mass Destruction. People should just read the post-invasion Iraq Survey Group report....or be brave enough to look at the pictures and see that yeah, there was a WMD threat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qDJPph7yhw

[saleemadair]

The nearly 400,000 Iraq War log documents released by Wikileaks on Friday were full of evidence of abuses, Civilian Deaths and the chaos of War, but clear evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction--the Bush Administration's justification for invading Iraq--appears to be missing.
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