Another tug at the yarn

[libertango]

US News and World Report has a new piece today. Some choice quotes:

On the evening of February 1, two dozen American officials gathered in a spacious conference room at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va. The time had come to make the public case for war against Iraq. For six hours that Saturday, the men and women of the Bush administration argued about what Secretary of State Colin Powell should--and should not--say at the United Nations Security Council four days later. Not all the secret intelligence about Saddam Hussein's misdeeds, they found, stood up to close scrutiny. At one point during the rehearsal, Powell tossed several pages in the air. "I'm not reading this," he declared. "This is bullshit."

Right up there with, "Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out," don't you think?

OTOH, Colin, you did do your reading, didn't you?

In September 2002, U.S. News has learned, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a classified assessment of Iraq's chemical weapons. It concluded: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons . . . ." At about the same time, Rumsfeld told Congress that Saddam's "regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas."

Mr. Arnaz, he say, "Rummmmmy?! You got some 'splainin' to do!"

I hope the Judiciary Committee has that chamber properly air conditioned for the summer... Looks like we may be getting some hearings...

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know. Of course there should be an enquiry. I would hope that the Commons will chase Blair as to why Blair lied to them. But... the whole thing is party political. Initially, the Conservatives were for the war on Iraq, because, like Blair (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,969046,00.html), they can't imagine divorcing UK foreign policy from US foreign policy. In fact, one of Blair's major worries was that enough Labour MPs would rebel in the House of Commons so that he would only win his pro-war vote because of Conservative support - that would have been a major blow to him.

But now it looks like Blair may have walked himself in to a corner, claiming as truth things that have been proven even without an enquiry patently untrue, and with his US allies deserting him now he's got them what they want, the Conservatives are seeing this as an ideal opportunity to stick the knives in - to see if they can get Labour to oust someone who has certainly been one of the most popular Prime Ministers ever. The combined forces of MPs - Conservatives moving against a Labour MP, Liberals and other parties angry because they were anti-war, Labour MPs pissed-off at being so high-handedly lied to - might well force an enquiry. But, if it turns too party political - if the Conservatives start outright attacking Tony Blair - many Labour MPs might start remembering their party loyalty (or the Labour Whips might remind them of it, forcibly if need be) and vote against an enquiry on the grounds that the Tories want it.