78th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. The non-appearing Iraqi WMD continue to be an issue, interrupted to the gratitude of the White House by the Jessica Lynch media saga.
April 2-7, 2003:

 

Apr. 2, 2003 – Another Judith Miller article on those shrinking Iraqi WMD comes out:

“A military team charged with hunting for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction returned from its first foray into southern Iraq Monday night, having found thousands of rounds of ammunition and tons of weapons, but not the smoking gun it was seeking.  

       Mobile Exploitation Team Bravo, or MET-Bravo, as the team is known, spent three days surveying bunkers at a sprawling air base at Talil. But there was no trace of chemical or biological weapons.         

       "Of course I'm disappointed," said the team leader. "But the size of the site and the amount of ordnance Iraq had amassed there was sobering."      

       So, too, the captain said, was the Iraqi military's decision to abandon so many weapons and so much ammunition. "If they had this much they could afford just to leave behind, how much more do they have stored away," said the team captain, whose senior officers did not permit him to be identified.” (“A NATION AT WAR: IN THE FIELD 75th EXPLOITATION TASK FORCE; Smoking Gun Still Proves To Be Elusive for Searchers,” New York Times B7)

 

Apr. 3, 2003 – CIA sends a rather full background paper about intelligence on the purported Niger-Iraq uranium deal to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan24/DX64.pdf

 

Same day -- In a talk to the troops at Camp Lejeune, Bush discusses the Iraq war:

“The United States and our allies pledged to act if the dictator did not disarm. The regime in Iraq is now learning that we keep our word. (Applause.) By our actions, we serve a great and just cause: We will remove weapons of mass destruction from the hands of mass murderers. Free nations will not sit and wait, leaving enemies free to plot another September the 11th, this time, perhaps with chemical or biological or nuclear terror. And by defending our own security, we are freeing the people of Iraq from one of the cruelest regimes on Earth. (Applause.)

At this hour, coalition forces are clearing southern cities and towns of the dictator's death squads and enforcers. Our Special Forces and Army paratroopers, working with Kurdish militia, have opened a northern front against the enemy. Army and Marine divisions are engaging the enemy and advancing to the outskirts of Baghdad. (Applause.)”

 

Apr. 4, 2003 – A glowing account of the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch appears in the Washington Post (“'She Was Fighting to the Death'; Details Emerging of W. Va. Soldier's Capture and Rescue”). The article is very influential in the short run but later is debunked in almost all details, even by the Rupert Murdoch-owned London Times, and by Lynch herself, who criticizes the authorities for representing her as a “little girl Rambo.”

 
The reports do make clear that one factor in the ambush of Lynch’s unit was the CLP (Cleaner Lubricant Protectant) supplied to the unit, an oil–ill-conceived for the desert--which magnetized fine sand inside the gun parts and caused all the guns to jam up during the attack. So far as is known, no investigation has uncovered who sold the CLP, i.e. who got the procurement contract. Families of the soldiers temporarily buy them a better-working alternative product not contracted for by the military.

 

Apr. 4, 2003 – Condoleezza Rice briefs the press about Iraq reconstruction:

“There's been a lot of speculation in the press in recent days about the post-Saddam Iraq, not all of it entirely accurate and some of it just plain wrong. (Laughter.) So I'm here to try and clear up a few things. Just as we've planned for a military victory, we have been planning to win the peace.

    We cannot say when military victory will come, or predict what difficulties lie in the future. As we know for certain, many difficulties remain and the one thing that we do know is the coalition will prevail. But it is essential to continue planning for what comes after Saddam Hussein's regime.

    Our goals are clear: We will help Iraqis build an Iraq that is whole, free and at peace with itself and with its neighbors; an Iraq that is disarmed of all WMD; that no longer supports or harbors terror; that respect the rights of Iraqi people and the rule of law; and that is on the path to democracy.

    To achieve these goals, we will dismantle the tyrannical infrastructure of Saddam Hussein's regime. That is, in fact, being done as coalition forces go through the country. We will work with Iraqis, our coalition partners and international organizations to rebuild Iraq. We will leave Iraq completely in the hands of Iraqis as quickly as possible. As the President has said, the United States intends to stay in Iraq as long as needed, but not one day longer.”

 
Notwithstanding the expressed uncertainty, ‘military victory’ has already come, of course. There was never any question that the starved and beaten nation of Iraq was somehow an equal contender with the U.S. Dismantling “the tyrannical infrastructure of Saddam Hussein’s regime” turns out to be a mistake, if peace and reconstruction in Iraq were actually White House goals. Dismissing local government at every level and eliminating from office every nominal member of the Baathist party, along with disbanding police forces, effectively destroy most of Iraqi infrastructure, not just Saddam’s inner circle.

 

Apr. 5, 2003 – The National Intelligence Council (NIC) issues a Sense of the [Intelligence] Community memorandum, titled Niger: No Recent Uranium Sales to Iraq:

“we judge it highly unlikely that Niamey has sold uranium yellowcake to Baghdad in recent years. The IC agrees with the IAEA assessment that key documents purported showing a recent Iraq-Niger sales accord are a fabrication. We judge that other reports from 2002 – one alleging warehousing of yellowcake for shipment to Iraq, a second alleging a 1999 visit by an Iraqi delegation to Niamey – do not constitute credible evidence of a recent or impending sale.”
(Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report, 71)

 

Same day --Bush discusses the Iraq war in his weekly radio address:

“Village by village, city by city, liberation is coming. The people of Iraq have my pledge: Our fighting forces will press on until their oppressors are gone and their whole country is free.

       By our actions in this war, we serve a great and just cause. Free nations will not sit and wait, leaving enemies free to plot another September the 11th -- this time, perhaps, with chemical, biological, or nuclear terror. We'll remove weapons of mass destruction from the hands of mass murderers. And by defending our own security, we are ridding the people of Iraq from one of the cruelest regimes on earth. The United States and our allies pledged to act if the dictator did not disarm. The regime in Iraq is now learning that we keep our word.”

 

Apr. 7, 2003 – False accounts air of the discovery of chemical weapons in Iraq, first from NPR, then from Rush Limbaugh. However, the stories quickly wash out.