This morning C-SPAN's Washington Journal guest was Joseph Cirincione, Director of the Non-Proliferation Project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Link. And, he pointed out some news that American media have not picked up.
It pertains to some remarks by Tony Blair, reported on December 16, about a discovery of evidence of a weapons project in Iraq, and those remarks were later contradicted by Paul Bremer. But, when Bremer was told it was Blair who had made the remarks then Bremer did some backtracking. Here's the original December 16 report by the BBC.
When asked if he hoped the capture of Saddam would lead coalition forces to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair said: "There is obviously that possibility there, but I think in any event, we have got to carry on the work that we are doing."He then stressed: "The Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories, workings by scientists, plans to develop long range ballistic missiles. [Emphasis added.]
"Now frankly, these things weren't being developed unless they were being developed for a purpose ...
"I just say to people continually, when a country with a ruler like Saddam tries to hide what it's doing in a large country like Iraq, it is relatively easy to hide it."
But, in a later interview Paul Bremer was asked about that observation, but Tony Blair was not identified as the source of the original statement. Here's how it was reported on December 29 by the Sunday Times of Australia:
In an interview aired on Britain's ITV channel yesterday, Paul Bremer was asked if it was correct to say, as Blair had, that massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories had come to light since the US and British invasion of Iraq nine months ago."I don't know where those words come from but that is not what David Kay has said," replied Bremer, referring to the chief of the Iraq Survey Group that is hunting for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
"I have read (Kay's) reports so I don't know who said that," Bremer said.
"It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me," he added.
"It sounds like someone who doesn't agree with the policy sets up a red herring then knocks it down."
Bremer backtracked, however, when he was told that it was Blair - US President George W Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq - who had talked about "massive evidence" in a pre-Christmas broadcast to British troops abroad.
Changing tack, the US official said the Iraq Survey Group had found "clear evidence of biological and chemical programs, ongoing".
"Weapons of mass destruction or no weapons of mass destruction, it's important to step back a little bit here, to see what we have done historically," he added.
So, either Tony Blair was exaggerating, or there was some evidence of WMD found that has not yet been disclosed publicly. Time will tell. In the mean time, Blair's enemies are having a field day.
Comments