The articles go on to quote the release of selected excerpts from FBI interviews of Saddam Hussein from 2004.
In reading these articles, there seems to be a blatant rewriting of history. Saddam
Hussein said loudly and clearly to everybody who would listen over and over
again that he had no weapons of mass destruction. He even issued a 12,000 page report proving that all his weapons had
been destroyed. Members of the Bush administration accused him of lying each
time he said that he had no weapons of mass destruction. Now, apparently, the same
people in the government and cooperating mass media are trying to rewrite
history and say that the war was Saddam's fault because he hid the fact that he
had no weapons of mass destruction. The repeated justification for war was that
Saddam was lying when he said he has no weapons of mass destruction. Now, that
is being revised into the opposite, that the U.S. went to war because Saddam
was lying when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
1. Here is an interview with Saddam Hussein published in the
British newspaper the Guardian, on Feb 5, 2003, (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/05/iraq.politics)
Does this sound like Saddam is pretending to have nuclear weapons?:
BENN: Mr President, may I ask you some questions. The first is, does Iraq have
any weapons of mass destruction?
SADDAM: Most Iraqi officials have been in power for over 34 years and have
experience of dealing with the outside world. Every fair-minded person knows
that when Iraqi officials say something, they are trustworthy. A few minutes
ago when you asked me if I wanted to look at the questions beforehand I told
you I didn't feel the need so that we don't waste time, and I gave you the
freedom to ask me any question directly so that my reply would be direct. This is an opportunity to reach the British
people and the forces of peace in the world. There is only one truth and
therefore I tell you as I have said on many occasions before that Iraq has no
weapons of mass destruction whatsoever. We challenge anyone who claims that we
have to bring forward any evidence and present it to public opinion.
2. Here is an excerpt of a letter Saddam Hussein sent to the
United Nations on September 21, 2002 http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020921/2002092124.html.
Does this sound like he is pretending to have weapons of mass destruction?:
Hence, we hereby declare before you that
Iraq is clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. If there are
any amongst you, Ladies and Gentlemen, who might still worry that the fabrications
announced by American officials about Iraq may possibly be right, our country
is ready to receive any scientific experts you choose to represent any of your
countries, accompanied by politicians, to tell us which places and scientific
and industrial installations they would wish to see, particularly those which
the Americans specifically claim to contain materials or weapons of the kinds
above mentioned, and about which American officials have made up news stories.
If such experts visit Iraq, we shall provide them with every facility needed
for them to reach their objective to see the true facts as they are. Then it
will be up to them, indeed we shall even urge them, to inform the world,
including the peoples of your countries, of what they have found in Iraq, in
the light of the information which the Americans will make available to whoever
may ask amongst you. When, this has been done, if any of your governments still
decides to accept the American fabrications without evidence, then it will bear
its responsibility before God, mankind and history. We, for our part will have
done what ought to be done.
3. Here are excerpts from the New York Times article on the release of Iraq's report to the United Nations on Weapons of Mass Destruction on Dec. 7, 2002:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 7 ? Iraq today delivered a 12,000-page declaration on banned weapons to the United Nations, meeting a Security Council deadline with more than 24 hours to spare. Officials said the documents confirmed, in rebuttal of American and British claims, that Saddam Hussein's government had no weapons of mass destruction and no current programs to develop them...
At a news conference in Baghdad, the Iraqi official in charge of preparing the weapons declaration, Maj. Gen. Hussam Muhammad Amin, said the documents "verified" the position Iraq had taken ever since the United States and Britain, threatening war, accused Baghdad this year of continuing with secret nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. Iraq contends that it has abandoned all such projects and met longstanding demands that it disarm.
In the new report, General Amin said, "we declare that Iraq is empty of any weapons of mass destruction." To hammer the point home, he told reporters summoned for an early sighting of the documents at Baghdad University that Mr. Hussein had ordered Iraqi officials to be "fair and frank" in the declaration. "That means that when we say we have no weapons of mass destruction, we are speaking the truth," he said.
This rewriting of recent history, using words allegedly spoken by Saddam Hussein after he had been captured and apparently tortured, is quite outrageous.
