{"article":{"id":101430,"heading":"Iraq war justified even without WMD: Ashcroft","author":"CTV.ca News Staff","created":"2004-01-27 20:54:42","modified":"2004-01-29 21:43:33","last_modified":"Fri, 30 Jan 2004 04:43:33","article":"

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has joined the list of top U.S. administration members who are struggling to defend the war in Iraq amid mounting criticism that no weapons of mass destruction have ever been found.

On Monday, Ashcroft told reporters in Vienna that Saddam Hussein's past use of \"evil chemistry\" and the threat it posed justified the war. He said Hussein's weapons arsenal remained a menace and was sufficient cause to overthrow his regime.

\"Weapons of mass destruction, including evil chemistry and evil biology, are all matters of great concern, not only to the United States, but also to the world community,\" he said.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney also defended the war Monday, saying Hussein harboured terrorists.

\"Today the former dictator (of Iraq) sits in captivity; he can no longer harbour and support terrorists, and his long efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction are at an end,\" Cheney told Italian political and business leaders in the Italian Senate.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also insisted Britain's decision to join the war was justified, though he added it was disappointing that no banned weapons had ever been unearthed.

\"I believe the decision we made on March 18 to take military action was justified then in terms of enforcing international law and is still more justified now,\" Straw told BBC Radio.

\"A great deal more evidence will emerge.\"

White House press secretary Scott McClellan responded to reporters' questions on whether there are stilll banned weapons in Iraq by saying that inspectors need to continue searching.

\"We believe it's important for the Iraq Survey Group to complete its work so we have as complete a picture as possible. ... It will help us learn the truth,\" he said.

On Friday, the chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq, David Kay, stepped down, saying he doubted Iraq possessed unconventional weapons.

\"I don't think they exist,\" Kay told National Public Radio. \"The fact that we found so far the weapons do not exist -- we've got to deal with that difference and understand why.\"

Kay says it appears Iraqi scientists presented Hussein with fanciful plans for weapons programs -- then used Hussein's money for other purposes. Kay says U.S. intelligence agencies didn't seem to realize this at the time and now owe U.S. President George Bush an explanation.

Critics including Democratic presidential candidates have jumped on Kay's comments and resignation, stepping up their charges against the Bush administration over the missing weapons.

\"They ought to be held accountable for using the weapons of mass destruction argument,\" Democratic candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts said on Sunday on CBS' \"Face the Nation\" programme.

\"Dick Cheney and others in the administration misled the American people with respect to the true status of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.\"

Cheney and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently held open the possibility that weapons would never be found.

Calling terrorism \"the antithesis of freedom,\" Ashcroft said it remained a global menace and that \"we see no nations as immune to the al Qaeda terrorist threat.\"

Middle East expert Robin Wright told Canada AM Monday that Kay's resignation is going to continue to cause trouble in Washington.

\"There are likely to be a lot of questions as a result of David Kay's comments and his resignation -- calls for intelligence to be investigated. Because, after all, it was very solid U.S. intelligence data -- at least that's what the administration claimed, that led the United States to argue that Saddam Hussein had to be toppled.\"

She adds that the issue could mushroom for Bush as his party prepares for the November election.

\"Domestically, the polls indicate he's not in trouble. Elsewhere in the world, the United States is dealing with deep skepticism about the president's claims.

\"But both the weapons of mass destruction issue and the issue of creating a successful democracy in Iraq are likely to become a real focus once you get the candidates selected and the campaign launched after Labour Day. Both of these are likely to rise to the forefront of the campaign.\"<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.ctv.ca\/servlet\/ArticleNews\/story\/CTVNews\/1075129342190_7\/?hub=World","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Here you go ! NO WMD and a lot of weapons of mass deception.","numcomment":5,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/01\/101430.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":101446,"heading":"It makes no difference","article":"Everybody is happy that Iraq has now been liberated, except perhaps Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore. Nothing can change the fact that it was morally wrong to oppose the freedom of 22 million people.\r\n\r\nNobody really cares about WMD anymore now that Saddam is no longer a threat. ","author":"Barney","parent_id":101430,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-28 02:01:30","modified":"2004-01-28 02:01:30","fileurl":""},{"id":101456,"heading":"Funny how the Progressive\/Leftist community...","article":"...never mentions Kay's comments about Iraqi WMD being moved to Syria.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/main.jhtml?xml=\/news\/2004\/01\/25\/wirq25.xml&sSheet=\/news\/2004\/01\/25\/ixnewstop.html\r\n\r\nSaddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief\r\nBy Con Coughlin\r\n(Filed: 25\/01\/2004) \r\n\r\n\r\nDavid Kay, the former head of the coalition's hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, yesterday claimed that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme was hidden in Syria.\r\n\r\nIn an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam.\r\n\r\n"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."\r\n\r\nDr Kay's comments will intensify pressure on President Bashar Assad to clarify the extent of his co-operation with Saddam's regime and details of Syria's WMD programme. Mr Assad has said that Syria was entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own biological and chemical weapons arsenal.\r\n\r\nSyria was one of Iraq's main allies in the run-up to the war and hundreds of Iraqi officials - including members of Saddam's family - were given refuge in Damascus after the collapse of the Iraqi dictator's regime. Many of the foreign fighters responsible for conducting terrorist attacks against the coalition are believed to have entered Iraq through Syria.\r\n\r\nA Syrian official last night said: "These allegations have been raised many times in the past by Israeli officials, which proves that they are false."\r\n\r\n*************88\r\n\r\nThat Syrian official quoted there at the end coould well be a regular IMC poster..."If Jews say it, it's a lie!"\r\n\r\nnonanarchist","author":";lij;lkhjh","parent_id":101430,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-28 03:03:29","modified":"2004-01-28 03:03:29","fileurl":""},{"id":101499,"heading":"maybe syria wanted the material for itself","article":""Cooperation" and "middle eastern nations" rarely belong in the same sentence. Perhaps it was a temporary convenience.\r\n\r\nSuppose your neighbor, who you like okay, but don't really consider a friend, is going to be raided by the cops, and you know he's a goner. He's got a gun, legal, registered, etc. He must get rid of the gun. So, you take the gun, figuring the guy's going to be hauled away, and you'll have a free gun.\r\n\r\nIt's to Syria's advantage to have some weapons when they talk to Israel. Whether they use them or not, it's always better to have some nuke potential when you're negotiating with Israel, who already have nukes.","author":"more rational","parent_id":101430,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-28 18:54:33","modified":"2004-01-28 18:54:33","fileurl":""},{"id":101700,"heading":"Syria's regime ethnic cleansing in occupied Lebanon","article":"Syria's regime ethnic cleansing in occupied Lebanon\r\n\r\nIn one of the most terrifying scenes of the modern history: the Syrian regime has been working on changing the ethnic and religious demography of Lebanon by replacing its people. \r\nSince 1990, Syrian occupation of Lebanon has forced more than 35% of the Lebanese to leave their country. \r\nMeanwhile the Syrian-appointed government in Lebanon naturalized around half a million Syrians and Palestinians that is equal to 20% of the Lebanon population. This was an answer to the Lebanese popular refusal to legitimize the Syrian occupation of Lebanon; 90% of the Lebanese eligible to vote boycotted a Syrian-arranged parliamentary elections that resulted in a puppet parliament in 1992. \r\nThe Syrian regime hence started inserting \u2018new\u2019 Lebanese. \r\nSyrian troops in Lebanon protect around 1.5 million Syrian illegal workers (that is about half the population of Lebanon), which forces Lebanese to abandon their country. This mass displacement project is accompanied with regular persecution, arresting, kidnapping, torturing and assassinating of the Lebanese.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.reformsyria.com\/ ","author":"People of Lebanon","parent_id":101430,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-29 21:43:33","modified":"2013-11-11 00:28:35","fileurl":""}]}