US ‘knew Saddam had no weapons’
Tim Reid; 7/8/08
British intelligence agency MI6 told former prime minister Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq that a high-placed Iraqi source had said that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence was passed to the US but was buried by the White House, according to a new book. The book claims Mr Blair sent a top British spy to the Middle East in 2003 - three months before the invasion - to dig up enough intelligence to avoid war, but US President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney dismissed any claims or possible evidence that would stop military action against Iraq. In The Way of the World, Pulitzer prize-winning author Ron Suskind claims the White House ordered the CIA to forge a backdated handwritten letter purportedly from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam. The letter, which came to light nine months after the invasion, was meant to demonstrate a link between the Baathist regime and al-Qa’ida.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24138505-15084,00.html
Pilger claims White House knew Saddam was no threat
23/9/03
Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie which could cost George W Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them. A television report by Pilger aired on British screens last night said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat. But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US “must move to take advantage of these new opportunities” to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil. Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, “He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.”
See: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/1064082978207.html