The
January 31, 2003, INR evaluation flagged this claim as "WEAK"
and added: "We support much of this discussion, but we
note that decontamination vehicles – cited several times in
the text – are water trucks that can have legitimate uses...
Iraq has given UNMOVIC what may be a plausible account for this
activity – that this was an exercise involving the movement
of conventional explosives; presence of a fire safety truck
(water truck, which could also be used as a decontamination
vehicle) is common in such an event."
Powell's own staff had told him the thing was
a water truck, but he told the U.N. it was "a signature
item…a decontamination vehicle." The UN was going to need
a decontamination vehicle itself by the time Powell finished
spewing his lies and disgracing his country.
He just kept piling it on: "UAVs outfitted
with spray tanks constitute an ideal method for launching a
terrorist attack using biological weapons," he said.
The January 31, 2003, INR evaluation flagged this
statement as "WEAK" and added: "the claim that
experts agree UAVs fitted with spray tanks are ‘an ideal method
for launching a terrorist attack using biological weapons’ is
WEAK."
In other words, experts did NOT agree with that
claim.
Powell kept going, announcing "in mid-December
weapons experts at one facility were replaced by Iraqi intelligence
agents who were to deceive inspectors about the work that was
being done there."
The January 31, 2003, INR evaluation flagged this
claim as "WEAK" and "not credible" and "open
to criticism, particularly by the UN inspectorates."
His staff was warning him that what he planned
to say would not be believed by his audience, which would include
the people with actual knowledge of the matter.
To Powell that was no matter.
Powell, no doubt figuring he was in deep already,
so what did he have to lose, went on to tell the UN: "On
orders from Saddam Hussein, Iraqi officials issued a false death
certificate for one scientist, and he was sent into hiding."
The January 31, 2003, INR evaluation flagged this
claim as "WEAK" and called it "Not implausible,
but UN inspectors might question it. (Note: Draft states it
as fact.)"
And Powell stated it as fact. Notice that his
staff was not able to say there was any evidence for the claim,
but rather that it was "not implausible." That was
the best they could come up with. In other words: "They
might buy this one, Sir, but don't count on it."
Powell, however, wasn't satisfied lying about
one scientist. He had to have a dozen. He told the United
Nations: "A dozen [WMD] experts have been placed under
house arrest, not in their own houses, but as a group at one
of Saddam Hussein's guest houses."
The January 31, 2003, INR evaluation flagged this
claim as "WEAK" and "Highly questionable."
This one didn't even merit a "Not implausible."
Powell also said: "In the middle of January,
experts at one facility that was related to weapons of mass
destruction, those experts had been ordered to stay home from
work to avoid the inspectors. Workers from other Iraqi military
facilities not engaged in elicit weapons projects were to replace
the workers who’d been sent home."
Powell's staff called this "WEAK," with
"Plausibility open to question."
All of this stuff sounded plausible enough to
viewers of Fox, CNN, and MSNBC. And that, we can see now, was
what interested Colin. But it must have sounded highly implausible
to the U.N. inspectors. Here was a guy who had not been with
them on any of their inspections coming in to tell them what
had happened.
We know from Scott Ritter, who led many UNSCOM
inspections in Iraq, that U.S. inspectors had used the access
that the inspection process afforded them to spy for, and to
set up means of data collection for, the CIA. So there was
some plausibility to the idea that an American could come back
to the UN and inform the UN what had really happened on its
inspections.
Yet, repeatedly, Powell's staff warned him that
the specific claims he wanted to make were not going to even
sound plausible. They will be recorded by history more simply
as blatant lies.
The examples of Powell's lying listed above are
taken from an extensive new report released by Congressman John
Conyers: "The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation,
Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War."
David Swanson is the Washington Director of
Democrats.com and of ImpeachPAC.org.
He is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org
/ CensureBush.org
coalition, creator of MeetWithCindy.org,
and a board member of Progressive
Democrats of America. He has worked as a newspaper reporter
and as a communications director, with jobs including Press
Secretary for Dennis
Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator
for the International
Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications
Coordinator for ACORN,
the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.