20 Lies About the War
Falsehoods ranging from exaggeration to plain untruth were used to make the case
for war. More lies are being used in the aftermath. By Glen Rangwala and Raymond
Whitaker
13 July 2003
1 Iraq was responsible for the 11 September attacks
A supposed meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta, leader of the 11 September
hijackers, and an Iraqi intelligence official was the main basis for this claim,
but Czech intelligence later conceded that the Iraqi's contact could not have
been Atta. This did not stop the constant stream of assertions that Iraq was
involved in 9/11, which was so successful that at one stage opinion polls showed
that two-thirds of Americans believed the hand of Saddam Hussein was behind the
attacks. Almost as many believed Iraqi hijackers were aboard the crashed
airliners; in fact there were none.
2 Iraq and al-Qa'ida were working together
Persistent claims by US and British leaders that Saddam and Osama bin Laden were
in league with each other were contradicted by a leaked British Defence
Intelligence Staff report, which said there were no current links between them.
Mr Bin Laden's "aims are in ideological conflict with present-day Iraq", it
added.
Another strand to the claims was that al-Qa'ida members were being sheltered in
Iraq, and had set up a poisons training camp. When US troops reached the camp,
they found no chemical or biological traces.
3 Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa for a "reconstituted" nuclear weapons
programme
The head of the CIA has now admitted that documents purporting to show that Iraq
tried to import uranium from Niger in west Africa were forged, and that the
claim should never have been in President Bush's State of the Union address.
Britain sticks by the claim, insisting it has "separate intelligence". The
Foreign Office conceded last week that this information is now "under review".
4 Iraq was trying to import aluminium tubes to develop nuclear weapons
The US persistently alleged that Baghdad tried to buy high-strength aluminum
tubes whose only use could be in gas centrifuges, needed to enrich uranium for
nuclear weapons. Equally persistently, the International Atomic Energy Agency
said the tubes were being used for artillery rockets. The head of the IAEA,
Mohamed El Baradei, told the UN Security Council in January that the tubes were
not even suitable for centrifuges.
5 Iraq still had vast stocks of chemical and biological weapons from the first
Gulf War
Iraq possessed enough dangerous substances to kill the whole world, it was
alleged more than once. It had pilotless aircraft which could be smuggled into
the US and used to spray chemical and biological toxins. Experts pointed out
that apart from mustard gas, Iraq never had the technology to produce materials
with a shelf-life of 12 years, the time between the two wars. All such agents
would have deteriorated to the point of uselessness years ago.
6 Iraq retained up to 20 missiles which could carry chemical or biological
warheads, with a range which would threaten British forces in Cyprus
Apart from the fact that there has been no sign of these missiles since the
invasion, Britain downplayed the risk of there being any such weapons in Iraq
once the fighting began. It was also revealed that chemical protection equipment
was removed from British bases in Cyprus last year, indicating that the
Government did not take its own claims seriously.
7 Saddam Hussein had the wherewithal to develop smallpox
This allegation was made by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his address
to the UN Security Council in February. The following month the UN said there
was nothing to support it.
8 US and British claims were supported by the inspectors
According to Jack Straw, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix "pointed out" that
Iraq had 10,000 litres of anthrax. Tony Blair said Iraq's chemical, biological
and "indeed the nuclear weapons programme" had been well documented by the UN.
Mr Blix's reply? "This is not the same as saying there are weapons of mass
destruction," he said last September. "If I had solid evidence that Iraq
retained weapons of mass destruction or were constructing such weapons, I would
take it to the Security Council." In May this year he added: "I am obviously
very interested in the question of whether or not there were weapons of mass
destruction, and I am beginning to suspect there possibly were not."
9 Previous weapons inspections had failed
Tony Blair told this newspaper in March that the UN had "tried unsuccessfully
for 12 years to get Saddam to disarm peacefully". But in 1999 a Security Council
panel concluded: "Although important elements still have to be resolved, the
bulk of Iraq's proscribed weapons programmes has been eliminated." Mr Blair also
claimed UN inspectors "found no trace at all of Saddam's offensive biological
weapons programme" until his son-in-law defected. In fact the UN got the regime
to admit to its biological weapons programme more than a month before the
defection.
10 Iraq was obstructing the inspectors
Britain's February "dodgy dossier" claimed inspectors' escorts were "trained to
start long arguments" with other Iraqi officials while evidence was being
hidden, and inspectors' journeys were monitored and notified ahead to remove
surprise. Dr Blix said in February that the UN had conducted more than 400
inspections, all without notice, covering more than 300 sites. "We note that
access to sites has so far been without problems," he said. : "In no case have
we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew that the inspectors were
coming."
11 Iraq could deploy its weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes
This now-notorious claim was based on a single source, said to be a serving
Iraqi military officer. This individual has not been produced since the war, but
in any case Tony Blair contradicted the claim in April. He said Iraq had begun
to conceal its weapons in May 2002, which meant that they could not have been
used within 45 minutes.
12 The "dodgy dossier"
Mr Blair told the Commons in February, when the dossier was issued: "We issued
further intelligence over the weekend about the infrastructure of concealment.
It is obviously difficult when we publish intelligence reports." It soon emerged
that most of it was cribbed without attribution from three articles on the
internet. Last month Alastair Campbell took responsibility for the plagiarism
committed by his staff, but stood by the dossier's accuracy, even though it
confused two Iraqi intelligence organisations, and said one moved to new
headquarters in 1990, two years before it was created.
13 War would be easy
Public fears of war in the US and Britain were assuaged by assurances that
oppressed Iraqis would welcome the invading forces; that "demolishing Saddam
Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk", in the words
of Kenneth Adelman, a senior Pentagon official in two previous Republican
administrations. Resistance was patchy, but stiffer than expected, mainly from
irregular forces fighting in civilian clothes. "This wasn't the enemy we
war-gamed against," one general complained.
14 Umm Qasr
The fall of Iraq's southernmost city and only port was announced several times
before Anglo-American forces gained full control - by Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, among others, and by Admiral Michael Boyce, chief of Britain's defence
staff. "Umm Qasr has been overwhelmed by the US Marines and is now in coalition
hands," the Admiral announced, somewhat prematurely.
15 Basra rebellion
Claims that the Shia Muslim population of Basra, Iraq's second city, had risen
against their oppressors were repeated for days, long after it became clear to
those there that this was little more than wishful thinking. The defeat of a
supposed breakout by Iraqi armour was also announced by military spokesman in no
position to know the truth.
16 The "rescue" of Private Jessica Lynch
Private Jessica Lynch's "rescue" from a hospital in Nasiriya by American special
forces was presented as the major "feel-good" story of the war. She was said to
have fired back at Iraqi troops until her ammunition ran out, and was taken to
hospital suffering bullet and stab wounds. It has since emerged that all her
injuries were sustained in a vehicle crash, which left her incapable of firing
any shot. Local medical staff had tried to return her to the Americans after
Iraqi forces pulled out of the hospital, but the doctors had to turn back when
US troops opened fire on them. The special forces encountered no resistance, but
made sure the whole episode was filmed.
17 Troops would face chemical and biological weapons
As US forces approached Baghdad, there was a rash of reports that they would
cross a "red line", within which Republican Guard units were authorised to use
chemical weapons. But Lieutenant General James Conway, the leading US marine
general in Iraq, conceded afterwards that intelligence reports that chemical
weapons had been deployed around Baghdad before the war were wrong.
"It was a surprise to me ... that we have not uncovered weapons ... in some of
the forward dispersal sites," he said. "We've been to virtually every ammunition
supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not
there. We were simply wrong. Whether or not we're wrong at the national level, I
think still very much remains to be seen."
18 Interrogation of scientists would yield the location of WMD
"I have got absolutely no doubt that those weapons are there ... once we have
the co-operation of the scientists and the experts, I have got no doubt that we
will find them," Tony Blair said in April. Numerous similar assurances were
issued by other leading figures, who said interrogations would provide the WMD
discoveries that searches had failed to supply. But almost all Iraq's leading
scientists are in custody, and claims that lingering fears of Saddam Hussein are
stilling their tongues are beginning to wear thin.
19 Iraq's oil money would go to Iraqis
Tony Blair complained in Parliament that "people falsely claim that we want to
seize" Iraq's oil revenues, adding that they should be put in a trust fund for
the Iraqi people administered through the UN. Britain should seek a Security
Council resolution that would affirm "the use of all oil revenues for the
benefit of the Iraqi people".
Instead Britain co-sponsored a Security Council resolution that gave the US and
UK control over Iraq's oil revenues. There is no UN-administered trust fund.
Far from "all oil revenues" being used for the Iraqi people, the resolution
continues to make deductions from Iraq's oil earnings to pay in compensation for
the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
20 WMD were found
After repeated false sightings, both Tony Blair and George Bush proclaimed on 30
May that two trailers found in Iraq were mobile biological laboratories. "We
have already found two trailers, both of which we believe were used for the
production of biological weapons," said Mr Blair. Mr Bush went further: "Those
who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons -
they're wrong. We found them." It is now almost certain that the vehicles were
for the production of hydrogen for weather balloons, just as the Iraqis claimed
- and that they were exported by Britain.
13 July 2003 04:53
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