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C&P)Weapons inspector: Israel knew Iraq had no WMD
HAIRY
Member Posts: 23,606
Weapons inspector: Israel knew Iraq had no WMDs
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told ynet Sunday that the Israeli intelligence community was well aware that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
In reaction, MK Ehud Yatom (Likud) - a member of the Knesset Security and Foreign Affairs Committee said Sunday evening that Israel had always maintained and believed that Iraq did, in fact, retain weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier, MK Roman Bronfman (Meretz) said that if Ritter was right, it meant that the government had purposely misled the Israeli public. "This just shows what price Sharon's government is prepared to pay in order to seed panic and evade undertaking any political action," he said.
Ritter, a former US Marine, was a weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and a vocal critic of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.
Last July, Ritter released a new book, accusing US President George W. Bush of illegally attacking Iraq and calling for 'regime change' in the US in the next election. Ritter criticized key figures caught up in the US-led war, saying Bush lied to the American people and Congress about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction; UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lacked courage; and former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix was 'a moral and intellectual coward.'
On emonth earlier, Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) formed a parliamentary sub-committee to investigate Israel's preparations and the intelligence community's activities in preparation for the Iraq war.
By December 2003, the sub-committee had not yet submitted a report, and committee member MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) demanded a new, more independent sub-committee be formed.
By then, conflicting reports published by a respected Tel Aviv think tank in December indicated deep disagreement over the failure by Israeli intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein's threat to strike the Jewish state.
One report, penned by veteran IDF intelligence officer Col. (ret.) Ephraim Kam, the deputy head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, claimed Israeli intelligence was correct in assuming Iraq had the capability and intention of striking Israel during the recent US invasion, if only to play it safe following the previous conflict, in which Israel had been hit by 39 conventional warheads fired by Iraqi Scud missiles.
The other report, by Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom claimed Israeli intelligence not only was a 'full partner' in the failure to correctly assess Saddam's capabilities and intentions, but had participated in an 'exaggerated assessment' with the Americans and British.
While not overtly political, this was mainly due to 'excessive intelligence anxiety' to adopt the worst-case scenario in order to be 'heroes' if validated, and forgiven if their bleak prophecies did not materialize. Brom warned that the good reputation enjoyed by Israeli intelligence could be jeopardized by the failure and hinted there may have been subtle political influence on the intelligence assessment.
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men" Burke
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told ynet Sunday that the Israeli intelligence community was well aware that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
In reaction, MK Ehud Yatom (Likud) - a member of the Knesset Security and Foreign Affairs Committee said Sunday evening that Israel had always maintained and believed that Iraq did, in fact, retain weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier, MK Roman Bronfman (Meretz) said that if Ritter was right, it meant that the government had purposely misled the Israeli public. "This just shows what price Sharon's government is prepared to pay in order to seed panic and evade undertaking any political action," he said.
Ritter, a former US Marine, was a weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and a vocal critic of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.
Last July, Ritter released a new book, accusing US President George W. Bush of illegally attacking Iraq and calling for 'regime change' in the US in the next election. Ritter criticized key figures caught up in the US-led war, saying Bush lied to the American people and Congress about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction; UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lacked courage; and former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix was 'a moral and intellectual coward.'
On emonth earlier, Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) formed a parliamentary sub-committee to investigate Israel's preparations and the intelligence community's activities in preparation for the Iraq war.
By December 2003, the sub-committee had not yet submitted a report, and committee member MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) demanded a new, more independent sub-committee be formed.
By then, conflicting reports published by a respected Tel Aviv think tank in December indicated deep disagreement over the failure by Israeli intelligence regarding Saddam Hussein's threat to strike the Jewish state.
One report, penned by veteran IDF intelligence officer Col. (ret.) Ephraim Kam, the deputy head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, claimed Israeli intelligence was correct in assuming Iraq had the capability and intention of striking Israel during the recent US invasion, if only to play it safe following the previous conflict, in which Israel had been hit by 39 conventional warheads fired by Iraqi Scud missiles.
The other report, by Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom claimed Israeli intelligence not only was a 'full partner' in the failure to correctly assess Saddam's capabilities and intentions, but had participated in an 'exaggerated assessment' with the Americans and British.
While not overtly political, this was mainly due to 'excessive intelligence anxiety' to adopt the worst-case scenario in order to be 'heroes' if validated, and forgiven if their bleak prophecies did not materialize. Brom warned that the good reputation enjoyed by Israeli intelligence could be jeopardized by the failure and hinted there may have been subtle political influence on the intelligence assessment.
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men" Burke
Comments
Q:Do you know how Bush knew Iraq had WMD's??
A: Because he has the reciept.
Woods
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men" Burke