Shhh, The Hunt For WMD Ended Last Month

The top CIA officials who were part of the group that hunted for the weapons of mass destruction came home last month because of the lack of new information. An interim report that was released four months ago that concluded that there were no biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in Iraq will stand as the final conclusions.

Let’s take a look back.

“[Iraq] possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.” … “Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles -- far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations -- in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work. We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas.”
-- Shrub (October 7, 2002)

“The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction pose to the world." … “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence." … “Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent.”
-- Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. Security Council (February 5, 2003)

“There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.”
-- Vice President Defibrillator (August 26, 2002)

“Iraq's behavior could not offer a starker contrast. Instead of a commitment to disarm, Iraq has a high-level political commitment to maintain and conceal its weapons. … And instead of full cooperation and transparency, Iraq has filed a false declaration to the United Nations that amounts to a 12,200-page lie. For example, the declaration fails to account for or explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from abroad, its manufacture of specific fuel for ballistic missiles it claims not to have, and the gaps previously identified by the United Nations in Iraq's accounting for more than two tons of the raw materials needed to produce thousands of gallons of anthrax and other biological weapons.”
-- Condi Rice (January 26, 2003)

“It's not as if anybody believes that Saddam Hussein was without weapons of mass destruction.”
-- Condi again (March 18, 2004)

OOOPS.