Tag: WMD

Colin Powell and “The Sloppy Dossier”: Plagiarism and “Fake Intelligence” Used to Justify the 2003 War on Iraq

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Saturday, 23 March 2024 — Michel Chossudovsky

Copied and Pasted from the Internet into an “Official” British Intel Report

This week we are commemorating the 2003 War against Iraq.

Our thoughts today are with the people of Iraq, whose country was invaded twenty-one years ago on March 20, 2003. 

This article first published in June 2005 focusses on the fake intelligence used to justify the invasion. 

Colin Powell’s “intelligence report” presented to the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003 was fabricated. It confirmed the criminal nature of the 2003 war.
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JOHN PILGER: Justice for Assange Is Justice for All

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1 November, 2021 — Consortium News

In the land of Magna Carta this disgraceful case ought to have been hurled out of court long ago

Assange supporters march on Parliament, February 2020. (Joe Lauria)

By John Pilger
Special to Consortium News

When I first saw Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison, in 2019, shortly after he had been dragged from his refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, he said, “I think I am losing my mind.”

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The Terrifying Rise of the Zombie State Narrative

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2 January 2020 — Craig Murray

The ruling Establishment has learnt a profound lesson from the debacle over Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. The lesson they have learnt is not that it is wrong to attack and destroy an entire country on the basis of lies. They have not learnt that lesson despite the fact the western powers are now busily attacking the Iraqi Shia majority government they themselves installed, for the crime of being a Shia majority government.

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“The Sloppy Dossier”: Plagiarism and “Fake Intelligence” Used to Justify the War on Iraq: Copied and Pasted from the Internet into an “Official” British Intel Report By Glen Rangwala and Prof Michel Chossudovsky

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23 March 2018 — Global Research

Fifteen years ago, the illegal invasion of Iraq. March  21, 2003.

While the Chilcot Inquiry report was released in 2016, it is worth noting that most of the dodgy dossier evidence pertaining to Tony Blair and George W, Bush was available before the onset of the Iraq war in March 2003.  

Dr. Glen Rangwala

Damning evidence refuting Colin Powell’s  official intelligence report was revealed by Cambridge Lecturer Dr. Glen Rangwala on  Britain’s Channel 4 TV on February 6, 2003, on the day following Secretary of State Colin Powell’s historic Iraq WMD presentation to the UN Security Council:  Continue reading →

The Russian meddling fraud: Weapons of mass destruction revisited

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20 February 2018 — WSWS

Fifteen years ago, on February 5, 2003, against the backdrop of worldwide mass demonstrations in opposition to the impending invasion of Iraq, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell argued before the United Nations that the government of Saddam Hussein was rapidly stockpiling “weapons of mass destruction,” which Iraq, together with Al Qaeda, was planning to use against the United States.

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FAIR: Journalism’s Dark Matter

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29 March 2016 — FAIR

Journalists face numerous ethical and institutional challenges when doing their job. But none of these challenges lays bare the conflicts and compromises involved in reporting the news quite like the use of anonymous sources.

For a profession predicated on demanding transparency and accountability from others, the practice of granting anonymity serves as an inconvenient reminder of journalism’s own messy reality. The implied bargain therein—that the value of the light provided by a source’s information outweighs the cost of casting of a shadow over his or her public identity—trades upon both the judgment and authority of the reporter and his or her news organization.

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BLOWBACK IN IRAQ: The Rise of ISIS By Michael Faulkner

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21 June 2014 — The Greanville Post

Letter from London

The term "war criminal" is bandied about often but in few cases it fits the bill as well as in this instance. These two men belong in a dungeon, for high crimes against peace and the death of at least one million people. It is now more than eleven years since the unprovoked invasion of Iraq by the USA and Britain. Because those who planned and prosecuted that invasion, and those who supported them, continue to defend what they did with contorted and specious arguments, it is worth recalling the attempted justifications for it that were made at the time.

Former prime minister Tony Blair who has escaped prosecution as a war criminal, astonishingly still emerges from time to time, apparently oblivious to the widespread contempt in which he is held, to argue that he did the right thing and that Iraq and the wider world are far better for being rid of Saddam Hussein.  Although he and those who supported the war, including most of the British media at the time, now conveniently avoid mentioning it, the invasion of Iraq was supposedly to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction. It was not to effect regime change. Shortly before the invasion Blair himself pointedly stated that the planned invasion would be called off and Saddam could remain in power if he agreed to destroy his stockpile of WMD.

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Will President Obama Wear His Nobel Peace Prize Medal When He Bombs Syria?

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8 September 2013 — China Matters

For all you anti-war types sniggering over President Obama’s well-deserved Syria travails, just remember: he’s the president of the United States, and he can do something about it.
 
Not to you.  To Syria.
 
Especially if he has to attack Syria without congressional approval, I find it unlikely President Obama will give some Syrian army munitions dump a symbolic, admonitory plink and then return to business as usual in Washington as a neutered lame duck (assuming that ducks can be neutered*).
 
No, I think he will give serious thoughts to doubling down in order to 1) rebut accusations of wimpish impotence and 2) bury the memory of the humiliating debate under a serious, prolonged, and seriously distracting barrage of ordinance.
 
So we might be treated to a Syrian version of the miraculously expanding Libyan no-fly zone (the Libyan air force was destroyed within a week or so, but NATO kept bombing targets for months anyway). Every Syrian army base, government office, warehouse, truck, and toilet could be deemed a possible WMD sanctuary and plastered accordingly.
 
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The Anti-Empire Report #120 By William Blum: Iraqi WMD found at last – In Syria

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3 September 2013 — The Anti-Empire Report

Found at last! After searching for 10 years, the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have finally been found – in Syria!

Secretary of State John Kerry: “There is no doubt that Saddam al-Assad has crossed the red line. … Sorry, did I just say ‘Saddam’?”

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Political Assassination and the Crimes of War: The “Unnatural Death” of Dr. David Kelly By Dr. David Halpin

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19 July 2013 — Global Research

A bearded man of avuncular appearance had started early in replying to e-mails on the 17th July 2003. He was in the office of his pretty cottage, with the scent of roses telling of an English summer. The little village of Southmoor was stirring. He was to send over 80 via one of five hard drives and mostly in reply. Some would be encrypted because he was writing to friends and colleagues who like him shared secrets in the field of “WMDs”. And some would be human and ordinary as from a father of three daughters. He had delighted in seeing a new born foal and arranged to take his daughter Rachel down the village that Thursday evening to see young life together.

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Fake WMD “Intelligence” and Orwellian Double-speak : Washington Is Insane By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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17 June, 2013 — Global Research

In the 21st century the two hundred year-old propaganda that the American people control their government has been completely shattered. Both the Bush and Obama regimes have made it unmistakenly clear that the American people don’t even influence, much less control, the government. As far as Washington is concerned, the people are nothing but chaff in the wind.

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Military Escalation? Sapping Assad’s Strength. Israel “Stirs the Pot” in Syria By Jonathon Cook

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17 June 2013 — Global Research

For much of the past two years Israel stood sphinx-like on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war. Did it want Bashar al-Assad’s regime toppled? Did it favour military intervention to help opposition forces? And what did it think of the increasing visibility of Islamist groups in Syria? It was difficult to guess.

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Sarin gas is as volatile as Washington’s promises by Thierry Meyssan

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16 June 2013 — Voltaire Network

Did Syria or did she not use sarin gas against its armed opposition? After haunting newspaper columns, the question found a positive answer in Paris, London and Washington. The red line has apparently been crossed. War may therefore be imminent. In reality, this media game comes too late. In terms of international law, Syria is not a signatory to the chemical weapons Convention and may use them freely. Moreover, inventing that Damascus has used weapons of mass destruction is a perfectly futile ploy, considering that the war is nearing an end.

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