No, The Time's Report Doesn't Prove Saddam Had CURRENT Weapons of Mass Destruction

But the howler monkeys on the right read three words in the report and started flinging their predictable poo.  Here's why they're WRONG, again, and the reason:


From SALON:

The reason is very simple, and the Times report conservatives are claiming vindicates Bush actually explains very clearly why it does no such thing: 

“The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, American troops gradually found and ultimately suffered from the remnants of long-abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the West.” 

Many of the weapons, according to the Times, “appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.” 

 The discovery of old, degraded chemical munitions in Iraq is not news. The Bush administration went to war expecting to find older weapons, along with a thriving new chemical weapons program (that didn’t exist). 

Ten years ago, the final report of the weapons inspectors sent to find Saddam Hussein’s WMDs (commonly known as the Duelfer Report) was released, and it noted that “a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered” in the country, but that Iraq had not produced any new weapons.

[skip]


The discovery of old, degraded chemical munitions in Iraq is not news. The Bush administration went to war expecting to find older weapons, along with a thriving new chemical weapons program (that didn’t exist). Ten years ago, the final report of the weapons inspectors sent to find Saddam Hussein’s WMDs (commonly known as the Duelfer Report) was released, and it noted that “a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered” in the country, but that Iraq had not produced any new weapons. 

 Back in the summer of 2006, Rick Santorum was on his way to losing his Senate seat and needed a “game changer” to save his political career. So he threw together a press conference to triumphantly announce: “We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons.” 

He was talking about “500 chemical munitions shells that had been buried near the Iranian border, and then long forgotten, by Iraqi troops during their eight-year war with Iran, which ended in 1988,” according to the Washington Post. Everyone laughed at him, not just for how transparently desperate the stunt was, but also because Bush administration said Santorum was wrong. 

I’ll repeat that, so there’s no confusion – Bush administration officials said that the presence of ancient chemical weapons in Iraq did not vindicate George W. Bush’s case for war.