Nothing to Preempt

Former CIA agent Ray McGovern has the following to say about Kay's admission that there were no WMD's in Iraq: (from Tom Paine)

Finally, some honesty. But mounting problems for the White House. [ ... ] It turns out that there was nothing to preempt.

Which calls into question the real reason why more than 500 U.S. troops have been killed and at least 6,000 severely wounded—and why untold thousands of Iraqi army conscripts and civilians have also been killed. [ ... ] Nothing to preempt also means that the U.S./UK attack on Iraq last March falls into the category of "preventive war" explicitly condemned by international law. Which also means that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair's political career is probably finished, as is the political future of other gullible leaders of the "coalition of the willing"—in Australia, for example, and in even in Denmark.

You will not have heard this on FOX news, but the Australian Senate has already formally censured Prime Minister John Howard for misleading the country on Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) and for suppressing a key report from Australian intelligence warning that still more widespread terrorism could be expected to follow any attack on Iraq.

McGovern goes on to speculate that Tenet is again going to take the fall for Bush.

Here's an excerpt from an article about the censure of Howard: (from The Age, "Howard censured over push for war with Iraq", 10/8/03)

Prime Minister John Howard was yesterday censured by the Senate for misleading the public in his justification for sending Australia to war with Iraq.

It was only the fourth time in more than three decades a sitting prime minister has been censured and the second in Mr Howard's seven-and-a-half years in office.

The motion attacked Mr Howard for failing to adequately inform Australians that intelligence agency warnings about a war with Iraq would increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

It also noted that no evidence had yet been produced by Mr Howard to justify his claims that in March this year, Iraq possessed stockpiles of completed biological chemical weapons that justified going to war.

The Opposition, Greens and Australian Democrats voted together to defeat the Government by 33 votes to 30.

Greens senator Bob Brown said Mr Howard was involved in an unprecedented deceit of the nation and deserved censure.

He said Mr Howard had argued that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and support of international terrorism threatened Australia. "It has become abundantly clear that the Prime Minister was not just a bit wrong. He was totally wrong," he told parliament.