White House denies report on Iraqi WMD
Posted in General Interest on 04/13/2006 05:14 am by adminWhite House denies report on Iraqi WMD
Thursday, April 13, 2006 11:08 IST
WASHINGTON: The White House vehemently denounced a US newspaper report suggesting President George W Bush insisted on the existence of biological weapons laboratories in Iraq while knowing the claim was false.
The Washington Post said on Wednesday that Bush and other top administration officials cited two trailers found in Iraq as evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme even though Pentagon experts had found they were probably designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan condemned the newspaper report as “reckless”, saying Bush had based his assertions on intelligence assessments.
“And for you all to go on the air this morning and make such a charge is irresponsible,” McClellan told reporters on Wednesday.
On May 29, 2003, Bush proclaimed that the trailers, located just weeks after the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq, were long-sought mobile “biological laboratories”.
“We have found the weapons of mass destruction,” the president said confidently at the time.
Two days before the president’s statement, however, a secret Pentagon-sponsored mission had returned findings that the trailers were not suited for the production of biological weapons, according to the Post, citing unnamed government officials.
The claim was repeated by top administration officials for months, even though US intelligence officials had received the findings of the Pentagon experts determining that the allegations were not true, the Post reported.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1023907
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/12/bush.wmd/