Iraq War: What the President Said a Year Ago (Pt 2 of 2)

(Cont. from Part 1) Continuing with quotations from Bush's 01/28/03 State of the Union address:

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

Reality check: The latest news reports - which appeared (I'm sure by purest coincidence) at the end of a week in which the prewar WMD claims were coming under new scrutiny from the press - say the Danish army has found some artillery shells buried for 10 years or more that might have traces of mustard gas. Otherwise, we've found squat.

From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

Reality check: The defectors lied. The "mobile biological labs" were used to produce hydrogen gas for observation balloons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

Reality check: Iraq had no nuclear weapons or programs to build them underway. The uranium claim led "senior adminstration officials" to commit a serious felony by outing CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame to columnist Bob Novak in an effort to discredit her husband's public criticism of this fake justification for war.