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Confirming the Obvious: Official U.S. Report Finds Saddam Had No WMDs
Left Out in Cleveland: Three VP Candidates Speak Out on the
Two-Party System
Confirming the Obvious: Official U.S. Report Finds
Saddam Had No WMDs
The major U.S. report on Saddam Hussein's pre-war weapons
capacity has concluded Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction
at the time of the U.S. invasion, contradicting the Bush administration's
main argument for war. We speak with former Iraqi nuclear
scientist, Imad Khadduri.
The chief U.S. weapons inspector reported Wednesday that
Iraq had no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons now or
before the invasion. The findings, which were delivered yesterday
to two congressional committees, contradict nearly every assertion
made by top Bush administration officials about Iraq in the
run-up to the war.
The extensive 1,000-page report was conducted by the Iraq
Survey Group and led by Charles Duelfer, whom the Bush administration
chose to complete the U.S. investigation of Iraq"s weapons
programs. Duelfer said that since the 1991 Gulf War, United
Nations sanctions and inspections had destroyed Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction capability and that there was no evidence
of efforts to restart the program.
The report was based on nine months work in Iraq, including
extensive interviews with Saddam Hussein and his key lieutenants.
It represents the government's most complete account of Iraq's
weapons programs and goes beyond previous assessments in "depth,
detail and level of certainty."
Although no written plans were found, Duelfer concluded from
interviews that Saddam Hussein hoped to restart some of his
nuclear, biological and chemical programs if UN sanctions
were lifted.
The report come less than four weeks before an election in
which Bush"s handling of Iraq has become the central
issue. In the lead up to the invasion, top officials in the
Bush administration repeatedly claimed Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction and cast Saddam Hussein as an immediate threat.
British and Australian Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John
Howard have come under fire following the report's release.
President Bush is continuing to defend his decision to invade
Iraq.
- Imad Khadduri, a former Iraqi nuclear scientist with
the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968-1998. He is
author of the book Iraq's Nuclear Mirage.
Left Out in Cleveland: Three VP Candidates Speak
Out on the Two-Party System
The restrictive rules agreed to by the Democrats and Republicans
in 2004 may change the face of presidential debates for generations
to come. They also exclude third party candidates. Today we
hear from three VP candidates who were not invited to Cleveland:
Pat LaMarche of the Green Party, Libertarian Richard Campagna
and Peter Camejo, Ralph Nader's running mate.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards are back
on the campaign trail after their only debate of the campaign
Tuesday night. Their hard-hitting encounter set the stage
for the next showdown between President Bush and Sen. John
Kerry on Friday in St. Louis.
While the debates so far have produced some memorable moments,
the structure of the debates has led many to criticize them
as nothing more than glorified bipartisan press conferences.
The rules governing these debates are the most restrictive
in the history of presidential debates. In fact, the rules
seem to be in place to prevent any debate. The candidates
are forbidden from directly questioning each other and any
spontaneous response to the opponent's comments is not allowed.
But of all of the rules of the debates, the one that bolsters
the case that these events are more like a bipartisan press
conference is the exclusion of third party candidates. Today,
we are going to give three vice presidential candidates that
were not invited to Cleveland a chance to debate. In a moment
we will be joined by Green Party Vice Presidential candidate
Pat LaMarche, Libertarian VP candidate Richard Campagna and
Peter Camejo, who is Ralph Nader"s running mate. But
first, we wanted to hear a bit of the official debate between
Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards on the
issue of health care.
- Pat LaMarche, Green
Party candidate for Vice President. For years, she has
worked as a radio talk show host. She is a former Green
Party candidate for governor of the state of Maine, where
she became the first woman in the history of that state
to gain ballot access for a political party through her
candidacy. She just wrapped up a two week tour, where she
lived in homeless shelters in various US cities.
- Peter Camejo, Ralph
Nader's vice presidential candidate. He was the Green
Party candidate for governor of California in 2003.
- Richard Campagna, the Libertarian
Party's candidate for Vice President. He is a longtime
university professor and an international businessman.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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