WMD: Bush Wanted to Go Beyond Iraq

One of PM Tony Blair’s advisers has revealed that in January, 2003 President Bush told Blair in a telephone call that he “wanted to go beyond Iraq” in dealing with the spread of illicit weapons, and mentioned Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in a list of countries posing particular problems” according to this article in the International Herald Tribune by Douglas Jehl of the NYT.

Bush’s comment, in a private telephone conversation on Jan. 30, 2003, could be significant because it appeared to add Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to a list that previously had included public mentions only of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, which the president had dubbed an “axis of evil.”

This might shake up those allies a bit…
The comment appears in the new American edition of the book Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules from FDR’s Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush’s Illegal War by Phillipe Sands.

According to the article, the secret notes were taken by Matthew Rycroft who was Blair’s private secretary at the time and the author of the now infamous Downing Street Memo.

Although the exact meaning of the comment is vague, it appears in the context of a two page document that says “Bush wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan”.

Remember the A Q Khan fiasco? And what of Saudi Arabia? What does Bush know that he’s not telling us? According to GlobalSecurity.org, the Saudis don’t have any WMD but newspapers in 2003 were buzzing with Saudi Arabia’s plans to acquire a nuclear bomb – long after Bush’s January, 2003 comments to Blair.

As for the move towards the war in Iraq:

The document shows that they discussed whether or not to seek a second United Nations resolution imposing an ultimatum on Iraq before launching any military action. Bush was reported to have agreed with Blair that “it made sense to try for a second resolution, which he would love to have.”

But Bush was also said to be “worried about Saddam playing tricks” and the possibility that Hans Blix, the top United Nations weapons inspector, would report “that Saddam was beginning to cooperate.”

“His biggest concern was looking weak,” the British document said, describing Bush.

It said that the two leaders had agreed that United Nations inspectors in Iraq should be given “weeks not months,” to complete their work.

The fix was indeed in. If Bush’s biggest concern at the time was not looking weak and that was one of his justifications for the illegal war in Iraq, I’d say he has a helluva lot of explaining to do the the families and friends of the now almost 2,000 US soldiers who have died and all of the coalition members – not to mention the thousands wounded and the uncounted Iraq casualties.

7 Comments

Connecticut Man1 on October 14, 2005 at 9:53 am

Very interesting! To say the least…

alohaleezy on October 14, 2005 at 10:09 am

Great diary Catnip!

catnip on October 14, 2005 at 10:37 am

Thanks. I posted it late last nite when I was really tired and should have been in bed so it’s a bit repetitive and doesn’t have much extra research to it ie. what is Saudi Arabia’s weapon status these days? Afaic, the more secret tidbits that leak out about Bush, the better.

boran2 on October 14, 2005 at 11:58 am

Thanks for the diary. Something I did not realize, Pakistan has substantial oil fields. Hmm, might that have something to do with this too?
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2005/10/07/afx2266186.html

Intellectually Curious on October 14, 2005 at 5:47 pm

our friends at Powell’s Books, Gerald Posner’s book Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection:

is the result of a two-year investigation into the innermost sanctums of the Saudi Arabian ruling family, the House of Saud. Pursuing tantalizing fragments of information from classified interrogations of recently captured terrorists, together with access to thousands of previously undisclosed government and private documents — as well as interviews with Saudi dissidents in hiding and in foreign countries — Gerald Posner has uncovered startling information that the Saudi royals never wanted revealed. But at the same time, he came across leads to the inner power sanctums in Washington and the discovery there of covert military plans American has developed to protect its interests in Saudi Arabia at a time of growing regional instability.

Using bank records and following the trail of petrol dollars, Posner exposes the remarkable extent of how Saudi Arabia has influenced and affected American businesses and politics. He delves into government and private support of terror inside Saudi Arabia, raises new questions about a possible Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks, and lays bare the inside strategy of the internal Saudi war on extremists and terrorists. Culminating in groundbreaking revelations about secret Saudi and American emergency plans in case of national crises, Posner paints a disturbing portrait of a pair of countries that, despite their great differences, are often hostage to each other.

According to the review in the Washington Post, Posner writes that:

Posner reports that Saudi Arabia has wired all of its major oil facilities with interlocking Semtex explosive charges that can be detonated from a single control point. Moreover, he says, the Saudis have blended radioactive materials into the Semtex so that detonation would not only destroy the facilities but also contaminate them beyond repair.

Why would the Saudis set off what’s essentially a networked dirty bomb over their oil infrastructure? Because, according to Posner, they want to make certain that nobody could benefit from invading their country or taking down the ruling House of Saud. If the al Saud family goes, Posner writes, the world’s petroleum-based economy goes with it.

So, even if Saudi Arabia does not currently have a nuclear explosive device, they sure can make life miserable for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

NorCalJim on October 14, 2005 at 10:51 pm

Always was the plan, not new. According to Gen’l Clark, The Pentagon was abuzz with plans to “drain the swamp” from Syria to Morocco iirc, and they were making war plans for a seven nation “tour”. They expected it all to go like Afghanistan but got bogged down in Iraq……and as soon as they get unbogged, I think it will be game on.

In a weird sense, we got lucky with Iraq because it bought us time to actually examine the policy.

Parenthetically, I might add, this may be the draw for the so-called foreign fighters in Iraq. Because this has all been out in the wind for a while. In theater foreign fighter recruiters in the other five countries may well be saying to the recruits, ” Better to fight them over there in Iraq, than to fight them here at home.”

DuctapeFatwa on October 14, 2005 at 11:30 pm

One of Mr. Bush’s most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it. But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border – sometimes by accident, sometimes by design.

Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering….nerdified link

And they have had “operatives” in Iraq forever, and RentaKurds for over a year.

Connecticut Man1 on October 14, 2005 at 9:53 am

Very interesting! To say the least…
alohaleezy on October 14, 2005 at 10:09 am

Great diary Catnip!
- catnip on October 14, 2005 at 10:37 am
  
  Thanks. I posted it late last nite when I was really tired and should have been in bed so it’s a bit repetitive and doesn’t have much extra research to it ie. what is Saudi Arabia’s weapon status these days? Afaic, the more secret tidbits that leak out about Bush, the better.
boran2 on October 14, 2005 at 11:58 am

Thanks for the diary. Something I did not realize, Pakistan has substantial oil fields. Hmm, might that have something to do with this too?
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2005/10/07/afx2266186.html
Intellectually Curious on October 14, 2005 at 5:47 pm

our friends at Powell’s Books, Gerald Posner’s book Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection:

is the result of a two-year investigation into the innermost sanctums of the Saudi Arabian ruling family, the House of Saud. Pursuing tantalizing fragments of information from classified interrogations of recently captured terrorists, together with access to thousands of previously undisclosed government and private documents — as well as interviews with Saudi dissidents in hiding and in foreign countries — Gerald Posner has uncovered startling information that the Saudi royals never wanted revealed. But at the same time, he came across leads to the inner power sanctums in Washington and the discovery there of covert military plans American has developed to protect its interests in Saudi Arabia at a time of growing regional instability.

Using bank records and following the trail of petrol dollars, Posner exposes the remarkable extent of how Saudi Arabia has influenced and affected American businesses and politics. He delves into government and private support of terror inside Saudi Arabia, raises new questions about a possible Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks, and lays bare the inside strategy of the internal Saudi war on extremists and terrorists. Culminating in groundbreaking revelations about secret Saudi and American emergency plans in case of national crises, Posner paints a disturbing portrait of a pair of countries that, despite their great differences, are often hostage to each other.

According to the review in the Washington Post, Posner writes that:

Posner reports that Saudi Arabia has wired all of its major oil facilities with interlocking Semtex explosive charges that can be detonated from a single control point. Moreover, he says, the Saudis have blended radioactive materials into the Semtex so that detonation would not only destroy the facilities but also contaminate them beyond repair.

Why would the Saudis set off what’s essentially a networked dirty bomb over their oil infrastructure? Because, according to Posner, they want to make certain that nobody could benefit from invading their country or taking down the ruling House of Saud. If the al Saud family goes, Posner writes, the world’s petroleum-based economy goes with it.

So, even if Saudi Arabia does not currently have a nuclear explosive device, they sure can make life miserable for the U.S. and the rest of the world.
NorCalJim on October 14, 2005 at 10:51 pm

Always was the plan, not new. According to Gen’l Clark, The Pentagon was abuzz with plans to “drain the swamp” from Syria to Morocco iirc, and they were making war plans for a seven nation “tour”. They expected it all to go like Afghanistan but got bogged down in Iraq……and as soon as they get unbogged, I think it will be game on.

In a weird sense, we got lucky with Iraq because it bought us time to actually examine the policy.

Parenthetically, I might add, this may be the draw for the so-called foreign fighters in Iraq. Because this has all been out in the wind for a while. In theater foreign fighter recruiters in the other five countries may well be saying to the recruits, ” Better to fight them over there in Iraq, than to fight them here at home.”
DuctapeFatwa on October 14, 2005 at 11:30 pm

One of Mr. Bush’s most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it. But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border – sometimes by accident, sometimes by design.

Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering….nerdified link

And they have had “operatives” in Iraq forever, and RentaKurds for over a year.

WMD: Bush Wanted to Go Beyond Iraq

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