ISIS: The US-CIA Connection

In July of 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama stated on camera:

“We’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province.”[1]

This was immediately dismissed as a “Freudian slip.” However, one need not emphasize such provocative remarks in order to discover a connection between the United States and ISIS. Concrete evidence of such a sub rosa link is contained in a declassified government document.

“The general situation: Internally, events are taking a clear sectarian direction. The Salafist [sic], the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [i.e., al-Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria. The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the [Assad] regime.”[2]

One possibility is that “the U.S. and other NATO nations are arming and funding ISIS to topple Syrian president Bashir al-Assad, who stands in the way of a critical natural gas pipeline that would depose Russia as Europe’s primary source of energy.”[3]

For example, “[a] Syrian Catholic archbishop has accused the United States of joining forces with al-Qaeda in an attempt to topple President Bashar Al-Assad. Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo of Hassaké-Nisibi said he believed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was arming and training rebel groups in Syria which were al-Qaeda under ‘a different name.’”[4]

The archbishop’s words followed the assertion, by U.S. Senator John McCain, that Russian military “strikes were against the individuals and the groups that have been funded and trained by our CIA…”[5]

“…‘US Senator John McCain …[recently said]that the Russians are not bombing the positions of ISIS, but rather the anti-Assad rebels trained by the CIA,’ Archbishop Hindo told Fides, a Vatican-based news agency. ‘I find these words are disturbing. …They represent a blatant admission that behind the war against Assad there is also the CIA. …Western propaganda keeps talking about moderate rebels, who do not exist. There is something very disturbing about all this – there is a superpower that since September 11 protests because the Russians hit the militias of al-Qaeda in Syria. …What does it mean, (that) al-Qaeda is now a US ally, just because in Syria it has a different name? But do they really despise our intelligence and our memory?”[6]

Previously, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas G. McInerney stated:

“[In] Syria we backed, I believe in some cases, some of the wrong people, and …not in the right part of the Free Syrian Army. And that’s a little confusing to people. So I’ve always maintained, and go back quite some time, that we were backing the wrong types. I think it’s going to turn out maybe this weekend, in a new special that Bret Baier [of Fox News] is going to have Friday, it’s going to show that some of those weapons from Benghazi ended up in the hands of ISIS. So we helped build ISIS. Now there’s a danger there. And I’m with you.”[7]

Gen. McInerney’s statement agrees with a later one from retired four-star U.S. Army General Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr., who said:

“Look: ISIS got started through funding from our friends and allies. Because, as people will tell you in the region, if you want somebody who will fight to the death against Hezbollah, you don’t put out a recruiting poster and say, ‘Sign up for us’ or ‘We’re going to make a better world.’ You go after zealots and you go after these religious fundamentalists. That’s who fights Hezbollah. ...It’s like a Frankenstein.[8]

American journalist Steven C. Clemons made similar remarks on the news network MSNBC:

“[W]e see in cases like ISIS instantly, Saudi money, private nongovernment money has helped build ISIS particularly in the early stages.”[9]

Of course, one must bear in mind that the context for these remarks is the fact – already a matter of public record – that the U.S. intelligence community was responsible for the origination of Al-Qaida. Would you believe that Osama bin Laden was a Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) “creation”?

“Osama bin Laden, the man suspected by Washington to be the mastermind behind Tuesday’s [i.e., Tues., Sept. 11, 2001] devastating attacks on the US World Trade Center and the Pentagon, is arguably the creation of a CIA-led coalition that grew out of Afghanistan’s war with the Russians. …So if bin Laden is a monster, the logic goes, then he is a monster created by the US and its allies. …Asked how the current situation had arisen, [author and Afghan expert John] Cooley replied:

“‘The [former U.S. president Jimmy] Carter administration in 1979 decided …to recruit, arm and train, and pay, and deploy an army of mercenary volunteers. They were Muslims from all parts of the world, including black American Muslims. …And the CIA managed the recruiting process. Recruits were sent to Afghanistan, trained under some CIA officers or Pakistani military intelligence officers who were trained by the CIA in the US. There were many former CIA officers in charge of the programme.’”[10]

Additionally, an Agence France-Presse dispatch disclosed that bin Laden had met with a C.I.A. liaison prior to September 11.

“A report today says that Osama bin Laden underwent treatment in July at the American Hospital in Dubai, where he met with a CIA agent. Citing an unnamed source at the hospital, the report says the suspected terrorist arrived in Dubai on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan, and was taken immediately to the hospital for kidney treatment, staying until July 14. During his stay he allegedly met an unidentified CIA agent, who was recalled to Washington on July 15, the report said. It said Mr. bin Laden was accompanied by a doctor, bodyguards and a nurse.”[11]

By 2006, during the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, it was publicly declared that finding bin Laden was no longer even an objective.

“The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.”[12]

Curiously, bin Laden’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) “Most Wanted Poster,” updated in November of 2001, never reflected the fact that he was supposedly the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.[13]

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that media reports initially represented bin Laden disclaiming involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11. According to Cable News Network (CNN):

“Islamic militant leader Osama bin Laden, the man the United States considers the prime suspect in last week’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, denied any role Sunday in the actions believed to have killed thousands.”[14]

Bin Laden reportedly said:

“The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it. I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons. I have been living in the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan and following its leaders’ rules. The current leader does not allow me to exercise such operations.”[15]

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Timothy Weiner, even in the early 1990s, there was “a 36-billion-dollar cache used by the Pentagon to fund its own agenda of top-secret weapons and wars.”[16]

No wonder C.I.A. counterintelligence insider James Jesus Angleton called the world of espionage the “wilderness of mirrors.”[17]

It is in light of this background information that reports about ISIS must be evaluated.[18]

###

For related information, see also ISIS Unveiled in Paris?.

Notes:

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[1] Barack Obama, press statement, Jul. 6, 2015; reproduced at “Freudian Slip? Obama Vows to Speed up ‘Training ISIL’, WH Edit Adds Confusion (Video),” Jul. 8, 2015, updated Jul. 9, 2015, <http://www.rt.com/usa/272470-obama-training-isis-slip/>. See the White House’s edited transcript ““Remarks by the President on Progress in the Fight Against ISIL,” White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Jul. 6, 2015, <https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/06/remarks-president-progress-fight-against-isil>.

[2] United States, gov. doc., cached at Judicial Watch, <http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf>.

[3] Kit Daniels, “Hackers Point out U.S. Arming, Funding ISIS: Hackers Deface U.S. Army Website to Underscore How the U.S. is Supporting ISIS to Topple Assad,” Infowars, Jun. 8, 2015, <http://www.infowars.com/hackers-point-out-u-s-arming-funding-isis/>.

[4] Simon Caldwell, “Syrian Archbishop Criticises U.S. for ‘Siding With al-Qaeda’,” Catholic Herald [U.K.], Oct. 6, 2015, <http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/10/06/syrian-archbishop-criticises-us-for-siding-with-al-qaeda/>.

[5] <http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/01/politics/john-mccain-cia-russia-airstrikes/>.

[6] Caldwell, loc. cit.

[7] Gen. Thomas McInerney, appearing on Fox News; as of this writing, the interview segment was posted online as “Retired Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney Admits ‘We Helped Build ISIS’,” YouTube, Sept. 3, 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zf7GPQqxU>. Cf. Paul Joseph Watson, “Gen. McInerney: ‘We Helped Build ISIS’: Weapons From Benghazi Ended up in the Hands of Islamic State Radicals,” Infowars, Sept. 3, 2014, <http://www.infowars.com/gen-mcinerney-we-helped-build-isis/>.

[8] Gen. Wesley Clark, Brooke Baldwin, “Interview With Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark; President Obama Requests Authority for War On ISIS,” CNN Newsroom, CNN, Feb. 11, 2015, accessed via LexisNexis. Cf. Pete Papaherakles, “U.S. General: West Created ISIS,” American Free Press, Mar. 19, 2015, <http://americanfreepress.net/?p=23265>. As of this writing, the segment is posted online by Brandon Martinez, “Wesley Clark: ‘Our Friends and Allies Funded ISIS to Destroy Hezbollah’,” YouTube, Feb. 17, 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLqaSZPe98>.

[9] Steven Clemons, interviewed by Edward A. “Ed” Schultz, “The Ed Show,” Politics Nation, MSNBC, Feb. 5, 2015, accessed via LexisNexis. The Saudi angle was also explored by Lyndon Larouche’s periodical. See Ramtanu Maitra, “Under London’s Wing: ISIS: Saudi-Qatari-Funded Wahhabi Terrorists Worldwide,” Executive Intelligence Review, Aug. 29, 2014, <http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4134wahhabi_terrs.html>.

[10] Thierry Masure, “Bin Laden: Product of the Afghanistan War and a U.S. Alliance in the East,” Agence France-Presse [English], Sept. 15, 2001; cached online at <http://www.prisonplanet.com/bin_laden_said_arguably_the_creation_of_a_cia_led_coalition.htm>.

[11] “Bin Laden Was Treated in Hospital, Reports Say,” Agence France-Presse via Globe and Mail [Canada], Oct. 31, 2001, Wednesday, p. A12.

[12] Mark Mazzetti, “C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden,” New York Times, Jul. 4, 2006, p. A4, <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html>. For an argument that the real Osama bin Laden in fact died sometime in Dec. 2001, see David Ray Griffin, Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? Northampton, Mass.: Olive Branch Press, 2009.

Of course, according to the “official” story, the details of which, like so many other fairy tales, are prone to variation, Marvel Comics’s …er, I mean, the Navy’s Seal Team Six assassinated bin Laden and then the remains were taken aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and “slid off [the vessel] into the sea… because no country would accept bin Laden’s remains…”. According to Jim Garamone, “Bin Laden Buried at Sea,” American Forces Press Service, May 2, 2011, <http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=60124>.]

However, according to the hacker group Anonymous, a leaked intelligence email reveals that “Bin Laden WAS NOT buried at sea, but flown to the U.S. for cremation at secret location…”. According to Thomas Durante, Daily Mail [U.K.], Mar. 7, 2012, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111001/Osama-bin-Laden-WAS-NOT- buried-sea-flown-US-cremation-leaked-emails-reveal.html>.

[13] See “Usama bin Laden,” F.B.I., Jun., 1999, updated Nov., 2001, <https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden>.

[14] “Bin Laden Says He Wasn’t Behind Attacks,” CNN, Sept. 17, 2001, <http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/inv.binladen.denial/index.html>.

[15] Osama bin Laden, statement, Al Jazeera [Qatar]; quoted in ibid.

[16] Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget, New York: Warner Books, 1991, back matter; archived online at <https://books.google.com/books/about/Blank_Check.html?id=S7CRPwAACAAJ>.

[17] See David C. Martin, Wilderness of Mirrors, reprint ed., Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2003 [orig. New York: Harper & Row, 1980], p. 10.

[18] At the outer-limits of plausibility, it has even been suggested that ISIS is being led by an Israeli intelligence “mole.” "The leader of the radical Islamic State (IS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been reputed to be a Mossad-trained operative whose real name is Elliot Shimon, the son of Jewish parents. This information is said to have originated from 1.7 million pages of top-secret documents recently released by National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden and made public by Iranian intelligence. Arabic Internet radio website 'Ajyal.com' and the Arabic news website 'Egy-press' were also early sources before the news went viral. Although it cannot be conclusively verified at this point, evidence points in that direction." Pete Papaherakles, “Is ‘IS’ a CIA-Mossad Creation?” American Free Press, Aug. 28, 2014, <http://americanfreepress.net/?p=19176>.

Admittedly, this might be disinformation (or “noise”). The U.S. people seem to be a primary target of propaganda. See “U.S. Military Stoking Xenophobia in Iraq,” UPI, Apr. 10, 2006 and Carla Anne Robbins, “Spin Control: U.S. Has Early Priority: Managing Its Message,” Wall Street Journal, Oct 4, 2001, p. A.1. For more information, see James Bamford’s books The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America’s Most Secret Agency, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [U.K.], 1982; New York: Penguin, 1983 and The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, New York: Doubleday, 2008.

There is no rational basis for persisting in the notion that Iraq had WMD at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003

There is no rational basis for persisting in the notion that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Below, please find my substantiation of the above conclusion, drawing from FOX NEWS, the JERUSALEM POST, and comments from George W. BUSH himself as well as other Bush administration officials. In other words, the conclusion that Iraq did not possess WMD can be justified from sources with which even neoconservatives (of the sort that advanced the case for Iraq "regime change" by asserting that Saddam did possess WMD), and their sympathizers, cannot easily quibble.

Fox News reported, on January 12, 2005:

"The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has quietly concluded without any evidence of the banned weapons that President Bush cited as justification for going to war, the White House said Wednesday."

("Officials: Search Is Over for Iraq WMD," Fox News | Wednesday, January 12, 2005, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144143,00.html)

The Jerusalem Post reported:

John McCain, in discussing the possibility of war with Iran on the TV show "Hardball", admitted that justifying such a war would be difficult owing to the present 'credibility gap' neoconservatives have and "which was created after President George W. Bush justified the invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" that did not exist. Plainly, there would not now be a "credibility gap" if Bush's primary war justification had been vindicated.

("McCain: War with Iran would be hard sell," JPOST.COM STAFF | Apr 16, 2008 9:58 | Updated Apr 16, 2008 10:20, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208246581260&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

In an article entitled "Powell regrets UN speech on Iraq WMDs", the former Secretary of State called his infamous speech " '...a blot' on his record" admitting that his speech "will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now." "In the February 2003 presentation to the UN Security Council," recall, "Mr Powell forcefully made the case for war on the regime of Saddam Hussein, offering" what Powell at the time regretably called "'proof' that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The presentation included satellite photos of trucks that Mr Powell identified as mobile bioweapons laboratories. After the invasion, US weapons inspectors reported finding no Iraqi nuclear, biological or chemical weapons." Powell said that "said he felt 'terrible' at being misinformed."

As an aside, Powell also noted that "he had 'never seen evidence to suggest' a connection between the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States and the Saddam regime."

(ABC News Online | Friday, September 9, 2005. 10:28am (AEST), http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1456650.htm)

Still aside, former Vice President, Dick Cheney, remarked that "...there was 'never any evidence' that Saddam Hussein's Iraq played any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. 'On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11, there was never any evidence to prove that,' Cheney said during an interview Monday [June 1, 2009] night with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. 'There was some reporting early on, for example, that Mohammed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official,' Cheney said. 'But that was never borne out.' ..."

(Andy Barr, Cheney: No 'evidence' of Iraq, 9/11 link, Politico, Tue Jun 2, 12:13 pm ET, http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090602/pl_politico/23228/print)

Some have alleged, without citing any concrete evidence, that Saddam did have WMD after all, but that the reason no weapons inspectors have been able to verify this is because Saddam spirited his WMD cache out of Iraq, prior to the invasion. Syria is sometimes mentioned as the WMD destination in these speculations.

(Mention of Syria, in this regard, can perhaps be traced to comments made in April of 2003 by Israel's then prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Baghdad had just fallen to the U.S. and Sharon, for several reasons, was eager to try to direct the U.S. to quickly follow up with an attack on Damascus. In an effort to build momentum for aggression against Syria, Sharon denounced president Assad to the media as "'dangerous' ... and he [Sharon] claimed that Assad had allowed Saddam to move military equipment into Syria just before the Iraq war began." [John J. Mearshimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), p.272.] Sharon has very little credibility, here. Firstly, his comments were plainly motivated by his desire to pursuade the U.S. to attack Syria, for Israel's benefit. And, secondly, Sharon had badly misled the U.S. regarding Iraq. "Following the invasion and the revelation that there were no WMD in Iraq, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Israeli Knesset released separate reports revealing that much of the intelligence Israel gave to the Bush administration was false." [Ibid., pp. 235-6.] And, in the buildup to war with Iraq, "by Sharon's own reckoning, 'strategic coordination between Israel and the U.S. [had] reached unprecedented dimensions." [Ibid., p. 235.])

Note that according to the above-mentioned Fox News article, instead of protesting or even hinting that the WMD were moved to Syria:

President Bush himself "appointed a panel to investigate why the intelligence about Iraq's weapons was wrong".

Take note. Bush tacitly admitted that the intelligence regarding Iraqi WMD was WRONG - as in *not correct*.

Bush tacitly admitted it.

Moreover, Bush's "White House press secretary Scott McClellan said there no longer is an active search for weapons and the administration does not hold out hopes that any weapons will be found."

See, again, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144143,00.html

Hence, according to the Bush White House, the search for Iraqi WMD is over, and none were found.

The CIA's final assessment was in agreement with the White House press secretary:

"CIA's final report: No WMD found in Iraq"

"In his final word, the CIA's top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has 'gone as far as feasible' and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion. 'After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,' wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report he issued last fall."

("CIA's final report: No WMD found in Iraq: Recommends freeing detainees held for weapons knowledge," AP | updated 8:24 p.m. CT, Mon., April 25, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634313/)

As to the notion that WMD were "[transferred] from Iraq to Syria[, one of the CIA report's addenda stated that:] No information gleaned from questioning Iraqis supported the possibility... The Iraq Survey Group believes "it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place. ..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634313/

And on the point of speculated transfers, the opinion of the Iraq Survey Group - that no such transfers took place - was echoed by "intelligence and congressional officials [who have said that] they have not seen any information - never 'a piece,' said one - indicating that WMD or significant amounts of components and equipment were transferred from Iraq to neighboring Syria, Jordan or elsewhere."

("U.S. found no evidence WMD moved from Iraq: No signs that weapons were smuggled, intelligence officials say," AP | updated 1:24 a.m. CT, Mon., Jan. 17, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6834079/)

Again, take careful note: There is no evidence of WMD transfers.

But, then again, plausibly, Iraq was not really attacked over WMD in the first place. Even administration insiders didn't care much about WMD, or a lack thereof, as early as 2003 - the year the Invasion was launched.

Curiously, during his trip to Iraq in July of 2003, a mere four months after the invasion, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz proclaimed to the Associated Press, "I'm not concerned about weapons of mass destruction" and relegated the issue of Iraqi WMD to a "secondary" status, when "President Bush [had] cited [allegations of Iraqi WMD capability] as his main justification for going to war".

("Wolfowitz: WMD secondary issue in Iraq," AP | Posted 7/22/2003 8:44 AM, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-07-22-wolfowitz-iraq_x.htm)

Appallingly, "According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to "plant" WMDs inside the country."

("US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower," Daily Times Monitor | Tuesday, August 12, 2003, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-8-2003_pg1_9)

Such a plan is not without historical precedent. For example, "In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban e/migre/s [emigres], sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

(See: David Ruppe, "U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba," ABC News, May 1, 2001, http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662)

But, whatever the truth of these allegations about planting WMD, retrospect (in the form of a "study by two nonprofit journalism organizations") has revealed "that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks."

That is, Bush and other related administration personnel issued statements which are now, in hindsight, and in many cases through investigation (such as the hundreds of millions of dollars search for WMD in Iraq) known to be false.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study

An interesting question, then, is whether the Bush administration knowingly (i.e., intentionally) issued false statements, possibly, as the above "study concluded that the statements 'were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.' ..."; or whether the Bush administration was merely woefully incorrect.

But, the key point - about which there can be no argument - is that the Bush administration turned out to have been wrong - whether innocently or not.

It is worth mentioning, however, that the Bush White House's track record on lying is not stellar.

For instance, "The Environmental Protection Agency's internal watchdog says White House officials pressured the agency to prematurely assure the public that the air was safe to breathe a week after the World Trade Center collapse. The agency's initial statements in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were not supported by proper air quality monitoring data and analysis, EPA's inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, says in a 155-page report released late Thursday. An e-mail sent just one day after the attacks, from then-EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher's chief of staff to senior EPA officials, said "all statements to the media should be cleared" first by the National Security Council, the report says. Approval from the NSC, which is chaired by President Bush and serves as his main forum for discussing national security and foreign policy matters with his senior aides and Cabinet, was arranged through an official with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the report said. That council, which coordinates federal environmental efforts, in turn "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones," the inspector general found. For example, the report found, EPA was convinced to omit from its early public statements guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete. ...The White House directed EPA to add and delete information..."

(JOHN HEILPRIN, "EPA influenced by White House on air quality statements," The Associated Press, State & Local Wire August 22, 2003, Friday, BC cycle; cf.: "Spinning 9/11: The White House toned down EPA reports on air quality after terrorist attacks," The Times Union, THREE STAR EDITION, (Albany, NY; The Hearst Corporation), August 26, 2003 Tuesday, MAIN, Pg. A14.)

The Bush administration has also misrepresented paid advertisements, supportive of Bush's policies, for news stories.

(See, for example, Andrew Buncombe, "Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV',"
Independent, Monday, 29 May 2006,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bush-planted-fake-news-stories-on-american-tv-480172.html?service=Print
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bush-planted-fake-news-stories-on-american-tv-480172.html )

OBJECTION!

Someone might object that Fox News reported that WMD WERE found after all. And, indeed, at one point, Fox News touted the discovery of "500 WMDs" inside of Iraq. The article quotes Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) as declaring: "We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons."

("Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq," FOXNews.com | Thursday, June 22, 2006
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2006/06/22/report-hundreds-wmds-iraq/

But, regarding the 'discovery' "...the Pentagon and outside experts stressed that ... [these "WMD" were in fact 500] abandoned shells, many found in ones and twos, [that they] were 15 years old or more, [that] their chemical contents were degraded, and [most importantly, that] they were unusable as artillery ordnance." Even the Fox article acknowledges that the shells "contain[ed] degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent".

Hence, the '500 WMD' were unusable shells that dated back to Iraq's war with Iran.

A box of unusable shells was discovered - shells which dated from the era of the Iran-Iraq war.

"Since the 1990s, such 'orphan' munitions, from among 160,000 made by Iraq and destroyed, have turned up on old battlefields and elsewhere in Iraq, ex-inspectors say. In other words, this was no surprise."

And this was not corroboration of the Bush Administration's allegations regarding Iraqi WMD capability.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-believing-wmd,0,5878038.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

However, despite the fact that the White House has acknowledged publicly that WMDs were never located; and despite the fact that the CIA's official report not only stated that WMD were never found, but also, that WMDs were in all likelihood NOT transferred to Syria; and despite the fact that even President Bush himself tacitly acknowledged the falsity of the "Intelligence" regarding Iraq's WMD; lamentably:

"Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD"

This disregard for the results of careful investigatiion, however, is explicable as a psychological phenomenon. Repeated claims become familiar and take on an aura of truth. And there have been many "repeaters", for example "a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office".

This "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up" mentality is also, I must remark, a by-product of intentional exposure to psychological warfare mechanisms. And, as the Wall Street Journal reported as early as October of 2004, in the wake of 9/11: "The Pentagon...has begun deploying forces to mount psychological operations, or 'psy-ops'"

(Carla Anne Robbins, "Spin Control: U.S. Has Early Priority: Managing Its Message," Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition, New York, N.Y.: Oct 4, 2001, p. A.1.)

And, as the UPI reported in a wire report on April 10, 2006:

"'US Home Audience' Admitted Target of US Military Propaganda"

("U.S. military stoking xenophobia in Iraq," UPI, UPI NewsTrack TopNews, April 10, 2006.)

But, let us simply end where we began, and remind readers that even Fox News, which has often been Bush's defender over these past 8 years, now reports that no WMD were ever found in Iraq.

The search is over.

Even Fox News now reports that the search for WMD ended without turning up any.

Officials: Search Is Over for Iraq WMD
Fox News / AP | Wednesday, January 12, 2005
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144143,00.html

Anyone still advancing the notion that Iraq had WMD is either ignorant or deranged. And those still placing their faith in speculations of WMD transfers to Syria or elsewhere are simply advancing a position that even former President Bush never publicly propounded and for which there is no evidence. Being a lone voice, however, does not automatically render one incorrect, of course. But, it certainly does relocate the "burden of proof".

Until or unless solid evidence can be brought forth, contrary to the evidence and testimony cited briefly herein, and much other evidence besides, the positions that Iraq had WMD or that it transferred WMD out of the country, simply should not be rationally believed.

- Matthew J Bell (Newly Updated July 2009)