No Cato Institute sobre "Mystery of the Vanishing Weapons"

O Cato Institute, cujo baptismo se deve a um dos fundadores Murray N. Rothbard (ver a origem no nome em "Cato's Letters on Liberty and Property") e tem como lema:

"Individual Liberty, Limited Government, Free Markets and Peace" publica um artigo de Alan Reynolds, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a nationally syndicated columnist.

"The Iraq Survey Group, a team of 1,200 inspectors headed by David Kay, found none of the chemical or biological weapons that had been specifically named by top U.S. officials before the war, nor any of the equally specific equipment, such as mobile labs and unmanned aircraft. What they did find was a single vial of decade-old botulinum in some scientist's fridge, plans to build missiles that could exceed the allowed range and some research programs that were undisclosed in violation of the U.N. deal.

What they did not find was any sign of the biological, chemical or nuclear "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) that U.S. and British governments claimed Iraq possessed in hugely lethal quantities. The group is confident "Iraq did not have a large, ongoing centrally controlled CW (chemical weapons) program after 1991." There is even less evidence of nukes and no evidence of biological agents, unless you count that one little vial.

The stark contrast between what was said about WMD before the war and what has since been found certainly appears to be a massive failure of intelligence, despite what CIA Director George Tenet says.

(...)

The president has clearly been badly served. At some point those who produced the shoddy intelligence about Iraqi WMD, and those who most grossly exaggerated its significance, are going to have to be held accountable. That means doing the honorable thing through a few graceful apologies and timely resignations."