Tony Macrini KNEW That Saddam Had No Chemical Weapons

I listend to Tony Macrini (morning talk radio host in WNIS in Norfolk) as I often do on my drive to work in the morning. Tony is a (big L) Libertarian and is vehemently against the War on Terror in Iraq. He KNEW that Saddam had no WMDs, that "Bush Lied" etc.

Recently he almost hit the trifecta, claiming not only that there were no WMDs in Iraq (despite the 500 gas shells found there) but that the reason given for the Iraq war was that Saddam was going to invade the US. If he had equated the religious Right to Islamofacists he would have won the trifecta. Sorry Tony, you don't get the kewpie doll.

But for those who still believe that moving the goals posts and setting up straw men will win the argument in the end, here are two posts on Power Line that should make you hesitate just a moment before saying with assurance what Saddam had up his sleeve before the invasion.

From Paying Bonuses, Right Up to the End:

This eight-page document is a list of employees in various categories who received bonuses listed as "5,000"--dinars, I assume. Most of the categories are what you would expect: "Office of the General Director," "Finance," "Consultant Office," etc. Presumably the names under each of these headings are the employees in those departments who received bonuses.

But then we have these categories: "Chemical;" twelve employees got bonuses. "Nuclear;" nine employees got bonuses. "Missiles;" seven employees got bonuses. "Biological;" nine employees got bonuses. I suppose those words might mean something other than the obvious. But what?

And Iraq Was Hiding Chemical Weapons Facilities in 1999

Mr. Muhammad indicated that the International Inspection Committee would be inspecting the Al-Rashad location, among other locations, looking for non-conventional weapons and other chemical agents. He added that the following procedures were implemented on the fifth month of this year [TC: May 1999] in order to prevent disclosure of the locations:
1- Relocate all I[raqi] I[ntelligence] S[ervice] documents

2- Relocate all IIS chemical materials and equipment

3- Designate a group of employees from the Ministry of Health to replace the IIS employees

The "Saddam was in a box and didn't have any plans or ability to make WMDs" is not only non-sensical, it is now turning out to have been documented not to be true.

Oh, and that "box" that Saddam was in?

Outside the box:

Many of those who argue that the U.S. did not need to take military action against Saddam Hussein claim that he posed no threat because he was "in his box." But the idea that an anti-American psychopath like Saddam would be content to reside in a box created by the U.S. is highly implausible and contrary to the evidence. Many of the things that Saddam did in the late 1990s and early 2000s (sending folks to Niger to talk about obtaining yellow-cake, establising contacts with al-Qaeda, subsidizing Palestinian terrorsts) can be viewed as an attempt to operate outside the box.

Now Fox News reports that "an Arab regime, possibly Iraq, supplied how-to manuals for Arab operatives working throughout Afghanistan before 9/11, and provided military assistance to the Taliban and Al Qaeda." Fox News bases this conclusion on "an apparent training manual unearthed in captured Iraqi government computer files."