Bush falsely claims "we found the weapons of mass destruction" (6/1)

By Ben Fritz

In response to increased criticism that the United States government has so far not found any evidence to support its repeated assertions that there were banned biological, chemical, and/or nuclear weapons in Iraq, President Bush's is now claiming that "we found the weapons of mass destruction."This statement is flat out false according to the evidence presented by his own administration, however. So far, the U.S. has only found evidence of weapons labs that likely could have been used to create biological weapons, but has found no actual weapons banned by the United Nations.

What the United States has found is, in the words of the Washington Post, "two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs." This is an important find, as the production of biological weapons by Iraq was banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions and Secretary of State Colin Powell used their existence as evidence to justify the invasion.

In remarks to Polish television released on Friday, though, President Bush stated that the U.S. has found much more than these labs. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories," he said, according to an Associated Press article. "''They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, we found them."

However, as the Washington Post piece states, "U.S. authorities have to date made no claim of a confirmed finding of an actual nuclear, biological or chemical weapon." The existence of the labs is an important but separate issue. In the midst of a debate about whether the U.S. government misled the public and other governments over its reasons for invading Iraq, the President is now making a patently false claim about evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

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Related links:
-More myths, misconceptions and unanswered questions about the war in Iraq (Brendan Nyhan and Bryan Keefer, 5/28/03)
-Myths and misconceptions about the war in Iraq (Brendan Nyhan and Bryan Keefer, 4/4/03)
-Myths and misconceptions about Iraq (Bryan Keefer, Ben Fritz and Brendan Nyhan, 3/20/03)

6/1/2003 06:57:10 PM EST |

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