Positive Liberty

In the last couple of months, as Mike Huckabee surged to contender status, many expressed concern about his role as preacher. Would his faith result in a theocracy? Was he using his faith as a political wedge? Would his faith affect policies ostensibly related to science?

Well, Huckabee’s faith is definitely important. But perhaps not in the way his detractors feared.

In what has to be the dumbest thing uttered by any Republican candidate this season (and there have been some whoppers), Huckabee suggested to Chris Matthews that Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) were probably shipped to Jordan!

As I already pointed out in my last post, I was on vacation while this happened. But miraculously I saw the Huckabee interview live — perhaps God wanted me to see it.

I say miraculously, because I watched only 45 minutes of cable news political coverage during the entire vacation. When I watched this gaffe, I just about fell out of my chair.

BTW, Congrats to Matthews for actually dealing with substance. He actually acted like a real political reporter in possession of a clue (nevertheless, Hardball Delenda Est). Where are these kinds of questions instead of the constant horse race garbage?

As it turns out, Mike Huckabee has great faith… in the conning speculation of Dick Cheney. Evidence is unnecessary when making claims about the goodness of America as she polices the world, and proof of any degree will be unimportant for the tens of thousands who will glom on to spurious claims like “Saddam drove the WMDs out of the country” and repeat the fable back to you. But in case you’re interested, let’s look at the evidence…

About a year ago, I was prompted, by a caller to my radio show, to hunt down the claim of Saddam’s WMDs being shipped out of Iraq — which of course doesn’t make a bit of sense. If he had them, why didn’t he used them?

Of course, he didn’t have them. And contrary to Huckabee’s claim, there were still people who did their homework and knew that there were no WMDs there.

My team at the American Liberty Foundation (now, the Downsize DC Foundation) built a website BEFORE the “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, and our Claim Number 1, with radio ads airing in seven different major U.S. cities, was that Saddam had no WMDs. It was a startling claim at the time (it even provoked the only anonymous death threat directed at me to date), and you can still go to the site we built, www.TruthAboutWar.org, and review our pre-war positions on the veracity of the Bush Administration and the predictions we had for what would happen if our government attacked. All of it might seem old hat by now, but remember, we wrote this BEFORE a missile had been fired at Baghdad. But we weren’t alone. The information was readily available to anyone willing to do some research, rather than get caught up in the hysteria.

I found that the canard in question — that Saddam sent his weapons out of the country — started as a mere possibility offered by Dick Cheney in an interview with Tim Russert. He suggested that perhaps the weapons were loaded unto a caravan of trucks and carted to Syria. It was one of those, “You can’t disprove the existence of any possibility” conjectures. He offered no evidence, and wouldn’t even stand by the suggestion when pressed. It was just a possibility.

But that doesn’t stop the faith-based crowd. A man named Bernie called my show and said I “lacked sense” because a) God wanted us to attack Iraq and b) the weapons had been taken to Syria. There are a bunch of Bernie’s out there. They are radical Jihadists for Jesus (who, btw, blessed peacemakers, and said that the meek would inherit the Earth).

Mike Huckabee is apparently a Jihadist for Jesus.

But getting back to real evidence, consider these quotes that contradict the notion that Hussein ever shipped his WMDs out of the country…

Pre 9-11

Colin Powell, February 2001: “[Saddam] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq.”

Condoleeza Rice, July 2001: “We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”

Pre Iraqi War

2/14/2003
Hans Blix appears before the UN Security Council and says his inspectors have enjoyed uninhibited access to 300 sites over a period of 11 weeks. Everything is in accordance with the Iraqi weapons declaration, and no weapons of mass destruction have been found. He singles out Colin Powells assertion to the UN that trucks found in Iraq are mobile weapons labs, saying that the trucks, photographed weeks apart, could have easily been engaged in “routine activity.”

Post “Mission Accomplished”

5/9/2003
“The truth is that, for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction.” — Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary

5/14/2003
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says that finding WMD is “not crucially important.”

5/29/2003
British journalist Andrew Gilligan reports for the BBC that the September 2002 British dossier on Iraqi WMD, which stated Iraq could launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes, was “sexed up.” He cites a senior British official as his source. In a subsequent article, Gilligan will finger Blair’s communications head Alastair Campbell as the culprit.

6/5/2003
U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix on Iraqi WMD: “In none of these cases were there any weapons of mass destruction, and that shook me a bit, I must say. I thought, my God, if this is the best intelligence they have and we find nothing, what about the rest?”

6/17/2003
CIA analysts write to George Tenet and retract their Niger uranium reporting. “Since learning that the Iraq-Niger uranium deal was based on false documents earlier this spring, we no longer believe that there is sufficient other reporting to conclude that Iraq pursued uranium from abroad.”

But it’s the actions of our government after the attack on Iraq that, IMHO, really condemn the notion that there is ANY evidence that those weapons went portable. Notice the dates for these quotes…

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.
Ari Fleisher
Press Briefing
March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference
March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we’re going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.

Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
Washington Post, p. A27
March 23, 2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.
Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing
March 22, 2003

We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview
March 30, 2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find — and there will be plenty.
Neocon scholar Robert Kagan
Washington Post op-ed
April 9, 2003

But make no mistake — as I said earlier — we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
April 10, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
George W. Bush
NBC Interview
April 24, 2003

There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing
April 25, 2003

We’ll find them. It’ll be a matter of time to do so.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 3, 2003

I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it just now.
Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters
May 4, 2003

We never believed that we’d just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview
May 4, 2003

I’m not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein — because he had a weapons program.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters
May 6, 2003

U.S. officials never expected that “we were going to open garages and find” weapons of mass destruction.
Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview
May 12, 2003

I just don’t know whether it was all destroyed years ago — I mean, there’s no question that there were chemical weapons years ago — whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they’re still hidden.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing
May 13, 2003

Before the war, there’s no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.
Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters
May 21, 2003

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we’re interrogating, I’m confident that we’re going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview
May 26, 2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don’t know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations
May 27, 2003

It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re simply not there.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview
May 30, 2003

Do I think we’re going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there’s a lot of information out there.”
Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency
Press Conference
May 30, 2003

But the kicker of it all — the part that should make us realize that Mike Huckabee is Dan Quayle with a personality and a good wit — is that he suggested the weapons went to Jordan. Jordan is a U.S. ally, and our government relies heavily on their intelligence — perhaps more so than any nation in the region, other than Israel.

Hardball Delenda Est

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