NYT: Iraq Was One Year Away from the Bomb
Heard a little something this morning:
Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.
Let me say that again.
Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.
Wait just a minute. The New York Times buries a paragraph like that in a story criticizing President Bush for releasing sensitive information on the web?
If this is true, the failure to find any checmical weapons in Iraq is irrelevant. Saddam was building a nuke, and was just a few months away from getting one.
Shouldn’t that be the lede paragraph? Shouldn’t that be a nice big headline on the front page? Shouldn’t that be something everyone ought to know aobut the Iraq war? Apparently, not in the opinion of the New York Times.
I’ll be unsurprised, but very disappointed if this does get the attention it deserves.
UPDATE: It appears that these “experts” may have been referring to Iraq’s weapons program from 1991. The article doesn’t really give us enought to be sure.
