# CIA - No WMDs; What a fuckin' surprise **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 6, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941 "2004-10-06T23:03:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/41 "2004-10-07T23:55:40Z")
Scott Ritter hates our freedoms. Has years of connection to such radical/liberal groups as the United States Marines. Poor sumbitch. Did his damndest to do his job and got shit on like an outhouse mouse. Remember the crap they were dumping on him. For telling the truth, doing his duty and being a stand-up guy. Now, I’m not gonna say I like the guy, or anything, seems wound a bit too tight for my tastes. But he sure deserved better than he got. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/42 "2004-10-08T00:04:40Z")
> [@Skopo](#): > > I saw that, too–it was [David Kay](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=13&u=/afp/us_iraq_weapons_kay), the former WMD inspector. He also said:Of course, Bush and Cheney _still_ aren’t listening, and in fact are trying to spin the report so that it seems to justify the war: [Bush Defends Iraq Invasion Despite Report](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=4&u=/ap/us_iraq_weapons) So now it’s Food For Oil? Dammit! How damn stupid is MY country, if after all the changed excuses (flat out lies), we still buy this horseshit?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/43 "2004-10-08T00:20:04Z")
That Ritter speach is sweet. He’s one pissed off mofo. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/44 "2004-10-08T00:24:54Z")
Oh well, that co worker I pitted a while back tried to pull a new one. He had a crappy piece of paper on which he had incoherently scrawled the number “80”. Wandered into my cage and proclaimed that “the official military website in charge of such things” had done a survey and found 80 percent of the people support Bush. Of course, with no web URL or any other info or backup. People, you should have seen his face when I handed him his own personal copy of the CIA report, with all the “not indicated” “none found” “no evidence” underlined for his convenience. It was priceless. Even better, I did it with his own shop steward in the immediate area. He didn’t want to read it, but the silence was very enjoyable. [sub]Revenge IS a dish best served cold[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/45 "2004-10-08T00:30:27Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > At what point in time do you let go of this silly notion that he has some WMD buried in the sand? The people on the ground going over every square inch for the past year just concluded he didn’t have anything. > > What will it take for you to give it up and face reality? Pardon me, but reality? I don’t think you are acquainted with it. Are you aware how big Iraq is? 168,869 square miles. That’s bigger than California. More than half the size of Texas. Think you could search all California, every square inch, in just a year, and be guaranteed to find an underground warehouse of a few dozen plastic barrels of sarin? Every square inch? Even every square mile? In a year? How about five years?Can’t be done. Look how long it took to just find Saddam! And we didn’t have to go out into the middle of a deserted desert to do it. All we had to do was look where people were. Those planes were right under our noses, and the only reason we found them was cause wind erosion exposed part of a tailpiece. And they were made of metal (Titanium, in fact, in the case of the Foxbats), containing electronics, relatively easy to detect compared to WMD. I was involved with an effort here in Hawaii to clear unexploded ordnance from a few square miles of land. I’m aware of the technology available (including air-based and sattelite technology), and how long it took us to search less than five square miles. “Silly notion?” My, my. It’s so easy to determine when someone’s trying to push an intractable argument – they resort to ridicule. There still may be things in Iraq that we haven’t found. Just the idea that they were hiding things that they were _permitted_ to have reinforces the possibility that they would be likely to hide things they weren’t supposed to have. Glad _you’re_ not making political decisions for the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/46 "2004-10-08T00:44:24Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > At what point in time do you let go of this silly notion that he has some WMD buried in the sand? Right after Snakespirit gives up on astral projection and ghosts. For some people, absence of evidence is not only not evidence of absence, it comes pretty close to evidence of existence. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/47 "2004-10-08T00:47:40Z")
**Snakespirit**. David Kay looked for WMD in the following ways. - Offerring millions of dollars, relocation to a country of choice and new identities to informants - Searching for the necessary infrastructure: factories/manufacture; transport; libraries/documentation of scientific expertise; storage; deployment facilities - Searching actual intelligence hotspots. He came up with zip and formed his conclusion largely on the basis of the first 2 ways I’ve mentioned. There are none there. The war is a GOP Hoax. ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/48 "2004-10-08T00:54:34Z")
> [@SnakeSpirit](#): > > There still may be things in Iraq that we haven’t found. Just the idea that they were hiding things that they were _permitted_ to have reinforces the possibility that they would be likely to hide things they weren’t supposed to have. I don’t follow your logic in the above sentence. If someone had their money hidden away in their house, would you say that this “reinforces the possibility” that they also had something they shouldn’t have, like the proceeds of crime, also hidden away. Would it be, in your eyes, sufficient justification to search the place? Is there any evidence that would convince you that there were no WMDs in Iraq - when even Bushco have backed off from that position since the report yesterday? ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/49 "2004-10-08T00:56:02Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > For some people, absence of evidence is not only not evidence of absence, it comes pretty close to evidence of existence. Not for me, though. I know that absence of evidence is proof of nothing. For some people, though, absence of evidence is _proof_ for absence of existence. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/50 "2004-10-08T00:59:07Z")
Huh? Say what? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/51 "2004-10-08T00:59:24Z")
> [@SnakeSpirit](#): > > Glad _you’re_ not making political decisions for the U.S. I guess you must wish Bush wasn’t either. [http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041007/D85ISTE80.html](http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041007/D85ISTE80.html) > [@](#): > > On Thursday, the president used the clearest language to date nailing the question shut: “Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there,” Bush said. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/52 "2004-10-08T01:01:43Z")
This Thursday? Like after the CIA report nailed his sorry lying ass? Oh never mind, now Saddam was abusing the Food For Oil. Right. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/53 "2004-10-08T01:02:43Z")
> [@sevastopol](#): > > There are none there. The war is a GOP Hoax. I believe the war was, well a Bush hoax, not necessarily the whole GOP. I think he just wanted to finish the job dad had started – totally personal reasons. But I know that if you really want to hide something, and have time to plan, you can hide it so it’d never be found. That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/54 "2004-10-08T01:03:28Z")
He is still a lying, reptilian, no-balls piece of shit. Trying to blame Intelligence for reports he didn’t read, or chose to ignore. No balls. Wuss. Girly man. Hopefully ex President very soon. I hope the press crucifies him. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/55 "2004-10-08T01:05:08Z")
Good God, **Snakespirit** , even the Liar-in-Chief and Dick Cheney admit there weren’t WMDs! ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/56 "2004-10-08T01:05:44Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I guess you must wish Bush wasn’t either. Bet your ass. Even if weapons of mass destruction do turn up, we had no business going into Iraq. And we have no business staying there, either. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/57 "2004-10-08T01:19:05Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > I don’t follow your logic in the above sentence. If someone had their money hidden away in their house, would you say that this “reinforces the possibility” that they also had something they shouldn’t have, like the proceeds of crime, also hidden away. Would it be, in your eyes, sufficient justification to search the place? Must be because Zombies ate your brain. Your logic is flawed. If somebody hides money, they hide stuff, and they may have more things hidden, as well. Jewelry, keys, other valuables, similar things. If someone hides weapons of war, they hide weapons of war, and may have other weapons of war hidden. Simple, direct, logic. What you present is a leap of suspicion, not logic. > [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > Is there any evidence that would convince you that there were no WMDs in Iraq - when even Bushco have backed off from that position since the report yesterday? There is evidence that there _were_ WMDs in Iraq. Then, after the Gulf War I think, Iraq claimed they got rid of them. But they never offered evidence thereto, and continually stalled and harassed the UN inspectors when the UN was trying to perform their inspections. We know they had WMDs at one time. Either they used them all up, deliberately destroyed them, otherwise disposed of them (given or sold them), or hid them for future contingencies. I don’t trust Saddam any more than I trust Bush. Or Kerry. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/58 "2004-10-08T01:21:19Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > Good God, **Snakespirit** , even the Liar-in-Chief and Dick Cheney admit there weren’t WMDs! And now all of a sudden you start believing them? Why? Because they are saying something you want to hear? Heh, heh, maybe _this_ is the big “October Surprise!” ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/59 "2004-10-08T01:22:05Z")
But Snake, Bush just said there are no weapons. Now it’s all about Food For Oil. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941/60 "2004-10-08T01:29:28Z")
> [@SnakeSpirit](#): > > Heh, heh, maybe _this_ is the big “October Surprise!” You inadvertantly raise an interesting question. Why the hell _did_ Bush let this report come out before the election? Did they decide that a release in mid november would poison a second term? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cia-no-wmds-what-a-fuckin-surprise/267941.md?page=4)