Geopolitics

WMD’s Revisited: The Massive Disinformation Campaign
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Issue Net Edition | Date : 03 Mar , 2017

Fourteen years after the grand invasion of Iraq by USA — what became known as the second Gulf War — there is still a lot of disinformation pertaining to WMD’s in Iraq.  Recall that one of the reasons the USA gave to invade Iraq was the “proven” presence of WMDs that threatened to be used by a mad dictator on God-fearing, God-loving humans.  The general thread of events as reported by the media “proved” in the media, not in the courts, that since no WMDs were found, there simply were no WMDs, thus decrying and belying the legitimacy of USA’s invasion of Iraq.

American media is much respected around the world.  But, with what they are doing by misleading and misinforming the public and world…

It is incredible how this “spin” came to be thrust on the world, in a massive disinformation campaign within the “free” world, that rivals the propaganda machinery of Goebbels, the disinformation practiced by closed countries such as China, or even the propaganda spread by the Indian government on civil rights and separatist movements inside the country.  This article reveals facts and evidence that Iraq did, indeed, have weapons of mass destruction.  Though the capability was eroded and diminished, there is no doubt that those weapons were present in Iraq.  Saddam Hussein of course could not use them because that would have simply proved to the rest of the world that Iraq had them, a fact he was denying, thereby compelling Hussein to lose the moral ground altogether.

The Media

The same media that bashes Trump created the common perception that George Bush was a “liar” in the excuses he gave to invade Iraq, even though Congress authorized the Iraq invasion[1].  In their desperation to bash the Republican Party, the media, which has come to be controlled by elements that aim to divide Americans from within by promoting liberal and anti-national ideologies, comes to spin political statements with alarming scare at how the Republicans are misleading Americans and the world at large.

Because the American media is considered as the free bastion of a free society, American media is much respected around the world.  But, with what they are doing by misleading and misinforming the public and world, much needs to be said about them.  It is thus not unbelievable when Donald Trump criticizes the media for overtly biased reporting.  The concern with what the media reports is a common concern among billions of people worldwide, which is what makes Trump a mainstream candidate in the USA, because 70% in the USA believe the media deceives them.   But, for long, people have known how the media can be used to “convincingly” deceive the world’s public.

In the case of WMDs in Iraq, people heard from the media about the non-finding of WMDs in Iraq and immediately concluded that no WMDs existed.

It is well known that a falsehood that is repeated multiple times becomes manifested as a truth.  So, it was with news reporting of WMDs.  The liberal media, particularly CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NPR, CBS, and NBC promoted the notion that no WMDs were found.  People who watched the above news channels were much less likely to believe that WMDs were found in Iraq.[2]  That said, 33% of all respondents who watched FOX news believed that WMDs were found in Iraq.[3]

The Media and Trump

In explanation, when Trump says that Mexicans have illegally entered the USA, after which many of them have committed crimes, murders, and rapes, the media “spins” these words to report that Trump calls all Mexican as murderers and rapists.  When Trump says that America has protected Europe for much too long at their own expense, and wants NATO member countries to pay their fair share of supporting American troops in Europe, the media “spins” this to say that Trump wants to break up USA’s relations with NATO.

When Trump says we must temporarily halt Moslem immigration, and increase governmental scrutiny of Moslems seeking immigration to USA, because all modern-day terrorism is Moslem terrorism – from Al-Qaeda to ISIS to LeT and JeM, etc. – the media “spins” this to report that Trump “hates” Moslems and Islam.  And, let’s not even go into womens’ issues where the media paints Trump as anti-women, when, instead, he loves them very much.  Combining the Mexican rhetoric with the Moslem rhetoric, the media paints Trump as a racist without any logic or arguable reason to back their assertions, casting Trump in a mold that goes against the very central values of American society and values, thus aiming to “shame” the public to oppose him.

…most people equate WMD’s to nuclear weapons.  But, that is patently wrong: WMDs include biological weapons, chemical weapons, radiological weapons, and other weapons that can cause mass damage to the public.

Using voice and tone fluctuations, and shame and laughter to tilt reasoning in their favor, the media makes its deliveries sound “convincing.”  In this way, the media brainwashes a whole country and a whole world.  However, nothing can arguably be more dangerous than this.  Thus, the input of researchers, professors, and analysts is sent down the drain because very few read expert analysis, while virtually everyone watches TV and many read the newspapers where the same media continues unashamedly bashing the truth.

Logic set Aside for WMDs in Iraq

Thus, it is a strange reasoning in a strange world where black is made to look like white, where day is passed off as night, and where falsehood is portrayed as truth.  Ask anyone whether it happens that the guilty are judged non-guilty, and the non-guilty are convicted, or murderers are acquitted while innocents are hanged.  The answer is a resounding yes to anyone you ask.  This even happens in the public court systems all over the world, so let alone where the media acts as judge and jury.  Does it not happen that when the murder weapon is not found, it is judged that the crime was not committed?  But does that make the murderer honest?

Mathematically speaking, Bayes’ theorem focuses on analyzing the probabilities of events given identical outcomes.  For instance, given two possible alternatives – being guilty or not guilty – there are still identical outcomes of conviction and acquittal.  Subsequently, posterior probabilities can be found for, say, acquitting a person when she is guilty, or convicting a person when he is not guilty.  This is the classic Bayes’ theorem that has been used in forensic science and admitted in courts for more than 150 years.

In the case of WMDs in Iraq, people heard from the media about the non-finding of WMDs in Iraq and immediately concluded that no WMDs existed. After all, couldn’t the public and other “famous” analysts think that any WMDs could have been trashed, washed into the river, burnt, buried underground, or shipped away to another place for safe keeping?  Why jump to conclusions?  The false logic concerning not finding WMDs and extending it to believe that no WMDs existed is alarming.  Even educated people and respectable security analysts fall into this trap.

There is no doubt that Iraq had hundreds of SCUD missiles.  Hence, the problem about WMDs is not in what the USA and Britain asserted, but in what the mass public did not understand.

What are WMDs?

So, first of all, millions of people learned about “WMD” only when that word started to appear in the media, not having had even the slightest cognizance of that acronym[4].  Many millions more never fully understood what a WMD is, believing it only to mean nuclear weapons.  So quickly do educated analysts jump to conclusions that it is astonishing they do so.  And, even educated people very quickly interrupt a discussion with authority and assertion, and a snicker and a scoff, to say”But WMDs were never found!” thereby squelching all discussion.

But, yellow cake is like cow dung that can be hidden in farms, under a wagon, or washed into a river.  How can yellow cake be detected even though the UN sent a special detection task force?  It is egregious to believe that the task force was able to look everywhere.  In fact, the task force admitted that they could not find WMDs “anywhere they looked.”  This surely does not mean by any logic that they looked everywhere and that Iraq never had WMDs.

Now, the shocking revelation: most people equate WMD’s to nuclear weapons.  But, that is patently wrong: WMDs include biological weapons, chemical weapons, radiological weapons, and other weapons that can cause mass damage to the public. And, missiles such as Pershing II and the SCUD are considered weapons of mass destruction.[5]   There is no doubt that Iraq had hundreds of SCUD missiles.  Hence, the problem about WMDs is not in what the USA and Britain asserted, but in what the mass public did not understand.

…an abundance of information is available on the internet on how the West themselves gave Iraq WMDs, and how Iraq could not finally account for all of them after the First Gulf War.

Facts of WMDs

In this regard, the following additional facts deserve painful attention, in a nutshell:

  • In 1981, the Israelis bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear facility, but nuclear material, centrifuges, and intellectual capacity remained with Iraq.
  • Pakistan’s AQ Khan continued to supply Iraq and Libya with nuclear know-how.[6]
  • The US themselves gave biological and chemical weapons to Iraq soon after Iran started gaining the upper hand in 1983 in the Iraq-Iran war.  In fact, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary under President George Bush was USA’s special envoy sent by President Reagan in 1983 to sell those weapons to Saddam Hussein.[7]  Included in this sales list were anthrax, the bubonic plague, West Nile virus, botulism, and insecticides that were used as chemical weapons against the Shias, Kurds, and Iranians.
  • In the 1970s, Saddam Hussein started a clandestine nuclear weapons program.  Despite Israelis bombing the nuclear reactor in 1981, Iraq continued to get centrifuges from Germany up to 1989.
  • As part of the Muthana State Establishment, codenamed Project 922, German firms helped build Iraqi build chemical weapons laboratories, bunkers, and production factories in the early 1980s, under cover of a pesticide plant.  Various German firms sent more than 1,000 tons of precursors to mustard gastabun, and sarin, among other. This work allowed Iraq to produce 150 tons of mustard agent and 60 tons of Tabun, continuing throughout the 1980s.  German firms also equipped Iraq to manufacture botulin toxin and mycotoxin for germ warfare. Laboratory equipment and other information was provided, involving many German engineers.[8],[9] In fact, an abundance of information is available on the internet on how the West themselves gave Iraq WMDs, and how Iraq could not finally account for all of them after the First Gulf War.
  • After the first Gulf War, the US destroyed massive quantities of chemical weapons.  But, not all those weapons could be located.  Hence, a deficit was evident that wasn’t accounted by the amounts Iraq had used against its own Shias and Kurds in the late 1990s, which meant Iraq still had those chemical weapons.
  • In 1999, after non-cooperation by the Iraqi regime in the UNSCOM investigation, the Unites States withdrew UN and IAEA inspectors.  In 1999, The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) reported that large quantities of WMD material were yet unaccounted for.[10]
  • In 2003, Hans Blix reported that little to no progress had been made in accounting for the remaining materials, which the Iraqi regime claimed had been destroyed.[11]
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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Dr Amarjit Singh

is an independent security analyst.

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2 thoughts on “WMD’s Revisited: The Massive Disinformation Campaign

  1. Please Sir, remember at least 3 elements which contradict your statement that there was WMDs in Irak ready for use (which was the FALSE reason given by USA and GB to launch their own war on Irak, focusing on nuke ones):
    1) the satement, made by France in front of of the UN at the time the USA were trying to build a coalition, that no WMD was available or ready for use in Irak and that the USA statement was false
    2) the declaration by former UK PM, Tony Blair in 2015 of his mistake on the Iraki war
    3) As you righfully state, no WMD was found post invasion by the envoys searching said WMD. this was not only US news but WW ones.

    In conclusion, the war on Sadam Hussein / Irak was merely a lie from the US falcons surrounding Bush

    • France was not a reliable party because they were vehemently against the US invasion in the first place. Now, they have to themselves suffer from terrorist attacks, and are learning the reality of the situation (we hope).

      Tony Blair was simply pandering to UK voters, many, many years after the invasion and after he was out of office, when he had even lesser intelligence while when he was in office.

      You forgot to note I wrote that WMDs were found post invasion. That was the bottom line and you failed to read that part. But, thank you for comment, which helped me clarify the situation for readers.

      In addition, if you depend solely on the media for your news, you may not have the real news.

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