The British intelligence service MI6 and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had, a few months before the start of the invasion of Iraq, information that Saddam Hussein did not possess active weapons of mass destruction. But the warnings of two senior Iraqi officials were ignored, according to a major investigation by the British BBC.
The information used 10 years ago to justify the invasion was based on "lies" and "wishful thinking". The BBC points out that the British and American authorities have ignored information from senior Iraqi officials, which suggested that Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, but accepted information from lower-ranking officials that matched what President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to hear.
Lord Butler, the head of the inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, said he later uncovered a previously overlooked report revealing that an MI6 official had met in Jordan with one of Iraq's top intelligence officials, Tahir Habush al-Tikriti. Habush told MI6 that there were no more weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"It's a document we didn't notice," said Butler. "But when we inquired about it, we were told that it was not a significant document, as the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) dismissed it as Saddam Hussein's way of deceiving us."
Iraq's foreign minister at the time, Naji Sabri, told the head of the CIA cell in Paris, Bill Murray, through an intermediary a few months before the invasion, that Iraq had "virtually no" weapons of mass destruction. British intelligence also rejected that information.
Busts of Saddam Hussein toppled in Baghdad
"They were not happy," Murray said. "They just didn't believe it. There was a constant effort to find intelligence to support preconceived notions."
Lord Butler did not even know that the CIA was in direct contact with the Iraqi foreign minister.
However, the CIA and MI6 were prepared to believe sources such as Rafed al-Janabi, a chemical engineer who defected from Iraq to Germany in 1999, and claimed that the seed factory where he worked produced chemical and biological agents. By early 2001, German intelligence had realized that al-Janabia had fabricated part of the story and stopped relying on him. MI6 also judged Al Janabiyah to be a "liar".
However, on the eve of the war, the then American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, referred to his statements during his address to the United Nations. In an interview with the BBC, Rafed al-Janabi admitted that he made up the story.
The BBC tracked down Blair's famous statement that Iraq possessed "chemical and biological weapons that could be activated within 45 minutes". Iraqis in exile in Jordan planned a coup in the mid-1990s, but were warned that Saddam Hussein's government was ready to attack with chemical weapons in less than 45 minutes. That report reached MI6.
The BBC tracked down Blair's famous statement that Iraq possessed "chemical and biological weapons that could be activated within 45 minutes".
The head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, knew that the warning only applied to weapons that could be used on the front, but the warning was not included in the MI6 file and Prime Minister Blair was not informed. "This information was interpreted as if these missiles could be fired at Cyprus, and that made them sensational. The wrong conclusion is the result of sloppy intelligence work," Lord Butler concluded.
The war cost 800 billion dollars
When George W. Bush announced the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the goal was to overthrow the dictator and his alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Also the creation of a functional democracy.
The coalition forces planned to achieve this in a short period of time and for not much money. Instead, the war cost the United States at least $800 billion, 4.000 American lives, 32.000 injured soldiers, nearly nine years of grueling warfare, and the rise to power of an authoritarian government that is marginally better—and, thanks to its close ties to Iran, potentially worse—than the which was overthrown.
Ten years since the invasion, problems with violence and corruption
Burdened by violence, corruption and political instability, Iraq is preparing to mark tomorrow in the utmost discretion the 10th anniversary of the US-British military coalition invasion that overthrew President Saddam Hussein.
According to the Agence France-Presse, in 2013, Iraq is "miles away" from the stable parliamentary democracy promised by US President George Bush when he went to war on March 20, 2003, to obtain alleged weapons of mass destruction. Iraqi authorities, however, are not planning any commemoration for tomorrow. It is more likely that it will be commemorated on April 9, when Baghdad fell.
International forces destroyed the system of government of President Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party. But in 2006, a religious conflict of unprecedented proportions began, and coalition soldiers were drawn into the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis. In that war, the US lost 4.486 soldiers, and Great Britain 179.
However, the highest price was paid by the citizens of Iak. The domestic non-governmental organization "Iraq Body Count" announced on Sunday that at least 112.000 civilians have died in the violence since 2003.
"The conflict is not over. It is still ubiquitous today. The beginning of its outbreak is known, but its end is not in sight," said the organization, adding that between 4.000 and 5.000 people die in Iraq every year.
Sunni insurgents, including the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, are sowing fear among the population in the hope of destabilizing the Shia-dominated government.
In this morning's attacks in and around Baghdad, at least 56 people were killed and around 200 were wounded.
On the political front, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is faced with Sunni protests that have been organized every Friday in Sunni regions since the end of December.
Iraq also has problems with corruption, and Transparency International ranked it 169th out of a total of 176 observed countries. However, observers and diplomats believe that the biggest threat to Iraq's stability is the conflict between Baghdad and the autonomous region in the north, inhabited by Kurds.
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