Hodge-Podge

First of all, I will probably be slow in posting this week. I'm quite busy.

Secondly, here's a little blurb on the newly released Saddam Hussein Tapes

Saddam Hussein Discusses WMD Tapes
FOX News
Brit Hume (Anchor), Bret Bair Reporting

Bret Bair reported on the more than twelve hours of recordings of Saddam Hussein discussing Iraq’s WMD’s with member of his staff. Bair included interviews of members of a bipartisan intelligence watchdog organization. One of the interviewees was a former UN Weapons inspector.

The report stated that recordings have Hussein speaking on WMD’s between 1991—when the program is said to have halted—to 2002, just prior to the US’s decision to go to war. Hussein received and responded to reports concerning missiles equipped with biological weapon-heads, destroying material within the weapons, shipping some other biological weapons out of factories via “cattle trucks” and most surprisingly, discussion of enriching uranium called “plasma separation,” something that Iraq had claimed to have given up long before the 2003 invasion. One of Hussein’s advisors requested permission to resume the process of “rebuilding our biological weapons stock” following the destruction of the same weapon—in other words, he wanted to rebuild what they had just destroyed under the direction of UN weapons experts.

According to the reports, some have come out saying that this offers no new news. However, a former UN inspector explained that this “fundamentally alters the assessment of Iraq’s WMD program.” He explained that the current official position created by those inspecting Iraq after the 2003 war is that Iraq “must have” ended its weapons program immediately after 1991. He said that this shows that the regime was active in weapons creation.

These tapes seem to validate much of the intelligence the Bush administration pointed to prior to the 2003 invasion. It also validates the accusations the have been made against the regime regarding weapons—Hussein seemingly approved a program to rebuild weapons he had just destroyed. It seems—as many already suspected—that what little destruction/disarming which was done was only used as a way to deceive the international community.

The true implications of these recordings are not yet known. While I am trying to remain neutral during the early stages of this revelation, I cannot help but think that the president has some how been redeemed for his action. I also cannot help but wonder if leading Bush opponents will apologize for calling him a liar and a murderer if, in fact, these revelations turn out to be true and point us to a way of finding the missing weapons. I somehow doubt it.

Forthly, Huge Chavez is just about to reach the peak of my nerves. I just saw on Brit Hume's show that he told Condoleezza Rice, "don't mess with me, girl." Hume also said that he has (in the past) said that Rice is just critical of him because she 'wants to sleep with him.'

Mess with Bush? Ok, I'll let that slide. Make fun of Dick "Shoot-'Em-Up" Cheney for his hunting accident (which I am tired of hearing about)? Ok, I'll roll with it. Tell Condi that she better "not mess with you" and speak to her like that? Then tell her she wants to have sex with you. Disrespect the most intelligent woman in the world? I think not.