David Gaubatz, a former member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, looked for WMD sites in Iraq after we toppled Saddam, and says that we ignored vast numbers of suspect sites because they were too difficult to get into:
Mr. Gaubatz's new disclosures shed doubt on the thoroughness of the Iraq Survey Group's search for the weapons of mass destruction that were one of the Bush administration's main reasons for the war. Two chief inspectors from the group, David Kay and Charles Duelfer, concluded that they could not find evidence of the promised stockpiles. Mr. Kay refused to be interviewed for this story and Mr. Duelfer did not return email. The CIA referred these questions to Mr. Duelfer.
The new information from the former investigator could also end up helping the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which recently reopened the question of what happened to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Like many current and former American and Israeli officials, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Peter Hoekstra, says is not convinced Saddam either destroyed or never had the stockpiles of illicit weapons he was said to be concealing between 1991 and 2003.
Said Mr. Gaubatz:
"Before we can say there is no WMD in Iraq, we must first look. I have no doubts WMD was and is still in Iraq."
Me too. I'm still waiting for Conventional Wisdom 5.0 on Iraq's WMD.
And if these allegations are true, they will certainly qualify as a major blunder in the conduct of the war. And one with a lot more credibility than most of the non-mistakes we've been accused of committing.
