XPost: atl.general, alt.culture.alaska.sylvia-sullivan   
   From: serial-killer@msnbc.com   
      
   Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN,   
   former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw recounted some of the   
   rationale behind why the Bush administration believed that   
   Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the   
   invasion of Iraq, even noting that President Clinton had also   
   believed in the presence of WMD. (Video below)   
      
   Brokaw related evidence that the Iraqi dictator had tried to   
   deceive Iran into believing he possessed WMD, and noted that the   
   people of Iraq lived in "sheer terror" and were afraid to talk   
   to the NBC anchor when he visited the country during Saddam   
   Hussein's reign.   
      
   After host Piers Morgan asked Brokaw about the difference   
   between America's approach to the war effort in Libya versus its   
   more direct invasion of Iraq, Brokaw noted that a distinction   
   between what the U.S. faced in the two countries was that Saddam   
   Hussein "had the iron fist over that entire country." Brokaw:   
      
   Saddam Hussein really had the iron fist over that entire   
   country, had an enormous military that was there. I was in Iraq   
   several times before the war began, and the sheer terror of   
   people in the streets of Iraq afraid to talk to you in any way   
   because they didn't know whether they would be eliminated and   
   the kind of terror techniques that he unleashed on people, the   
   most innocent people in Iraq for the smallest, slight however he   
   perceived it. So those are two different circumstances.   
      
   The former NBC anchor went on to recount the reasons people   
   believed Iraq had WMD:   
      
   A lot of people believed that he did have weapons of mass   
   destruction. President Clinton did, in fact. I was over there   
   with the U.N. weapons inspector and it was not clear. I would   
   fly over later acres and acres and miles and miles of what they   
   call igloos. These are ammunition storage depots, and General   
   Petraeus said to me one day, "We don't know what's in there."   
   Well, it turns out not much because he was trying to kind of   
   rope a dope Iran, trying to persuade Iran that he had weapons of   
   mass destruction. And my own belief is that some of his colonels   
   generated a lot of paper that indicated they had weapons, they   
   were getting money from him, and some of that money may be   
   stored away somewhere.   
      
   Below is a trancript of the relevant exchange from the   
   Wednesday, December 14, Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN:   
      
   PIERS MORGAN: I mean, certainly Libya was a very, very   
   interesting exercise in the way that America could do these kind   
   of wars, for want of a better phrase, going forward, in the   
   sense that they had a bad guy who'd run a bad regime as Saddam   
   Hussein had done for decades. But rather than go all guns   
   blazing leading the international coalition forces, the   
   Americans took a backseat, and no American soldiers lost their   
   lives. Gaddafi was taken out. What do you think about the   
   changing manner in which American military is now deploying   
   itself?   
      
   TOM BROKAW: That was an easier call for the involvement of the   
   American military as part of a NATO force. Primarily it was air   
   power and some strategic and tactical advice on the ground   
   because there had been an uprising against Gaddafi that was   
   indigenous, that had started in that country.   
      
   We didn't have that in Iraq. Saddam Hussein really had the iron   
   fist over that entire country, had an enormous military that was   
   there. I was in Iraq several times before the war began, and the   
   sheer terror of people in the streets of Iraq afraid to talk to   
   you in any way because they didn't know whether they would be   
   eliminated and the kind of terror techniques that he unleashed   
   on people, the most innocent people in Iraq for the smallest,   
   slight however he perceived it. So those are two different   
   circumstances.   
      
   A lot of people believed that he did have weapons of mass   
   destruction. President Clinton did, in fact. I was over there   
   with the U.N. weapons inspector and it was not clear. I would   
   fly over later acres and acres and miles and miles of what they   
   call igloos. These are ammunition storage depots, and General   
   Petraeus said to me one day, "We don't know what's in there."   
   Well, it turns out not much because he was trying to kind of   
   rope a dope Iran, trying to persuade Iran that he had weapons of   
   mass destruction. And my own belief is that some of his colonels   
   generated a lot of paper that indicated they had weapons, they   
   were getting money from him, and some of that money may be   
   stored away somewhere.   
      
      
   http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/12/15/tom-brokaw-   
   president-clinton-thought-saddam-hussein-had-wmd   
      
          
      
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