Prozac Nation
From the country that brought you “intelligent design”, “the moon landings were faked”, and “scientology”, comes this:
A surprising 41 percent of Americans either believed that the United States had already found WMDs or were not sure. Bush and his top aides may have spurred this confusion with statements that the discovery of two mobile biological weapons laboratories proved Saddam?s guilt.
I note further the continual framing of this “find” as “mobile biological weapons labs”. They are sterile trailers with suspiciously advanced food processors-on-steroids installed. No bugs were found. No evidence. There probably are decrepid phials of nasty little bugs festering in dank Iraqi basements right now, but in the absence of any biological evidence calling these tarted-up trailers “weapons labs” is a reach. A spin. Or if you’re Blair, a little bit of “sexing-up”.
The CIA report reveals considerable ambiguity about the nature of these vehicles. For example, it notes that Iraqi officials?presumably those currently being interrogated?say the trailers were used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather-balloons. (Many Army units float balloons to monitor the accuracy of artillery fire.) In response to this claim, the report states:
Some of the features of the trailer?a gas-collection system and the presence of caustic?are consistent with both bioproduction and hydrogen production. The plant’s design possibly could be used to produce hydrogen using a chemical reaction, but it would be inefficient.
Earlier here.