Former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann gave his account of how President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell took the nation into war in Iraq after claiming the nation possessed weapons of mass destruction

The town hall meeting took place on Oct. 14 at Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown.

According to Thielmann, the Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs (INR) reported to Powell that the Iraqi military was very weak well in advance of a declaration of war by President Bush. They further said Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was dormant, and if Iraq did possess chemical or biological weapons, they posed little danger to their neighbors and none to the U.S.

“Just as I was leaving government, the leaders of our government were building their case for war against Iraq based on a misleading or downright dishonest description of sensitive intelligence information,” Thielmann began. “My task now is to explain to you what happened to make Iraq the ‘mother of all intelligence failures,’ and why that failure has led to so much grief for our nation and its people”.

Hundreds of weapons inspectors were send to Iraq by the U.N. to locate any possible sites where weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were or could have been manufactured. The inspectors found nothing unusual other than an al-Samoud 2 missile exceeding its allowed flight limit by 15 miles in tests.

According to Thielmann, there were no hidden depots of chemical weapons or plants for the production of biological weapons. There was also no sign of facilities where nuclear warheads could be produced.

According to CBS News, the inspectors became so frustrated in their search for WMD that they accused the United States of “sending them on a wild-goose chase.”

But in Feb. 2003 remarks to the United Nations Security Council, Powell mentioned “we know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.”

Bush took the matter further in his subsequent address to the Nation. He explained that “intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq Regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”

He proceeded to state that “the people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.”

The actual war with Iraq began a few weeks later on Mar. 19.

“The statements by both Powell and Bush, which lead to the war with Iraq, were not based on facts, said Thielmann. “The political leadership already knew what the bottom line was going to be before it asked for the Intelligence Community’s judgment. It wanted arguments, not insight, and discounted all contrary analysis.”

The opinion Thielmann came to was that instead of leadership forming theories based on careful reading of provided intelligence provided, they already had conclusions to start out with.

According to U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Ca., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, “they were cherry-picking half-truth and rumors and only highlighting pieces of information that bolstered the administration’s case for war.”

Thielmann could not give a sure answer as to why bush insisted on going to war despite lack of sufficient evidence for WMD in Iraq. But he did offer a few theories.

One involved retaliation by Bush against Saddam Hussein for allegedly having planned a past assassination attempt on his father, former President George H. Bush.

Another possible explanation offered by Thielmann involved better control over Iraq’s large oil supply. He also gave an argument involving raw power.

“Taking care of nations we are friendly with, i.e., Israel, who had a major interest in getting rid of Hussein, is another strong possibility, said Thielmann. “But we will never know for sure.”