New York Times interview

I just got off the phone with the New York Times journalist Scott Shane. We had a good conversation and I appreciate his interest. One of the things he brought up was my motivation for what I am doing here on this blog. I wanted to make sure this was clear to all my readers.   

As a former Iraq Survey Group member, I saw evidence, with my own little eyes, that was impossible to fake, that was impossible to interpret in any way other than this:

Shortly before the war, weeks, or months, not years, Saddam had in his possession a limited quantity of WMD.

That is all I can say until the proof is released. It is not my place to go public with this information until that time.

   

UPDATE: Some on the left and even in government are claiming there is nothing new in these documents, which is why the AP, ABC News, and FoxNews are running the "Russia gave intel to Saddam" story now, because there is nothing new that you didn't already know. Because we all new that already, right?

UPDATE: FYI, NYT article runs on Monday  Tuesday

Comments

[retire05]

Mr. Robison, I think it would be of interest to your readers (and me, your biggest fan) exactly what you did with the Irar Survey Group or at least what the responsibilities of the Group was.
While American readers know of these organizations, many do not know the responsibilities of such groups.

I also want to thank you for what you are doing on this blog. Many of us, nay, I would say most of us, believe that the war in Iraq was necessary for our national security but we hear only what is put out by the MSM and this is "Bush lied, people died".

None the less, please keep letting us know what the documents say. And since I am getting a lot of "these aren't even secret documents" since they are marked NIV, could you please educate us on the difference between NIV and declassified.

Again, many thanks for this site.

[Ray Robison]

retire05,

thanks for the interest and your kind words.

I worked in the media section which analyzed, digitized, and archived Iraqi audio and video. In fact, many of the digital copies of tapes that are being put up on the FMSO website are ones that my section created. Of course, while digitizing the video we saw the video.

In general, the Iraq Survey Group was put together to locate WMD. Of course, no WMD was found, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there at the start of the war. FoxNews website has a timeline of UN inspections just prior to the war and prohibited items were being found and destroyed by UN inspectors as of 15 March, 2003 which is 3 days before the war started aAnd over 12 years after Saddam agreed to disclose and account for all WMD and related equipment.

As to these documents being NIV, many of the items are actually PIR which is a priority information request. They are marked right on the folder images in the files.

The original plan of Negroponte was to release the NIV first but he must have changed the plan.

[Mark]

Ray, nice job on getting in the Times. Can you post the story you are in when it comes out?
Mark

[Mark]

http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2006/ipp.pdf
Ray, this is a military report on Saddam's regimes view of the war. It is what that book was based on. I am reviewing it not and it appears to have some good stuff.

Mark

[Ray Robison]

Mark, thanks, but thats alot of typing andas umy have noticed i donut type so good.

[Ray Robison]

mark, thanks, i wanted to lok at that study, may get to this weekend

[Kim]

It seems to me that the document designated 2RAD-2004-601189 bears attention. It carried the Synopsis (unfortunately, I did not record the source of the synopsis) "Abu-Zubaydah Statement on the Capability of al-Qaidah to Manufacture and Deliver Nuclear Weapons to the U.S."

It would also be useful for us to try to put this stuff into context if the dates on the documents (if any) were included in the translations – not the dates the translations were released – as well as any document number which has been assigned, so we can coordinate the information.

Thank you for your yeoman’s work!

[swamp6]

Ray,
Fantastic job. Keep up the good work.
I go out of town for a week, come back and check your blog and your in the NYT, awesome!

-swamp6

[Online Pharmacy]

Hi :D