Three interesting and related stories caught my eye over the last weeks, ones that will thread their way through the months to come. The first was the quiet abandonment by the United States of the search in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The second was the increased number of cancellations of flights, apparently caused by the discovery that Islamic extremists have tested and are able to deliver on ways of assembling bombs in flight. The third was the disgracing and dismissal of Dr AQ Khan, ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, for selling weapons secrets to other countries.

On the first of these, apparently the American team that was scouring Iraq for WMDs has been “quietly withdrawn”. So says the Irish Times. The Observer concurs, revealing that American officials knew there were no WMDs as early as three weeks after the fall of Baghdad. This is despite assertions to the contrary by senior US administration figures and Tony Blair.
Indeed, Dr David Kay, former head of the Iraq survey group, a man who had been a hawk on Iraq and who thought that Saddam had kept banned weapons, says that he now thinks he and others were wrong and that there never were any WMDs.
The Americans will investigate the intelligence, as will the British. But the revelation has many ramifications. In particular, the argument that the Allies invaded Iraq without any hard evidence that there really were WMDs concealed and that the whole thing was all to do with Bush’s determination to do in his father’s old adversary (and oil) gains substance (again).
But also, if the US and the British knew there were no WMDs as early as last May, then the British prime minister’s office must have been aware of the doubts before the outbreak of its feud with reporter Andrew Gilligan and the exposure of the late Dr David Kelly as the source for Gilligan’s claims that the dossier had been ‘sexed-up’ to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Now that feeds into a pretty lively debate in the UK, where a small majority of the public apparently believes that Blair lied.
As for Bush, in an election year, he’s coming under increased pressure. Don’t bet that Bush’s legions of uber-wealthy backers won’t find the funds to have him re-elected, but he won’t get there without a hell of a fight.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, it appears that Dr AQ Khan, ‘father’ of the country’s nuclear weapons programme, has been dismissed after admitting that he sold nuclear information to Iran, Libya and North Korea. North Korea?!?
As we are given to understand, some of his acolytes leaked the facts – basically, they say he’s an arrogant and greedy shit and they hated him and now they’ve sunk him. He has been granted a pardon – based on his enormous popularity in Pakistan – but he’s effectively confined to his house.
Khan is revered amongst Pakistanis. They adore him for ‘giving them back their manhood’ in their conflict with India. But a time may come when he will be revealed to be the vain shit who ended humanity.
Okay, that’s global pestilence and war taken care of. Should keep the apocalyptics motoring for a few months.
At home, we are generating other stories, like the Flynn overseas account allegations. But one that’s worth watching for now is the question of Garda behaviour and the currently toothless complaints process.
I mean, how do we take Garda figures for 2003 showing a fall of 2% in serious crime figures. Bearing in mind what we know of Garda procedures and the degree to which their data gathering methods have been dissed in recent years, how reliable are they?
I mean, serious crime is down, while at the same time gun crime increased significantly – possession of firearms increased by 43% and shootings by 12%. And there are some quite bizarre findings. For example, theft of bicycles rose by 21%.
Right. That sounds really reliable. Peculiar then that when we all looked back at 2003, none of us realised it was the year when there was a mad outburst of bicycle theft. See what I mean? Sometimes the meaning of things is obscure. So, thanks to the Gardaí for revealing the soul of 2003. I thought it was about war in Iraq and Limerick feudsters giving us the two fingers. But no, it was the year of the bike thief. After that, what shocks could 2004 have in store?
Where’s me lock?
The Hog