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The release of the long-awaited report from the Iraqi Survey Group was expected to do what that morning's Chicago Times' issue claimed in its headline: "Report on Iraq Arms Undercuts President." Both the first presidential debate and the vice-presidential debate revolved, from the Democrat's point of view, on the Iraq War, its costs and causes.

And judging from the assessments offered by the mainstream media, namely that Bush lost to John Kerry and John Edwards defeated Dick Cheney, it still believes Iraq is the Bush administration's Achilles' Heel.

Take, for example, this statement by Senator Jay Rockefeller, co-chair of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee:

"Despite the efforts to focus on Saddam's desires and intentions, the bottom line is Iraq did not have either weapon stockpiles or active production capabilities at the time of the war. In short, we invaded a country, thousands of people have died, and Iraq never posed a grave or growing danger."

Or, put a bit more crassly, "Gotcha!"

Most of the media 'analysis' suggested hopefully that the "the findings could boost Democratic candidate John Kerry's contention that Bush rushed to war based on faulty intelligence."

But among the findings of the Iraq Survey Group was the fact that the faulty intelligence was shared by every intelligence agency in the world. Even Saddam's own generals, said Charles A. Duelfer, head of the ISG, didn't know Saddam didn't have them.

Until the Iraq Survey Group released its report, the general concensus among intelligence agencies was that Saddam surrounded himself with 'yes-men' who told him what he wanted to hear and misled him into believing he had stockpiles of non-existent weapons.

Duelfer's report says they got the situation exactly backwards. It was Saddam who kept his generals in the dark. Saddam was actually micro-managing Iraq's weapons policies and kept even his most loyal aides from gaining a clear picture of what was going on — and, more important, not going on — with the program.

Part of the ISG report's information came from Saddam Hussein himself during postwar interrogation sessions.

Based on the interrogations, it appears that Hussein underestimated how seriously the United States took the weapons issue, and he believed it was vital to his own survival that the outside world -- especially Iran -- think he still had them.

This was designed to deter uprising from rebel Iraqis, on whom he deployed mustard gas in 1988, and aggressors -- especially Iran -- in the Middle East.

"The Iranian threat was very, very, palpable to him, and he didn't want to be second to Iran, and he felt he had to deter them. So he wanted to create the impression that he had more than he did," Duelfer testified to the Senate.

Kerry campaign officials jumped on the report, saying it is 'one more piece of evidence that the war in Iraq was a mistake' and was based on evidence that was either faulty or exaggerated by administration officials.

Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to Kerry, said the Bush campaign is "grasping at straws" as it strains to maintain a link between the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war with Iraq. Evidently, she didn't read the report.

Far from undercutting the Bush administration's rationale for war, the Duelfer Report found that Hussein had a missile program in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and that he had the "capability and the intention" to possess dangerous weapons.

One of the central arguments advanced by the Kerry campaign against the Bush administration is that the White House 'rushed' to war with Saddam Hussein by lying about Iraq's weapons capability and failing to secure the approval and cooperation of our 'allies' like France, Germany, Russia and the United Nations Security Council.

The Democrats have made much of that, claiming that these are our REAL allies, going so far as to call those nations who DID support Washington a 'coalition of the bribed, coerced, the bought and the extorted.'

Throughout the campaign, Kerry has hammered home the fact that, if he were president, he would have miraculously brought those allies on board, since Kerry also says that he agreed Saddam should have been toppled, but that Bush went about it the 'wrong way'.

The Duelfer Report DID provide details about a 'coalition of the bribed, coerced, the bought and the extorted' -- but it wasn't referring to the same coalition John Kerry was.

According to the findings of the Iraq Survey Group, the bribes all went to France, Germany, Russia and the UN Security Council. The very 'allies' the Democrats say the Bush administration ignored 'out of arrogance'.

According to the report, from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.

Saddam was convinced that the UN sanctions - which stopped him acquiring weapons - were on the brink of collapse and he bankrolled several foreign activists who were campaigning for their abolition.

He personally approved every one. Saddam focussed on on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.

Tariq Aziz told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.

A memo sent to Saddam dated in May last year from Saddam's intelligence corps said they met with a "French parliamentarian" who "assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the UN Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq."

Oil "vouchers" that could be resold for large profits were given to officials including French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and former Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky as well as governments, companies and influential individuals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the ISG. Another recipient was Benon Sevan, the former top U.N. official in charge of humanitarian relief.

Russia, France and China -- all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- were the top three countries in which individuals, companies or entities received the lucrative vouchers.

"Despite U.N. sanctions, many countries and companies engaged in prohibited procurement with the Iraqi regime throughout the 1990s, largely because of the profitability of such trade," Duelfer reported.

France, Italy, India, Turkey, Jordan and Romania may have sold Hussein dual-purpose equipment that could be converted for production of unconventional weapons.

The success of Hussein's regime in circumventing the U.N. embargo is "grossly obvious," the report says. "It is also grossly obvious how the sanctions perverted not just the [Iraqi] national system of finance and economics, but to some extent the international markets and organizations."

So, to recap, the ISG found that the White House didn't lie about the threat posed by Saddam's government. At best, it was misled, together with the rest of the world, (and Saddam's own generals!), as to the scope of the threat by Saddam Hussein himself.

The White House didn't 'rush to war' by 'ignoring our allies'. Our 'allies' had betrayed us already and sold out to Saddam Hussein. Saddam had three out of five Security Council vetoes in his pocket. The UN would NEVER have supported the US, and neither would John Kerry's trusted European 'allies'.

The sanctions were NOT working, and giving inspections more time would have resulted in the sanctions being eventually lifted against Iraq.

Saddam would still be in power, with a pocketful of 'allies' (France, Germany, Russia, China, the UN, etc.) already bought and paid for.

John Kerry said that under his watch, America would never take preemptive military action without first submitting to a 'global test' and the support of our 'allies' -- whom he has at various times, identified as being France, Russia, Germany and the United Nations Security Council.

The Kerry Doctrine: "Find a REAL 'coalition of the bribed, coerced, the bought and the extorted' -- and having done so, grant them a veto over US security."

According to John Kerry, THAT is the recipe for bringing peace and safety to America. According to the national polls, the 'Kerry Doctrine' enjoys the support of almost half the American voting public.

It is a Skerry thought.

Excerpted from the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Volume 37, Issue 7

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