Sunday, March 19, 2006

Iraq: Anniversary and New Information

As a new assault against terrorist forces was launched this week, today is being marked as the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq with official statements and debate and protest demonstrations. No doubt it is a time to remember and pray for those soldiers who gave their lives and for those people who suffered and died during the war and under the tyranny that preceded it.

Meanwhile, the government has discretely begun releasing documents and recordings through this web site which are shedding new light on the circumstances leading up to the war, according to Fox News.
The release of the documents, expected to continue for months, is designed to allow lawmakers and the public to investigate what documents from Saddam's regime said about such controversial issues as weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda in the period before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.

The Web site cautioned that the U.S. government "has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available."

The release of this information is being welcomed by key members of Congress.
House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., requested the release of millions pages of documents and audio recordings captured during current and previous U.S. military operations in Iraq. Most have sat untranslated for years.

Last weekend, Negroponte agreed to set aside money and establish a system to make the documents available to the media, academics and other researchers.

In a statement, Hoekstra welcomed the chance to answer questions about prewar Iraq. "Whether Saddam Hussein destroyed Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or hid or transferred them, the most important thing is we discover the truth of what was happening in the country prior to the war," he said.

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