Context of 'September 17, 2002: White House Releases Timeline of Iraqi Obstruction of UN Efforts to Monitor Weapons'

Just three months before Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait (see August 2, 1990), the Bush administration is still sharing intelligence information with Iraq (see August 1986). [New Yorker, 11/2/1992]

Entity Tags: Bush administration, Saddam Hussein

Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, US-Iraq 1980s

USA Today reports: “US intelligence cannot say conclusively that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, an information gap that is complicating White House efforts to build support for an attack on Saddam’s Iraqi regime. The CIA has advised top administration officials to assume that Iraq has some weapons of mass destruction. But the agency has not given President Bush a ‘smoking gun,’ according to US intelligence and administration officials. The most recent unclassified CIA report on the subject goes no further than saying it is ‘likely’ that Iraq has used the four years since United Nations inspectors left the country to rebuild chemical and biological weapons programs.” [USA Today, 8/15/2002]

Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush

Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion

The White House releases a detailed timeline depicting past Iraqi attempts to obstruct United Nations efforts, including Saddam Hussein’s repeated refusals to provide inspectors access to sites they wanted to visit. [White House, 9/17/2002; New York Times, 9/18/2002]

Entity Tags: Bush administration, Saddam Hussein

Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion