The claims about WMD started in
1998 (!) three years before 9/11. In a letter to President Clinton a group of
New American Centurians including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard L. Armitage, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams among others warned that it was essential that the US attack Iraq because of Saddam's WMDs.
Quote:
Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. It hardly needs to be added that if Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will all be put at hazard. As you have rightly declared, Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how we handle this threat.
Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.
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PNAC letter to President Clinton
And if we are considering the neo-cons' greatest hits, here is Ken Adelman's
Cakewalk In Iraq.