Shii comments on foundering allegations about Iraq's WMD

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a news conference on June 11 commented on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which the Koizumi Cabinet used as the grounds for its support for the U.S. war on Iraq.

Referring to U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair now being under fire, Shii said, "The crux of the matter is this. Although President Bush and Prime Minister Blair argued that Iraq has WMD before going to war, their allegations have recently been found to be based on false or fabricated information."

The JCP chair said he drew attention to a recent article written by John W. Dean, a legal advisor to President Richard Nixon, stating, "To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, would be a 'high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment clause."

Shii said that Prime Minister Koizumi's statements on his official website, open to all people in Japan and the rest of the world, show that every statement on Iraq's WMD is presented as conclusive. Shii said that Koizumi is responsible, along with Bush and Blair, for making such irresponsible statements.

The JCP chair said that in a face-to-face debate with him earlier in the day, the prime minister was unable to answer the question on what basis the prime minister concluded that Iraq had WMD. Shii said his inability to answer shows that Japan's prime minister was just repeating what the U.S. and British stated.

Shii said that the debate has raised serious questions over the credibility of the Japanese government, which is unable to explain on what basis it made a serious national decision to support a war against another country.

He said that the U.S. and British governments are under grave suspicion that they may have attempted to lead their nations to war using doctored information that included falsification, fabrication, and concealment.

The Koizumi Cabinet is under serious suspicion that it uncritically accepted and parroted the U.S. and British assertions on the existence of WMD in Iraq, with no grounds on which to form a decision on its own, in an attempt to lead people into supporting the war, Shii said.

Shii said that it is still doubtful whether WMDs will be found in the future, but that the day's Diet debate showed that on the decisive moment of the start of the war on March 20, P.M. Koizumi was lacking proof when he asserted that Iraq had WMD. Shii blamed the Koizumi Cabinet for supporting the war with no clear basis.

Shii said that no matter what the outcome of the alleged WMD may be, the day's debate has cast a fundamental doubt about the credibility of the statements which the government makes concerning war and peace.

Shii added that the JCP will examine the question from this viewpoint. (end)