IRAQ TURNS IN HW ONE DAY EARLY

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq handed the United Nations a huge dossier on its military programs on Saturday, denying Iraq has any banned weapons and setting the stage for a confrontation with Washington.

President Saddam Hussein meanwhile issued an apology for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, urging Kuwaitis to turn against "infidel" Western allies and join Iraqis in fighting them.

Hussam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, said that in the dossier delivered to U.N. inspectors in Baghdad:

"We declared that Iraq is empty of weapons of mass destruction. I reiterate Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction."

President Bush said on Saturday his administration would take some time to judge the declaration, but repeated that it would disarm Iraq by force if necessary. Earlier this week he said bluntly that Iraq did indeed have weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. officials said on Friday Washington was expected to declare Iraq in "material breach" of last month's U.N. resolution 1441 if it stated it had no such weapons, setting the stage for a possible military attack on Iraq by the United States.

But they said Washington would not cite the breach as immediate grounds for war, letting U.N. inspections continue while Bush courts partners to help strike Iraq if needed. (Full story)

You have to love this president of ours. After all this legitimate process, going through the UN, getting the inspectors back in there, and everything else, the Bushies are back at their "you have weapons of mass destruction . . . because we say so!" square one. Please, show us the evidence. They wont, last time they tried that was with the IAEA report, and the British were sure unhappy about that!

Of course Bush is going to take some time with it. Our government needs to track down and rehire those six homosexual translators. Also, Bush has never come close to reading that sum of pages throughout his life combined! As governor, when given a ten-page document, he'd ask for a summary. Only this time, the phrase "could you run that by me again in English?" is a bit more literal.

TFM suspects that what I had previously predicted -- that this document would contain not only enough to upset Dubya, but also enough for France Germany and Russia to make the case for patience -- has probably come to pass.

Oh, and you can't prove a negative. Don't forget that.