The WMD Delusion: Prologue

Part 1 of 7

In an industry where fractions of a millimeter matter — these guys were playing horseshoes with centrifuge physics.

Out of 31 tubes in subsequent testing, only one was successfully spun to 90,000 RPM for 65 minutes — which the C.I.A. seized on as evidence in their favor. . . . D.O.E’s standard is to spin a tube at 20% above 90,000 RPM before failure — so 48,000 short is a pretty loose definition of “rough indication.”

When’s the last time you saw detail like that on this fiasco for the ages?

Who are “these guys”? Who are the “most experts” Powell was referring to in his UN speech? That’s the untold story I told 8 years ago when I wrote and produced the exhaustive documentary ever done on Iraq WMD. I had 50 pages on that issue in my unfinished book before I wrote one word of that script.

And yet when I went to interview a world-renowned nuclear scientist for my research, my journey had just begun.

By Design

America Remains Mired in the Murky

What does it say to you that on evidence claimed as components to build a nuclear bomb — the “debate” was hijacked by 10-second sound bites? Shouldn’t any debate establish what the debate is actually about? What does it say about a country that can’t even establish that much on a matter of this magnitude?

The road to reality is blocked by detours designed to keep you going in circles. Purveyors of poppycock reroute you with narratives that avoid detail like Black Death. The way out is to start with an inconsistency or two that’s narrow in scope — and take the trail where it leads.

To ascertain the truth on any topic

If you’ve got something concrete to go on — that’s your point of entry. By all means, keep the door open in every direction. But by nailing down the definitive first, it paves a clearer path to all the rest.

This country does the exact opposite on everything — lumping it all together and never even approaching where you should have started in the first place:

This chart is misleading in several respects . . . Beams centrifuge never actually worked . . . We can infer . . .

Sounds pretty sloppy to me

Perhaps we should have a conversation to clear up what all this means on matters of world-altering consequence that have eroded reason beyond recognition?

The surgical specificity of this clip puts this lie in its place in 5 minutes alone.

Trillion Dollar Tube 

Imagine what I did with 160

In addition to interviewing world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Houston Wood, I also corresponded with David Albright (the physicist above who wrote extensively on the tubes) — as well as Colin Powell’s chief of intelligence at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Greg Thielmann said the following in 2013:

It will be up to Iraqis to debate whether their country now has a brighter future than it otherwise would have had without foreign invasion and occupation in the first decade of the new century. But it is uniquely incumbent on Americans to understand who and what were responsible for an enterprise that proved so costly in terms of U.S. lives lost, money spent, international reputation tarnished, and a campaign against al Qaeda diverted.

America just casually moved on

I didn’t — as I knew then what few know now:

The immeasurable value in the willingness to be wrong, understanding why, and looking to learn from it. And that not doing so — increasingly compounds the consequences of no accountability.

Look around!


My writing revolves around how people allow emotion to run roughshod over reason when their interests are at stake.

When I returned from interviewing Dr. Houston Wood, the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict gave me a golden opportunity to illustrate exactly that. Debunking the WMD delusion & Trayvon tale is a conduit for showing how this nation systematically derails debate.

I needed a way to illustrate irrational behavior without showing any favoritism  — and now I had it.

Unlike most of America

I don’t have situational rules

“Everybody believed Iraq had WMD” is not a valid argument any more than “armed only with Skittles.” By the way — how many of you know what Trayvon actually looked like? It’s not the kid on People magazine I assure you. I’m not interested in defending Zimmerman — my aim is to expose the irrational behavior of blindly defending Martin and the damage you did by doing so.

And to claim that Iraq WMD wasn’t a lie should be like saying we didn’t land on the moon. In denying that reality, half the country helped create a culture where denying reality is now the norm.


I learned early on in life that what you want gets in the way of what you see.

There’s a whole other story behind that line — but the same commitment to accuracy and integrity on that deal, drove the doc and everything else I do. I’m a programmer by profession. I’d never done any journalism before interviewing Dr. Wood, but I was striving for the best of what it’s supposed to be.

My Prime Directive

  • No leading questions
  • And if this man wants to talk — scrap the script and keep my mouth shut

Because of that — I obtained information that nobody else did. I wasn’t trying to tell a story that served me — I was trying to tell the story. And I’m the only one who told it in full (from every angle that matters most):

If I came across this and hadn’t done my homework, on the title alone — my first thought would be “I must be missing something pretty big!”

America has other ideas:

Button your lip and don’t let the shield slip
Take a fresh grip on your bulletproof mask
And if they try to break down your disguise with their questions
You can hide hide hide behind Paranoid Eyes

5 Comments

  1. Hi Ricky,

    I just watched the Prologue and I was really impressed! Your opening is an attention grabber and the ending is perfect. You set this up perfectly for Act I. It certainly makes me want to see more.

    Well done!!

    Love ya,

    Mom :o)

    1. Thanks a million, Mom! :o) Very happy to hear that you enjoyed it. Speaking of attention getters and setting up the next Act, it’s funny how so many things from the past found their way into this thing in one way or another. Even the debate I did at Purdue on the extinction of the dinosaurs played a role. On top of just the debate aspect (which obviously ties to making an argument)–the opener for our debate team was a slide that showed a cartoon of a couple of dinosaurs smoking cigarettes with a caption that read “The real reason that dinosaurs became extinct.” Kinda silly but it worked–it caught the attention of the audience.

      So yeah, all the presentations over the years in one form or another played a role — as well as many other things. So while I’m an amateur in the documentary domain–I had a lot of experience that provided the basis for doing it. Thanks again for the great feedback — and for all your excellent input to help make the website better along with the distribution letter I sent out.

      Love ya,

      Rick(y)

  2. Looks great! Excited to see the rest! Great intro and great work on pulling in actual video clips into the overall message!

  3. Thanks a bunch, Jimmy–very much appreciated!! Please spread the word whenever you can. :o) Yeah, we pulled in as many video clips as we could — but some just weren’t available (which was really frustrating in a few places throughout the documentary). But oh well, I feel fortunate that we were able to obtain as many as we did. Really happy to hear that you enjoyed the intro so much! :o)

    1. Thank you, Rick, for both the story of the origin of cognitive dissonance theory and your video on looking at evidence with intellectual honesty. I was mesmerized even though I had known zero about that Iraq story. The content and the presentation of your video were outstanding. Sadly, too much of the time, self-interest takes precedence over the scientific method. When you have an opportunity, please send me the side comments you mentioned. Thank you, again.

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