I picked up Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir, Known and Unknown, today. I wondered if Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak made an appearance. He makes several, and this one, on page 435, appears to be a doozy:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak cautioned General Franks that Saddam had biological weapons and would use them on American forces.
He footnotes this to a March 15, 2004, memo.
The faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s capabilities and stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction are well-known by now; on preceding page, Rumsfeld writes:
the German chief of intelligence actually held a grimmer view than the U.S. intelligence community: “It is our estimate that Iraq will have an atomic bomb in three years.” . . . A multitude of specific, seemingly credible reports, some even illustrated with satellite photos, provided supporting evidence.
Egyptians loathed the Iraq War (my lone visit to that country was about two months after the war began) and it may further enrage many Egyptians to learn their president helped provide the evidence that triggered it.