Writing Assignment #4H
“Investigating the Enemy”
Due: Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Preamble:

The United States, arguably, possesses the best available intelligence-gathering machinery in the world. Satellites, electronic evesdropping, aerial surveillance and on-the-ground spies are among the many tools the U.S. has at its disposal. It shares intelligence with many nations, and especially with its close friends and allies. Since the Iraq war in 1991, the United States, Britain and France (the three nations which have militarily patrolled Iraq since that war ended) have had unprecedented opportunity to use intelligence capabilities to surveil Iraq. The United Nations conducted extensive on-the-ground inspections of Iraq throughout most of the 1990's.

Research:

How did the United States use its intelligence capability in the 1990's against Iraq? Did the United States use the (ostensibly) independent United Nations inspection teams as "spies?" Were there political tensions over this? Did the U.S. observe the existence of weapons of mass destruction?

Write:

Prepare a radio speech for the President of the United States, in which the President addresses the American people to explain how, with all this time and capability, the United States has not been able to substantiate its claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that the U.S. actually knew where those weapons were hidden.

Your speech should take no longer than 8-minutes to read aloud.

Include a bibliography of sources you used to develop your speech.

If you are successful at explaining this to the American people, we may submit your draft speech to the White House for consideration.