Posted on 01/30/2004 6:06:34 AM PST by Ryan Bailey
Iraq minister says Saddam's WMD carefully hidden
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(Updates with comments on Saddam's trial, Iraq's unity)
By Anna Mudeva
SOFIA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which inspectors have failed to find, were carefully hidden but Hoshiyar Zebari said he was confident they could be discovered.
"I have every belief that some of these weapons could be found as we move forward," Zebari, an Iraqi Kurd, told a news conference in Sofia. "They have been hidden in certain areas. The system of hiding was very sophisticated."
The United States and Britain cited Iraq's possession of chemical and biological arms as their main reason for invading the country last March and toppling Saddam. But no such weapons have so far come to light despite intensive searches.
Former chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay said on Wednesday "we were almost all wrong" about the issue and it was "highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed militarised chemical and biological weapons" in Iraq.
But Zebari, on a visit to Bulgaria, said: "We as Iraqis have seen Saddam Hussein develop, manufacture and use these weapons of mass destruction against us. He hasn't denied that."
Zebari was apparently referring to the use of chemical weapons by Saddam's forces against Iraqi Kurdish villages in the late 1980s.
He reiterated the position of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council that Saddam, accused of sending thousands of Iraqis to mass graves, should be tried by an Iraqi court.
The former Iraqi president, who was given prisoner of war status, was captured in mid-December near his home town of Tikrit, having evaded U.S. forces since the American military launched its war in Iraq with a March 20 attack targeting him.
Zebari said Saddam's trial should be fair and transparent because it would be a test for Iraq's new rulers to prove their adherence to the supremacy of law.
TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY
Asked to comment on Turkey's fears Iraqi Kurds might seek a breakaway state, Zebari said there were no plans to divide Iraq.
"We have proved over the last nine months that all the Iraqis from the North to the South are committed to the national unity...No group, no party has any plans to undermine Iraq's unity or territorial integrity," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he was also committed to a "territorially intact" Iraq.
Turkish officials have been concerned Iraqi Kurds might press for an independent state, which could boost independence claims by Turkey's own restive Kurdish minority.
The Kurds, who fought with the United States to topple Saddam, are one of Iraq's best organised ethnic groups after enjoying U.S-protected autonomy since the 1991 Gulf War. They have presented a plan to the Iraqi Governing Council that grants significant autonomy to the Kurdish region.
Zebari did not rule out the federalisation of Iraq as long as it did not violate territorial unity and added only the Iraqi people could choose the country's future political system.
The inspectors US, UN, Dutch, British, Kuwaiti, and other who have already uncovered WMD related systems must be vigilant in the search as Husseinist Iraq had years to hide them and we've not had one year yet to find them.
To expect better results under such conditions would be unfair at the very least.
Pity that Kay felt that since he didn't find the weapons they probably were never there. That is a ludicrous conclustion at best.
He is engaging in wishful thinking, IMO.
If they are found, what is going to say next?
That fact that he was shooting at our planes was more than enough for me.
"Oops, my bad"
I don't know about Kay, but the rats (Wesley Clark in particular) will say that W had them planted just in time for the election.
One thing we know for certain is that Saddam will never again possess WMD. That should be enough to satisfy most rational people.
I agree with your statement. Also, how long did his search take and he finished searching a country the size of California in that time. Something very wrong with Kay's statements.
He ought to have come right out and said that the CIA had their hands tied by earlier legislation and that must be changed. Guess he figured that wasn't his purview.
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