Americans keep up pressure on banned weapons

UK Telegraph ^ | May 12, 2003 | David Rennie

[FairOpinion]

America is interrogating captured Iraqi commanders to ascertain whether forces loyal to Saddam are still at large, possibly armed with weapons of mass destruction.

The US top military commander, Gen Richard Myers, said it was unclear whether banned weapons had been issued to elite Iraqi forces, or hidden around the country.

"Were they full-deployed, and could they have been brought to bear on us, or are they still out there somewhere in some sort of bunker and could they have been used?" Gen Myers said yesterday on a visit to the US regional HQ in Qatar. "We are trying to run that one to the ground."

He spoke as US forces hunting for weapons prepared to wind down operations after weeks of fruitless searching.

In bitter interviews with The Washington Post, officers in the leading task force complained that nearly every "top tier" site identified by US intelligence in Iraq had been gutted before they arrived, with documents burned.

The task force had moved too slowly, hampered by a lack of its own air transport, and kept well back from frontline fighting, they said.

US officials have insisted that the hunt for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons was only just beginning, and would achieve full momentum when Iraqi scientists began sharing their knowledge.

However, the view of the men and officers of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, was very different.

Navy Cdr David Beckett, head of a nuclear search squad, told the Post: "We thought we would be much more gainfully employed."

A Defence Intelligence Agency officer said: "We came to bear country, we came loaded for bear and we found out the bear wasn't here."

However, the Bush administration is refusing to panic. One senior Bush official told Newsweek: "We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet. Does that mean he didn't exist?"

BLOB Syria closed its doors to Iraqi leaders but did offer a bolthole to the families of Saddam's inner circle, President Bashar Assad said yesterday.

He told Newsweek magazine that regime leaders came to the border. "They weren't allowed to come in. Some of them were captured by the Americans".

[FairOpinion]

Well, it looks like the story that the US is giving up on the search for WMD by the Washington Post was premature. It's just as Rumsfeld said some time ago, they will not 'stumble onto' weapons sites, they will get the information from people who know where the WMD are.

[Hugin]

One senior Bush official told Newsweek: "We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet. Does that mean he didn't exist?"

Good one.

[eniapmot]

Whew..From the titl, I was afraid that the was going to be another "balanced" report on the assault weapon ban.