US Intel Estimate-Saddams WMD In Samarra Tunnels [Special Republican Guard Vanish to Hideout-DEBKA]

DEBKAfile Anti Terrorism Security Newsletter ^ | Jul 15, 2003 SGT | Gioria Shamis Retired Economist Magazine Reporter

[ewing]

Task Force 20 began scouring the country for Iraqi officers and personnel involved in concealing the forbidden weapons or secreting them out of the coutry to Syria.

The force recieved hundereds of leads. By the time a team arrived at a suspect location, it was invariably bare of contents.

The Bush Administration is still hunting for solid proof of Saddams possession of WMD since testimony by top his regieme officials and scientists will not satisfy the skeptics.

Many of the officers and men of the Special Republican Guards listed as operators of chemical and biological warfare systems, who denied knowledge of the WMD's whereabouts in earlier interrogations, have recently disappeared from their homes. Some have turned up around Samarra

A key deterrent to a major US assault on Saddam's subterranean bases in the Samarra enclave is the possibility of him letting loose with the toxic weapons cached with him.

According to every intelligence estimate, Saddam has never used his weapons of mass destruction outside of Iraq.

Even during the Iran- Iraq war that ended in 1989, he waited until Iranian troops invaded before attacking them with poison gas.

He is unlikely to pass up the opportunity of fighting off an Amercian assault in Iraq with unconventional weapons.

[ewing]

The last stand of the Baath party..

[Support Free Republic]

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

[hoosiermama]

BUMP for later!

[b4its2late]

Time to test the MOAB in Iraq now? See if it can get down to those tunnels and flush the rats out....

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[ewing]

A MOAB on Samarra's tunnels would be fine by me..

[Spiff]

XV. Thou Shalt NOT Unnecessarily Excerpt!

[eureka!]

To the extent true, I would think that the US is compiling a whole lotta intel and strategerizing appropriately....

[ewing]

They finally found Moses missing/dropped tablets!

[50sDad]

I hope that strategy includes bringing out the damning news shortly before the election...

[ewing]

Wasnt there an uprising planned in Iraq soon?

[eureka!]

Iran...

[Spiff]

They finally found Moses missing/dropped tablets!

Yes, and Commandment XV says that you shall NOT unnecessarily excerpt on Free Republic or sore shall be thy fellow FReepers' wrath as thy link expireth three days hence and when thou doest searcheth the holy FR archives thou shalt find thy efforts are for naught and thy soul shall mourn exceedingly.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Yes, any day now. Watch time began on Monday and ends on Friday. Important dates on the sadam/Iraq calendar. But Thursday, July 17th is the actual date that sadam threatened an uprising back in May. Why he would leak an actual date is beyond me, though.

[American in Israel]

More of the article:

Washington’s options as seen by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military experts are as tough as its dilemmas:

A. Unconventional warfare, including tactical nuclear weapons, would be the surest and most efficient way to overcome the Saddam enclave and wipe out the burgeoning military threat it poses to US forces in the country. That option is unthinkable. Washington cannot become the first power to use weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In any case, although Saddam, his illegal weapons and all his works would be wiped out for good, so too would the proof needed to convince American and world opinion that the Bush administration had good reason, namely the unconventional weapons in the hands of the Iraqi ruler, for going to war in the first place. Mistrust of Washington’s motives would only gain ground.

B. A massive conventional assault on the Saddam enclave might work, but it might equally expose US troops to the risk of Iraqi chemical or biological warfare. Substantial military reinforcements would also be called for, a contentious issue in Washington.

C. Washington might be better off not attacking the enclave at all but casting it into isolation by means of a protracted siege.

Most experts agree that Washington’s current state of indecision is the worst possible course. It opens the way for Saddam to grasp the initiative, decide what happens next and determine whether to engage in a fight to the finish or make a run for it.

This would leave Washington sunk in exactly the same quandary as it faced ten days before going to war.

[bert]

shortly before the election...

I'm beginning to think March '04. Just a guess. It will dribble out in the most effective manner.

The AmerRats are trying to get their licks in now to have a point of reference when it begins to happen.

The Iraqrats look hemmed in. The noose will be tightened carefully.

[ewing]

I knew I read something about that..