Replies

Here's something to add to the mix. This came to me via a conservative email thread today.

I don't know who Gordon Thomas is, but this is awfully specific information about what the circumstantial evidence is with respect to WMD and where to find them.

> > By Gordon Thomas
> >
> > Saddam's senior bodyguard has fled from Iraq with details of
> > Saddam's secret arsenal.
> >
> > His revelations come the day the UN inspectors report to the
> > Security Council whether they have found a smoking gun that will
> > trigger war.
> >
> > Abu Hamdi Mahmoud has provided a list of sites that so far the UN
> > inspectors have not visited. They include:
> >
> > An underground chemical weapons facility at the southern end of the
Jadray
> >
> > Peninsula in Baghdad.
> >
> > A Scud assembly area near Ramadi. The missiles come from North
> > Korea.
> >
> > Two underground bunkers in Iraq's Western desert. These contain bio
> > weapons.
> >
> > William Tierney, a former UN weapons inspector who has continued to
gather
> >
> > information on Saddam's arsenal, described Mahmoud's information as
> > "the smoking gun. Once the inspectors go to where Mahmoud has
> > pointed them,
> then
> >
> >
> > it's all over for Saddam".
> >
> >
> > Tierney still has high level contacts in Washington that reach into
> > the White House.
> >
> > He said that the information we publish today on Mahmoud's
> > revelations "checks out, absolutely checks out."
> >
> > Tierney believes it is "inevitable" that we will go to war.
> >
> > Globe-Intel has independently obtained documents smuggled out of
> > Iraq
> which
> >
> >
> > show he does have weapons of mass destruction that have eluded
discoveryby
> > UN inspectors.
> >
> > The weapons include motorised underwater mines capable of creeping
> alongthe
> > sea bed and then surfacing beneath a battleship or carrier.
> >
> > Each mine is filled with chemicals that upon explosion can envelop
> > the
> ship
> >
> >
> > in a deadly cloud of poison.
> >
> > The documents show that the mines and other weapons of mass
> > destruction have been secretly developed at sites the UN inspectors
> > have also not
visited.
> >
> >
> > These are:
> >
> > Al-Qaqa's State Establishment. Sixty miles south of Baghdad, it has
> > produced
> >
> > what the documents describe as "self-detonating precise guided
missiles".
> >
> >
> > Near State Establishment. It is on the western side of the
> > Baghdad-Mosul road. It has produced "artillery rounds and other
> > machined metal parts"
> for
> >
> >
> > the mines.
> >
> > The mines have been machine-finished at Hateen State Establishment,
> > to
the
> >
> > north of Baghdad.
> >
> > In the past weeks, they have been moved to Basra - ready to be
> > launched against the naval armada assembling in the Gulf.
> >
> > One document reveals:
> >
> > "The mines use a special camera to distinguish the target above it.
> > The mines then stop under the target. Once in place they produce
> > chemical materials which generates huge amounts of oxygen that
> > guides the mine
> tothe
> > surface. When the amount of oxygen reaches a specific level, the
> pressureof
> > the oxygen triggers the detonator which results in a tremendous
> explosion".
> >
> >
> >
> > The documents reveal that test firings of the mine were carried out
> > on
> Lake
> >
> >
> >
> > Tharthar on June 5 last year. The tests are described as "completely
> > successful".
> >
> > Mahmoud's revelations have also enabled both George Bush and Tony
> > Blair
to
> >
> > take an even stronger stand against anti-war protesters when they
> > meet
in
> >
> > Washington this week.
> >
> > Mahmoud was a member of the elitist unit charged with protecting
Saddam.It
> > is called the Murasiq Qun - the "Inner Circle". He was known as "The
> > Gatekeeper". Mahmoud is the muscular Saddam lookalike who is always
> > photographed standing either behind Saddam when he is seated - or to
> > his left when on the move.
> >
> > He was trained to spot the slightest threat to Saddam. To deal with
> > it,
he
> >
> > had a throwing knife up his right sleeve.
> >
> > "In any threat my first job was to throw myself over Saddam to
> > protect
his
> >
> > body and then use my knife", he has told his Mossad debriefers.
> >
> > Now he's at the top of Saddam's kill list. But there is no way
> > Saddam's
> own
> >
> >
> >
> > assassination unit - the Hamaya Khasa - can get to Mahmoud. He is
> > now protected by a team of Israeli agents.
> >
> > For weeks he was in secret negotiation with a Mossad agent in
> > Baghdad.
> With
> >
> >
> > the promise he could not be charged with any crimes he committed on
behalf
> >
> > of Saddam, and he would be given a new identity - including having
> > his appearance changed by surgery - Mahmoud agreed to desert. Last
> > week he
was
> >
> > being debriefed in a high security base in Israel's Negev Desert.
> > Ariel Sharon, the country's hard-line prime minister has so far only
> > allowed snippets of Mahmoud's sensational claims to be shared with
> > the CIA and
> MI6.
> >
> >
> >
> > But a source close to Sharon says he wants to use the revelations
> > when,
as
> >
> > expected, he returns to power after the country's election
> > (tomorrow, Monday).
> >
> > "Sharon intends to shatter the growing anti-war movement. He plans
> > to
call
> >
> > all those European leaders who are wavering to let them know how
> > Saddam
> has
> >
> >
> >
> > continued to fool Hans Blix and his inspectors," said the source.
> >
> > Mahmoud's revelations include:
> >
> > Locations of five bunkers buried beneath purpose made sand dunes.
> >
> > Stockpiled in the bunkers are warheads identical to the empty shell
cases
> >
> > found two weeks ago by the UN inspectors.
> >
> > Mahmoud has claimed those shells were on their way to be refilled
> > and stored in the bunkers.
> >
> > A portion of a transcript from his debriefing includes:
> >
> > "Saddam's weapons of mass destruction are also concealed in a tunnel
> > complex deep beneath the sewers of Baghdad and in an underground
> > complex in
> Ouja,to
> > the north of Tikrit. The complex was build five years ago with help
> > from Chinese engineers.
> >
> > "The actual entrance to the site is through a house in Tikrit. It is
> > the home of one of Saddam's cousins. The entrance is over half a
> > mile from where the weapons are stored".
> >
> > Mahmoud has also provided the first really detailed insights into
> > how Saddam lives and is protected.
> >
> >
> > Mahmoud says since the Gulf War there have been nine assassination
> attempts
> >
> >
> > on Saddam. The most recent was in February last year.
> >
> > Mahmoud has described how he was selected.
> >
> > "I was on gate duty at one of Saddam's palaces. One night he arrived
> > in
a
> >
> > 10-car convoy. I checked all the vehicles and Saddam stepped out of
> > one
> car
> >
> >
> > and asked why I inspected them all and not just his. I told him I
> > was
not
> >
> > sure in which car he was travelling and that it was in his honour
> > that I checked all the cars. He replied, 'from now on you will be at
> > my side
all
> >
> > the time'. He also doubled my salary".
> >
> > Joining the "Inner Circle", Mahmoud found himself in a world far
> > removed from the life of the starving population of Iraq. He
> > received the finest food and had the best weapons. He had access to
> > top level
intelligence -so
> > that he could help to plan Saddam's protection.
> >
> > In another excerpt from his debriefing, Mahmoud boasts: "I was
> > inside
the
> >
> >
> > innermost circle where Saddam eats and sleeps. I was among the
> > handful
of
> >
> > bodyguards closest to him". The bodyguard has given a rare glimpse
> > of
what
> >
> > life is like with Saddam.
> >
> > "Very few people are allowed close to Saddam. Many of the TV images
> > you
> see
> >
> >
> > of him were taken years ago. Most people now only speak to him over
> > the phone. He usually calls them. If they have to call him back with
> > information he wants, it is passed through his sons, Quasy or Tariq
> > Aziz.
> >
> > "All those close to him have codes, which they use to access the
> > outer circle. But even they can only come so close to Saddam before
> > there is a cut-off point - the Inner Circle. Even Tariq Aziz is
> > checked to see if
> heis
> > carrying weapons. Saddam knows fortunes are being offered to have
> > him assassinated", Mahmoud has revealed.
> >
> > The most protected of all Saddam's palaces is the Qesser al-Quwwa
> > Sitta'shar in Tikrit - close to his birthplace. Mahmoud has
> > described how the
palace
> >
> >
> > has four main entrances - and has the latest Chinese-manufactured
> > surveillance equipment.
> >
> > "There are sensors and matchbox sized cameras everywhere. There are
doors
> >
> > which can only be opened by placing your face on a key pad.
> >
> > "The palace has a number of escape routes that are outside the
> > palace walls. At each escape point there are cars. A car is always
> > parked at each
> exit.No
> > one knows what exit Saddam will use. On the way to one he can change
> > his mind and go to another. I have know him change his mind several
> > times
over
> >
> > thirty feet.
> >
> > "Saddam's own living quarters in the palace are a labyrinth of
> > doors. To even enter the private sanctum requires having the
> > separate codes to
open
> >
> > four doors. On the reverse side of each door is a monitor which
> > shows
the
> >
> > Special Guards on duty who is entering".
> >
> > Saddam's paranoia has increased after his son, Uday, narrowly
> > escaped assassination. He is now wheelchair bound.
> >
> >
> > To avoid even his own bodyguards being tempted to kill him, Saddam
himself
> >
> > is, according to Mahmoud, a walking arsenal.
> >
> > "He has concealed guns all over his body. He also has panic buttons
> > to press if he even suspects somebody is about to attack him", the
> > former
bodyguard
> >
> > has said.
> >
> > Israeli intelligence sources have hinted that part of the deal with
> Mahmoud
> >
> >
> > was to smuggle out his family from Iraq. Mossad have done this
> > before.
At
> >
> > the start of Saddam's reign of terror they persuaded an Iraqi pilot
> > to
fly
> >
> > his Russian Mirage [Mig?]to Israel - after Mossad had spirited his
> > wife
> and
> >
> >
> > children there.