Bodyguard warns of secret arsenal.

Herald Sun ^ | 02 03 03

[latrans]

SADDAM Hussein's senior bodyguard has fled with details of Iraq's secret arsenal.

His revelations have supported US President George W. Bush's claim there is enough evidence from UN inspectors to justify going to war. Abu Hamdi Mahmoud has provided Israeli intelligence with a list of sites that the 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 biological weapons.

William Tierney, a former UN weapons inspector who has continued to gather information on Saddam's arsenal, said Mahmoud's information is "the smoking gun".

"Once the inspectors go to where Mahmoud has pointed them, then it's all over for Saddam," Tierney said.

Tierney, who has high-level contacts in Washington that go to the White House, said the information we publish today on Mahmoud's revelations "checks out, absolutely checks out".

Mahmoud was a mem ber of the elite unit that protects Saddam.

It is called the Murasiq Qun – the "Inner Circle".

He was known as "The Gatekeeper".

Mahmoud is a muscular Saddam lookalike often photographed standing behind Saddam when he is seated, or to his left when on the move.

Last week, Mahmoud was being debriefed at a high-security base in Israel's Negev Desert.

Ariel Sharon, the country's hard-line prime minister, has only allowed snippets of Mahmoud's sensational claims to be shared with the CIA and MI6.

"Sharon intends to shatter the growing anti-war movement," a source close to Mr Sharon said.

"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 weapons inspectors."

Mahmoud's revelations include locations of five bunkers buried beneath man-made sand dunes.

Stockpiled in the bunkers are warheads identical to the empty shell cases found two weeks ago by the UN inspectors.

Mahmoud said those shells were on their way to be refilled and stored in the bunkers.

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 built five years ago with help from Chinese engineers.

"The entrance to the site is through a house in Tikrit. It is the home of one of Saddam's cousins and is more than half a mile from where the weapons are stored."

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.

"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 (Uday and Qusay) or (Deputy Prime Minister) 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 he is carrying weapons.

"Saddam knows fortunes are being offered to have him assassinated."

Saddam's paranoia increased after Uday, his eldest son, narrowly escaped assassination when gunmen riddled his car with bullets in 1996. Uday was partially paralysed and uses a wheelchair.

To avoid falling victim to even his own bodyguards, Saddam is a walking arsenal.

"He has concealed guns all over his body," Mahmoud said.

"He also has panic buttons to press if he even suspects somebody is about to attack him."

Israeli intelligence sources have hinted that the deal with Mahmoud included smuggling his family out of Iraq.

Mossad agents have done this before.

At the start of Saddam's reign of terror, they persuaded an Iraqi pilot to fly his Russian fighter to Israel – after spiriting out his wife and children.

[latrans]

I hope Blix sees this before Saddam.

[hoosiermama]

READ BUMP AND PASS IT ON!

[chiller]

This report has been circulating for a couple of days and is the smoking gun if true. Trying to figure why there's not been more from other sources. The Aussie Herald Sun is legitimate.

[jjm2111]

The mossad is badass.

[holyscroller]

I heard one quick blurb on FOX news (about two days ago) that a guy had approached the UN inspectors with a notebook of notes and maps of where stuff was hidden, and the inspectors wouldn't take it and they turned him over to Saddam's forces. (An automatic death sentence for the guy, if true). Then I never heard another word. No followup. Did anybody else hear this?

[Boss_Jim_Gettys]

Bumpity Bump

Can someone forward this to Sean Hannity?

[unending thunder]

This is very impressive. It lacks however the location of the Tooth Fairy and Santa's reindeer stables.

[Camerican]

In as much as I hope this is all true, it just seems...well... too good to be true. This would be the ultimate smoking gun. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for any western country opposed to war with Iraq to keep up that position with this evidence (except maybe France).

Urban legend? If not, please put this guy and his evidence front and center on Fox news so we can see/hear him and his evidence with our own eyes.

[hoosiermama]

If true, to put him in front of national cameras would be equal to signing his death warrent.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Done.

[Paradox]

Smoking gun, if true, however, I get the feeling that the Herald Sun has started using DEBKA as a source...

[Adder]

But can anyone say how true it is? I first got this from a site by Gordan Thomas[a Google will give you his site]. I have hesitated forwarding it around because I have yet to see the story elsewhere. One would think that while CNNABCCBSMSNBC, et al, might ignore it, FOX would be all over it.
Any further info would be helpful.

[Boss_Jim_Gettys]

Thanks, NJAPF. I will listen to Hannity on the radio this afternoon and see if he mentions. FWIW, this was discussed on the local morning AM radio show on WCBM (which carries Hannity).

[Terriergal]

Do we have our smoking gun here??? And links to North Korea! Surprise surprise!!!!

[Grampa Dave]

This IS neater and cleaner: ABCNNBCBS

[Grampa Dave]

This has been posted about 7 times. It orginally came from Debekka or however they spell it.

We don't need any smoking gun. UN 1441 documented the wmds and put Iraq in the position that it had to come to the UN and tell where the WMDs were to be destroyed and to ask for help in destroying them.

The smoking gun is a brainfart of the DNC working hard to save their cash cow, Uncle Soddomite.

[Zack Nguyen]

Indeed.

[Terriergal]

well *I* don't think we need a smoking gun but it seems everyone else in the world thinks so! :-\

[Terriergal]

BTW read a good article about the difference between evidence and intelligence the other day. While everything the left demands is "evidence" to warrant our actions - we have plenty of "intelligence" to warrant our actions.

[Terriergal]

Thank God they're Not 911 Operators!

Thought you'd appreciate this one. ;-)