In Halabja, ~238 miles northeast of Baghdad, the grave
of the dead from Saddam Hussein's mustard gas and nerve agents.
5,000 murdered in this attack.
Dead children, previously playing in Halabja
Victims of Saddams' WMD in March 1988.
Posted on 03/17/2003 9:09:30 AM PST by HAL9000
BAGHDAD (AFP) - President Saddam Hussein recognised for the first time that Iraq possessed arms of mass destruction in the past, but insisted it was no longer the case as Iraq rejected a US ultimatum for war.Apparently bowing to international demands for a televised confession of hiding weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqi strongman was quoted by his son Uday's Youth television channel as saying: "We have a real intent to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in our region and everywhere in the world.
"We had such weapons to defend ourselves when we were at war for eight years with Iran and the Zionist entity threatened us, as it continues to do," he added, referring to his country's 1980-1988 conflict with its neighbour which cost an estimated million lives on both sides.
Under intense pressure to secure a second UN vote effectively authorizing military action, British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested last Wednesday amending a draft ultimatum before the Security Council to include six demands which Iraq must meet within days to show it was fully disarming.
These included that Saddam confess on television to hiding weapons programmes, allow 30 scientists to travel to Cyprus for interviews with inspectors, and provide evidence that he has destroyed stocks of anthrax.
In a last-ditch bid to avert war, Iraq has provided a new list of 130 scientists involved in past chemical weapons prgrammes, sent a dossier on VX nerve gas to the United Nations and a similar file on anthrax has been promised for this week.
However with the UN Security council meeting Monday night after Britain, Spain and the United States withdrew a draft resolution seeking authority for war, it all looked too late.
Information Minister Mohamad Said al-Sahhaf denounced the US-British-Spanish "summit of outlaws" in Portugal's Azores islands on Sunday for failing to justify the use of force.
"They are a few, three states whose officials have drowned the world with lies and did not present any proof" for their claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, he told reporters.
US President George W. Bush gave the United Nations a 24-hour ultimatum to back war with Iraq, after holding emergency talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Shortly after the ultimatum, the UN Security Council announced it would hold a closed door meeting on Monday to try to break a months-long impasse over whether to declare war on Iraq.
LET'S ROLL!
In Halabja, ~238 miles northeast of Baghdad, the grave
of the dead from Saddam Hussein's mustard gas and nerve agents.
5,000 murdered in this attack.
Dead children, previously playing in Halabja
Victims of Saddams' WMD in March 1988.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.