Posted on 12/02/2001 6:42:30 AM PST by vannrox
How long before the Iraq situation blows up into another full-blown crisis, now that UN inspectors have reported that Saddam Hussein is still not coming clean about what remains of his unconventional weapons arsenal? And what is the truth behind the famous "palaces" that, during the last crisis in February, were feared to harbour his illicit arms programme?
The February crisis over the inspection of Saddam's palaces had its roots in a hastily reached agreement of 1991. Between then and now, Saddam, cunningly, distracted the world from his true strategic reasons for the construction proects.
After the 1991 ceasefire in the Kuwait war, Iraq agreed to UN Security Council resolution 687 that stipulates the destruction of all elements of Iraq's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons projects and their delivery systems within six months. It was a condition for the lifting of sanctions. Seven years later sanctions are still in place and the mission of UNSCOM, the United Nations Special Commission responsible for destroying Iraq's weapon, is still not complete.
It provides an excellent opportunity, from the US point of view, to keep sanctions in place, waiting for a palace coup in Baghdad. Madeleine Albright, as incoming Secretary of State, said as much in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington last year. But inspections have turned out to be a double-edged sword, because of a loophole overlooked in 1991 agreement.
UNSCOM can only operate with the co-operation of Saddam. If Iraq does not provide "minders" to accompany inspectors their access to facilities is hindered. This has allowed the Iraqi leader to stop their activities when he chooses and thus provoke a crisis. As consequences of both the flawed clause in the agreement and the US sanctions' tactics, Saddam managed to conceal his strategic plans within the newly constructed palaces, hiding every thing he wants, from laboratories producing anthrax to documents and computer files.
The UN Sanction Committee engaged in a game of teasing Saddam, as part of psychological warfare, by blocking the imports of material needed for his luxurious palaces. Saddam even encouraged the interpretation of western experts that it was a grandiose design on the part of an Arab dictator to emulate rulers from the old Islamic empire who built a palace in every major provincial town.
In October 1994, after another crisis over the no-fly zone, Albright, then America's ambassador to the UN, was canvassing against lifting the sanctions. She showed Security Council members satellite photographs of buildings she claimed were new palaces erected since the war. But there were no eyewitnesses on the ground or pictures of palaces from inside Iraq.
Then, in January 1995, I met Hussein Wael, a mason who bribed his way out of Iraq at the cost of $5000. His testimony confirmed the claim that Saddam spent almost $1bn building new palaces and renovating old ones, while his people were starving.
"They are like the palaces in stories of Sinbad and the Arabian Nights," said the Iraqi builder involved in putting the final touches to the biggest and most elaborate of President Saddam's palaces. Wael's last job was in the palace of Maqar-el-Tharthar, which is built at a lake northwest of Baghdad. "It is at least four or five times bigger than the White House," said Wael, who was on his way to his family in Fairfax, Virginia.
He said workers specialised in alabaster and marble are not permitted to leave the country because of the grand project that included 30 new palaces besides the 19 that existed before the Gulf war. To obtain marble and alabaster, he said, the Iraqis have taken to plundering ruins and tombs dating from the Babylonian era. They were used to build a new palace on the shore of an artificial lake, created by diverting the Tigris near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
"We heard that the President was very angry because the US and Britain were banning the import of marble." The UN sanctions committee, which allows import licences for other building materials, has pointedly turned down Iraqi applications to import marble, alabaster and electric pumps for water fountains - favourite items in Saddam's palaces.
Saddam, who seldom shows his emotions, let it be known that he was very angry because of the ban on importing marble. It was an excellent subterfuge. The UN went on teasing Saddam by denying him his imported marble but overlooked what he was actually doing.
In 1995 Mr Wael said that he, like other workers, moved between 15 palaces and was not permitted near tunnelling areas. The wisdom in the West then was that Saddam was building air raid bunkers. But the tunnels, according to other reports were only made available in early 1997 and were used to hide vital material and information, especially computer disks and research equipment used in the biological weapons programme. They were also used to move such items quickly to other sites after they had been inspected. Wael also helped to renovate the Baghdad Republican Palace, which has tripled in size, the Camp Taj retreat north of Baghdad, and the old palace of Baiji in Tikrit, as well as a palace complex built on an island in lake Abu Ghraib, west of the capital.
The most impressive presidential residence, according to Wael, is Qasr-Shatt al-Arab, a complex of buildings and four artificial lakes built along the waterway that separates Iraq and Iran. "One of the French engineers working there told us it was bigger than the palace at Versailles," he said, confirming the involvement of French experts in constructing Saddam's palaces.
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.