IRAQ MINISTER SAYS SADDAM WMD CAREFULLY HIDDEN

Reuters ^ | 1/29/04

[areafiftyone]

(Updates with comments on Saddam's trial, Iraq's unity)

By Anna Mudeva

SOFIA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which inspectors have failed to find, were carefully hidden but Hoshiyar Zebari said he was confident they could be discovered.

"I have every belief that some of these weapons could be found as we move forward," Zebari, an Iraqi Kurd, told a news conference in Sofia. "They have been hidden in certain areas. The system of hiding was very sophisticated."

The United States and Britain cited Iraq's possession of chemical and biological arms as their main reason for invading the country last March and toppling Saddam. But no such weapons have so far come to light despite intensive searches.

Former chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay said on Wednesday "we were almost all wrong" about the issue and it was "highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed militarised chemical and biological weapons" in Iraq.

But Zebari, on a visit to Bulgaria, said: "We as Iraqis have seen Saddam Hussein develop, manufacture and use these weapons of mass destruction against us. He hasn't denied that."

Zebari was apparently referring to the use of chemical weapons by Saddam's forces against Iraqi Kurdish villages in the late 1980s.

He reiterated the position of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council that Saddam, accused of sending thousands of Iraqis to mass graves, should be tried by an Iraqi court.

The former Iraqi president, who was given prisoner of war status, was captured in mid-December near his home town of Tikrit, having evaded U.S. forces since the American military launched its war in Iraq with a March 20 attack targeting him.

Zebari said Saddam's trial should be fair and transparent because it would be a test for Iraq's new rulers to prove their adherence to the supremacy of law.

TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

Asked to comment on Turkey's fears Iraqi Kurds might seek a breakaway state, Zebari said there were no plans to divide Iraq.

"We have proved over the last nine months that all the Iraqis from the North to the South are committed to the national unity...No group, no party has any plans to undermine Iraq's unity or territorial integrity," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he was also committed to a "territorially intact" Iraq.

Turkish officials have been concerned Iraqi Kurds might press for an independent state, which could boost independence claims by Turkey's own restive Kurdish minority.

The Kurds, who fought with the United States to topple Saddam, are one of Iraq's best organised ethnic groups after enjoying U.S-protected autonomy since the 1991 Gulf War. They have presented a plan to the Iraqi Governing Council that grants significant autonomy to the Kurdish region.

Zebari did not rule out the federalisation of Iraq as long as it did not violate territorial unity and added only the Iraqi people could choose the country's future political system.

[Atlantic Friend]

I remember there were a few theories :

1) Saddam had been informed by diplomatic channels the Coalition troops would not topple him, and that the very survival of his regime was not threatened. Thus, firing WMDs would be useless and counterproductive.

2) The Iraqi field commanders had received ample warning about the fact that their using chemical warheads would earn them a place in a future trial of war criminals.

3) The Iraqis hadn't maintained their chem warheads very well, and these things do not have a great life expectancy anyway as operational weapons.

I don't remember any other reason... Do you ?

[wizardoz]

On the other hand, if he didn't have them why didn't he cooperate fully to show that?

Because then the Kurds and Iranians would know he didn't have them.

[Coop]

You're welcome. I'm glad somebody noticed. :-D

Here's the live thread on Kay's report yesterday.

[aruanan]

"I have every belief that some of these weapons could be found as we move forward," Zebari, an Iraqi Kurd, told a news conference in Sofia. "They have been hidden in certain areas. The system of hiding was very sophisticated."

We'd be much closer to the actual state of affairs if those who so loudly proclaim that the fact we have not yet found Iraqi WMD means they don't exist at all were to acknowledge honestly how hard they've had to look for their keys or a check or some other item in their own homes before finding it, an object simply misplaced, not hidden, and then
1. think about how easily they would have found it had someone deliberately hidden it,
2. consider how easily they would have found it had someone deliberately hidden it, not in their house, but somewhere on their block, and
3. consider how well-hidden something could be given millions of dollars and an entire country, much of it sparsely populated, in which to hide it.

[dawn53]

The lefties claim that the Iraqis had the suits because they thought we were going to use chemical/bio weapons against them, LOL.

[Coop]

You would think that that was what an air force was for too, wouldn't you? Yet during Gulf War I, Saddam sent it to Iran rather than risk using it.

Nicely done!

[wizardoz]

If there are huge piles of WMDs hidden somewhere,

Nobody ever said they were huge piles. One of the advantages of bio-chem weapons is that a little goes a long way. The entire store is said to be small enough to hide in a semi-truck... but enough to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

[ConservativeLawyer]

Thanks for the info.

[Atlantic Friend]

Could be, but I don't think Saddam had much doubt about his survival when the Coalition forces approached Baghdad, though. At that point, WMD deterrence had failed, but he could still have used them in a punitive strike.

[Coop]

I don't remember any other reason... Do you ?

The Brits and Americans told Hussein via messenger that if he used WMDs, we would use all options at our disposal. I believe the Brits flat out said they'd nuke him. Hussein's got a long memory.

[cartoonistx]

HEAR! HEAR!

[bushfamfan]

And a lot of killing could have gone on in preparation for the war. They shot and executed some scientists the Kay team was talking to, some scientists were saying how they were continuing to develop WMD, so what is going on? I think there was stuff sent to Syria and I think there are some WMD still in Iraq and they obviously favor burying items in the sand, the 'insurgents' could be involved in attempts to continue to hide it. What we are looking for is about the size of a garage apparently and we're talking about a country the size of California.

[Solson]

I've started to read Kay's report. If you've finished the 400 page report, kudos to you.

That said, there was still a HUGE intelligence failure. If he had them, we should be able to find them, or the remnants of them. If he didn't, we should have also known that.

This was a HUGE intelligence failure.

[Atlantic Friend]

Sorry, but until the Coalition troops do find a WMD cache, to me it's still hanging. If and when they do, I'll stand duly corrected, but for the time being it's still anybody's guess.

[Coop]

You're quite welcome.

Now let me ask you this legal question... :-D

[George W. Bush]

"They have been hidden in certain areas. The system of hiding was very sophisticated."

If so, it would be the first sophisticated thing Saddam ever did.

In retrospect, he's never been more than a crude, brutal dictator. He led a glaringly stupid goverment and military.

[HankReardon]

After 9-11, America needs to look at those who wish to be her enemy in a different way. our military would not have gone into Afghanistan without the tragedies of 9-11. Nobody denounces going after the Taliban and bin Laden. Would it have been more proper to wait for such a good reason, a really good justification to go into Iraq and take Saddam out? hey, we found WMD's because of the Iraqi War, Lybia comes to mind.

[BenLurkin]

Sleeping in the sand.

[Johnny_Cipher]

A janitor in a WMD facility could become a very wealthy man right now by telling us where the stuff was buried. Some scientist who drank too much, could have told his wife where they are. To have a very active program, there are way too many people who know things. One person would have blabbed right now, either out of greed, out of spite, or out of fear of a very mean looking CIA field agent.

Good theory, but there's only one problem with it. The janitor could have been told that those weird-looking containers are holding spare Pine-Sol to clean the floors or couscous for Ahmed's birthday party next year. They certainly are not emblazoned with bright red labels screaming "UN-BANNED WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!" A single retort can hold enough biological toxin to destroy the population of entire countries. Further, janitors rarely hold security clearances and often aren't even allowed in the same room with material that does need a security clearance to see.

I do believe in the concept of "the secret that is too big to keep," which is why the tinfoil theory that we staged the Moon landings is so much horse manure. Every time you tell a person a secret, you damage the security of that secret a little bit more. People get drunk, they talk, they brag in bed to their lovers.

My personal theory? There are some Iraqi WMD being lovingly cared for in Syria and a forgotten few buried deep in some hole in the desert in Iraq. Neither even if discovered will be enough to change the minds of the "BUSH LIED!" crowd though.

[George W. Bush]

This was a HUGE intelligence failure.

Yeah, but the Soviet Union was falling to pieces before our eyes and the CIA/intel communitry were the very last to admit it.

Intel screwups aren't new or unique to the Bush administration.