Posted on 01/29/2004 6:40:30 AM PST by 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.
Then how come no one is coming forward, and telling us where Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is so they can collect the $10 million dollar reward? Why did it take so long to find where Saddam was with a $25 million dollar reward? I don't think the reward for telling us where WMD's are is as large. I think your logic is flawed.
There were WMD and some are likely still there. Buried under the desert sand along with thousands of tons of conventional weapons. Why haven't we found all of the conventional weapons buried around Iraq yet? If Saddam buried so many conventional weapons why wouldn't he bury his WMD? Face it. They guy buried everything and it's going to take a long time to find them, but we will.
You cite two issues: Missiles and the WMDs that refer to chemical and biological agents.
David Kay, the inspector whose report says that he thinks Saddam did not have stockpiles of the latter, has said missile production most definitely was up and running and they had missiles capable of going well beyond the proscribed limit and thus that is one aspect of violation that has been proven.
Good to see you again.
Don't forget nukes.
We've got to presume Hussein felt he was going to survive. He did often brag about his survival ability. And this presumption is somewhat backed up by the fact that he was still in Iraq. I really started to suspect he had fleed the country.
But let's use Kay's own words...
"In the course of doing that, I had innumerable analysts who came to me in apology that the world that we were finding was not the world that they had thought existed and that they had estimated. Reality on the ground differed in advance."
Let me begin by saying, we were almost all wrong, and I certainly include myself here.
Why is it so hard to understand that the pre-War intelligence specifically regarding stockpiles was wrong? Thus, in that instance, this was an Intelligence failure. Kay said that yesterday - in no uncertain terms!
In the recent months we have further examples of intelligence failures - the degree of Libya's Nuke program, the degree of Iran's nuke program - are two examples.
You're about the only one viewing them as different. The media and politicians, nor many around here, certainly aren't. But I still disagree. As I've pointed out more than once on this thread, the pre-war WMD intel was not wrong. Our folks correctly identified sites, players, equipment, front companies. But because the weapons aren't where dated intel said they'd be, you claim it's wrong? That's silly. Yeah, no chance the Iraqis would move the stuff, huh?
And what regime practicing denial, deception and obstruction is going to store banned weapons in large stockpiles? Answer: None.
Kay was talking to politicians. And your points about Iran and Libya - you mentioned degrees. In other words, we were aware of the WMD programs. Just didn't know all there was to know.
Welcome to the intelligence world. That's not a failure. But it won't stop politicians and decision makers from saying it is.
If the intel were a failure, we'd still be trying to figure out who the WMD players were. In other words, we'd be completely flabbergasted that they even had WMD programs.
Obviously, you missed the discussion of WMD related programs. The Antrhax simulent they used to advance their Antrhax capabilities, from liquid Antrhax to much more lethal "freeze dryed" Anthrax a la the Anthrax letters. The development of VX nerve gas precursors, from indiginous material. The decision to resurrect the delivery systems (ie. the al-Samoud missle) first as they considered them to be the most time consuming part of their WMD program.
All benign activities indeed. Did you watch the testimony?
Sorry, but I can't do everything. I've laid the resources at your feet.
Plain and simple. The stockpiles projected before the war have not surfaced and the available evidence points to these stockpiles not existing.
That is a very important intelligence failure due to Tenet's reliance upon UN inspectors, satellites, and intercepts and Tenet's failure to have folks on the ground.
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