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.

[HankReardon]

Let's kick Syria's door down and have look in there.

[mlbford2]

I'll believe it when I can touch and smell the mustard and VX gas myself.

[areafiftyone]

The guy had months and months and months and months and months and months and months to hide the WMD.

He sure did. All those months we were trying to get the U.N. on board and the Press was reporting the Iraqi people getting ready for war they must have been transporting all their WMD's to Syria and other countries right in front of their eyes. It was a gut feeling I had then and I still have now.

[Coop]

Only one problem with your theory, with all due respect. Iraq already had the WMDs. There's no debate there. So spending the money on booze, babes, etc. does not in any way invalidate the work they previously did. Yes, UNSCOM destroyed a lot of equipment and data, but does anyone believe that the inspectors (who were, BTW, absent for four years) found everything? I find that quite unreasonable.

[Physicist]

But in 1998, according to the U.N., there were still existing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons left over from the 1991 Gulf War. I have yet to see an official account of what happened to those.

[dogbyte12]

Of course I believe that. He gassed the kurds and the Iranians. I do believe that he buried his stuff in 1991, and then tried on the sly to get things going again.

I am reminded of Hitler here. The Nazi scientists told Hitler that they were working on the A-bomb, but they were deliberately doing no such thing. The same factor could be in play here.

I am not a pollyana here. I believed before the war that he had WMDs. The facts now made me change that belief. If you genuinely believe that of the hundreds of people who would be required to work on a WMD program, all of them are either dead, or not motivated by a multimillion dollar payoff, I think you are wrong. It's human nature. Somebody would have squealed by now. Heck, I am sure the CIA is sodium pentatholing some folks. We still have squat. Facts are facts. Wishful thinking usually gets one nowhere.

Saddam was a worldclass maniacal a-hole. I am glad to see him go. I can divorce that from the issue of biologically and chemically active weapons. I have no doubt that he wanted to get the program going again. For that fact, he should have been taken out. Just referring here to the facts on the ground.

[sarasota]

Saddam parceled out the wmd program. A little info here, a little info there. His buddies have carefully sequestered them (syria, yemen, etc.) and they aren't telling. Covert activities will reveal all in time.

[HankReardon]

Very dangerous to use chemical or biological weapons, the wind has to be blowing the right direction, cannot shift back on your own troops. Many factors to consider.

[smith288]

I wonder if the Iraqis are working with the White House directly for political advantage.

Does the Iraqi leadership want Bush back so they will work with us in undermining Democrats who hang themselves out to dry during the election season?

[Redcoat LI]

I agree.
Everyone,including Saddam Hussein knew he had these items.
If he destroyed them,why didn't he tell anyone?
They are there.

[Coop]

I'll believe it when I can touch and smell the mustard and VX gas myself.

You go right ahead. You won't have very long to enjoy your newfound belief.

[Semper Paratus]

I have a chilling feeling that the next time we see Iraq's WMDS will be in the form of a mass mailing.

[Dave S]

Dont you think that if the old regime people who are fighting us in Iraq had a clue where these WMD's were that they wouldnt be using them on us in Iraq?

I think its about time to get used to the idea that either Saddam ran a shell game or he was conned by his own scientists and he didnt have any stockpiles.

[HankReardon]

Do you believe Iraq EVER had WMD"s? That's the question.

[Tricorn]

By their own admission and by the fact that they used them, Iraq is known to have had WMD. UN inspectors were unable to verify that these known WMD were ever destroyed. Therefore, Saddam had to go. This is what makes this debate so easy, and why the Dems are making a big mistake walking into this minefield. Stripped of the media filter, it's a big arching softball for our side.

[sarasota]

Don't get too close.

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

They may be hiding in plain sight, right under our noses...

[plain talk]

It would have happened by now unless only a few dozen people knew where stuff was buried, and then they were almost all murdered.

Bingo. We have a winner. Remember all the mass graves? Remember what the ancient eqptians used to do with the people who designed and built the secret chambers? The problem is - regardless of which camp we are in - we may just never know. There's too much sand and too many dead bodies.

[Coop]

We still have squat. Facts are facts.

Pick one. Facts or squat. They're mutually exclusive. We have plenty, PLENTY of WMD equipment and evidence. What we don't yet have is unequivocal NBC weapons.

[End Times Sentinel]

It would have happened by now unless only a few dozen people knew where stuff was buried, and then they were almost all murdered.

 

This is a possibility, but I tend to agree with the rest of your post.

 

From what I take away, Sadam was funding multiple WMD programs, but by and large the scientists in charge were scamming him.  If Sadam didn't know, how on earth were WE supposed to know?

 

1. The point is, he was in violation of 1441, he had unaccounted for WMDs and missiles that far exceeded the treaty range. 
2. Iraq was a training ground and haven for terrorists. 
3. The people of Iraq were systematically being cleansed by one of the worst dictators on the planet today. 
4. It presented the opportunity to put a footprint of stability in the Middle East which badly needed it.

If our intelligence was bad (as was the intelligence of every major agency in the world) then the solution is to rebuild our intel community, not to return to power the party that decimated it with such a feverous hostility.

 

 

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"