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.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WMD in Iraq. The 2004 version of "The October Surprise"?

[Tricorn]

As for no one talking, there is still a question of war crimes. If I were an Iraqi scientist, I might tell interrogators that instead of using Saddam's money to produce WMD, I spent it on hookers and booze. I was fooling Saddam the whole time, you see. I was risking the shredder for humanity's sake. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Whatever you say...

[sarasota]

Saddam didn't believe that he would be captured and eliminated from office. He now knows he's captured but still considers himself the head guy. Why would his buddies confess at this point? Think Mafia? A very small, select few are involved in the wmd big picture agenda. And the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, so to speak.

[HankReardon]

Hitler's scientists were working toward acquiring the an atomic bomb, they were trying to develop "?????? water" (somebody help me here) that was a step toward.

[roses of sharon]

The "Stumping for Saddam" crowd at FR, would much rather believe the innocent victims are Saddam and Sons.

And that Bush/Blair/Chenney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Powell/and world-wide intell, were all lying, mistaken, medacious, devious, and sinister.

It's their "conspirazoid" nature.

And their tendancies are towards melo-drama, not unlike the Dems, and their elite media enablers.

Makes for a very un-serious conversation.

[hopespringseternal]

But then one of history's biggest mysteries will be why didn't Saddam use them.

If they exist then it is possible that he hid them so well that even he couldn't get to them in a timely manner. It's like keeping all your guns unloaded in a gun safe. When someone kicks in your door, they shoot you while you are still fiddling with the dial on the safe.

The war started with bombs with his name on them, so communicating effectively to his minions would be very difficult. He apparently sent the order, but the right people may not have received it.

[Rebelbase]

"I have yet to see an official account of what happened to those." In the Moveon.org propaganda movie that was shown at house parties in Oct., it was stated by a left leaning CIA official that one of Saddam's own sons claimed to have overseen the destruction of those weapons.

That should be good enough us all......./sarcasm.

miserable failure

[dfwgator]

During the Vietnam War, the supposedly backward VC had a complex network of tunnels that made it impossible to find where they were hiding along with their stashes of weapons. Iraq is a much bigger country that had access to a lot more money than the Vietnamese, plus Saddam would have bumped off anyone who knew too much. Besides that, so what if he didn't have any weapons readily deployable, better we stopped him before he had them, because he was going to have them one day if not already.

[sarasota]

Thank you. I'm outta here.

[Atlantic Friend]

Yes, if we're talking chem warheads, I agree. But I wonder, when you're desperate and your capital is about to fall to the Coalition forces, does it stops you from trying ? The purpose of WMD is to make people think twice about attacking you, and if it fails then it's to make them regret they did.

I'm not saying there were no WMDs, see. IMHO, the question is still hanging. But if there were, the only logical explanation I can think of is that the unit commanders used them to buy their safe escape to Syria, Iran, or Jordan. I suppose US intelligence is tracking not only the scientists, but the artillery commanders that would have been ordered to fire the possible WMDs, and that we'll soon see whether my theory makes any sense (if at all).

[ConservativeLawyer]

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

I don't want to sound like a WMD "deadender," especially since I'm leaning toward the No WMD camp after carefully listening to Dr. Kay (Before the war I was certain Iraq still had them), but I'm having trouble reconciling something.

We are told again and again that Iraq's WMD programs would have required hundreds of people and big facilities, none of which we can locate. But at the same time, our government seems to suspect Dr. Hatfill made quantities of highly sophisticated weaponized anthrax in his apartment all by himself.

Just something to think about.

[Dave S]

What the hell does Zebari know? He believes there must be but he didnt see them, nor know where they are buried. His last concrete knowledge was in the late 80's when Saddam used WMD on the Kurds. Well in the early 90's we defeated Saddam and forced him to get rid of those weapons. The UN guys oversaw the disposal.

I dont know why you guys get your panties all in a twit over some former exile that probably fed the poor intelligence to the CIA and is now trying to recreate the myth of WMD to protect his reputation.

[HankReardon]

You admit that Saddam had WMD's, my next question is, Where are they now? Are chemical and biological weapons something that can be disposed of easily? Would they be so quick about doing so after milions of $$$ and decades to acqire them and develop them? They must be some where if they had them in the first place. Right?

[areafiftyone]

I think that Saddam was sooo paranoid that he didn't have Iraqi scientists working on it. I truly believe he didn't trust any of them. I think he may have had scientists from other countries working on them instead and if needed be they can transport them into Iraq as quickly as possible. I think this was a ploy so Saddam could truthfully say to the U.N. that the U.S. was crazy and there were no weapons of Mass distruction in Iraq. They were all set up for him in other countries for his disposal. He knew we were going to go in and he fooled us into thinking that they were there. This may be a far fetched idea but I can see his paranoia working overtime on this one. But that could explain the convoys in Syria.

[plain talk]

He now knows he's captured but still considers himself the head guy

You raise a good point. Many try to analyze this as if Saddam were a rational, logical person. He still thinks he's the President now FCOL. LOL! It could be he hid them well and thought he could make a resurgence which is consistent with his recent reported statements.

[HankReardon]

Another one! Okay, I'll put the question to you, Do you believe Saddam EVER have biological and/or chemical WMD's?

[thinktwice]

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.

Saddam had no qualms about killing people for no reason at all.

And ... Saddam had reasons for killing those knowing where WMD are hidden.

The same technique was used in ancient Egpyt to preserve secrets regarding royal burial sites -- the "workers" were executed when their task was finished.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Fox should have put this on their website as soon as it was told to them.

I don't even bother to go to Fox's website after they report a news item. It's always been a waste of time. I hear something there and use Google News search, or wire services.

[Dave S]

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

And you know this how? You psychic or something?

[dogbyte12]

Actually many of these weapons have short half lives. The chemicals break down, become unstable. A 15 year old chemical weapon might not even give you a cold.

Again, if, just one person pointed out to where a thimble full of stuff was, I could accept that we might be missing something here. We have over a hundred thousand boots on the ground, Saddam is captured, his sons dead, and a lottery ticket with the mega number for just one person who comes forward with the goods. Just don't hold your breath.