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.

[Dog]

Hmmmmmm!

Is another show about to drop?

[Dog]

SHOE!

[finnman69]

interesting

[sarasota]

No surprise here (for me). Others, however, seem to be leaning towards the "no-WMD camp". We'll find them. Patience, please.

[eyespysomething]

Unless you mean BBC show.



/ attempt at humor

[rhombus]

No surprise here (for me). Others, however, seem to be leaning towards the "no-WMD camp". We'll find them. Patience, please.

And what a trump card that would be with an election bearing down on us. Are you saying we should keep our powder dry?

[Mo1]

Well I wish it would drop ... I'm getting sick of hearing these liberals screaming

[dogbyte12]

I am in the no WMD camp. Face it. 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.

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

Occam's razor. Most logical explanation is that they aren't there. Saddam might have believed his scientists were spending money on WMDs while they were using it on booze and hookers, but the only logical explanation now, especially after his capture, and the promise of untold riches if you are the one guy who can lead the US to the goodies, means that they just ain't there.

Jamir the Mop Jockey, who was sweeping up the manufacturing plant as they discussed the burial spot for WMD's while ignoring him, would be making plans of having an estate in the bahamas already if he actually had such info to give.

[jigsaw]

Is another show about to drop?

SHOE!

Or maybe a Paw?   ;-)

[billbears]

Sure you will. Sure you will. Just keep telling yourself that

[BureaucratusMaximus]

From Reuters? Holy hidden WMD's Batman!

[Axenolith]

BTTT

[areafiftyone]

That's really strange because I heard it first on Fox and Friends about 7:20 this morning and I looked all over the Fox website for it and NOTHING! I finally got into my Reuters News Alerts and it was there. Fox should have put this on their website as soon as it was told to them. Apparently this is not important news enough for them. And I like Fox.

[dfwgator]

A janitor in a WMD facility could become a very wealthy man right now by telling us where the stuff was buried

Uhh, Saddam would have made sure said janitor would be pushing up daisies.

[HankReardon]

Do you believe Saddam's Iraq, Saddam's miltary EVER pocessed WMD's?

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[HankReardon]

Yeah, the groundhogs would be delivering that janitor's mail.

[petercooper]

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

Anyone who believes he never had them and Bush lied, is an idiot.

[Atlantic Friend]

Well, maybe they'll turn up. But then one of history's biggest mysteries will be why didn't Saddam use them. It could inspire historians and writers for decades.

If he had even tried to use them, we should know by now, there'd be some evidence of it : an aborted air mission, the firing of SCUDs at Coalition forces or at Israel in some desperate attempt to bring the other Arab nations in the war, etc. But there's just zilch. Did he have the weapons, and his commanders stole them to buy their safe passage to Syria ? That would explain why Saddam was stuck in Iraq, hiding literally under a rock. Did they refuse to use them so as to avoid a postwar firing squad, and just hid them really well ?

I have some difficulty accepting he spirited the weapons out of his country and yet chose to stay there, hidden in his little spider hole with absolutely NO chance of ever coming back to power. He could have said to the Syrians : hide me, and half the weapons are yours. Strange.