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.
Hard water (H3O).
In 1934, Norsk Hydro built the first commercial heavy water plant with a capacity of 12 tonnes per year at Vemork. During World War II, the allies decided to destroy the plant and its heavy water in order to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons. In late 1942, a raid by British paratroopers failed when the gliders crashed. All the raiders were killed in the crash or shot by the Germans. In February 1943, a group of 12 Norwegian infiltrators, trained in Britain and dropped by parachute into Norway, managed to disrupt production for two months by dynamiting the facilities. On November 16, 1943, the allied air forces dropped over 400 bombs on the site.The allied air raid prompted the German government to move all available heavy water to Germany for safekeeping. However, on February 20, 1944, a Norwegian partisan was able to sink the ferry carrying the heavy water across Lake Tinnsjoe at the cost of 14 Norwegian civilians.
The story was used for a 1966 Hollywood movie, The Heroes of Telemark, starring Kirk Douglas.
That's not accurate. We've located many facilities and personnel involved with the WMD programs.
Owl_Eagle
" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
Unless a "few dozen" knew?
You're pretty generous in handing out membership invitations to the "Need to Know Club". :-)
I agree he had scientists working on WMD but there is no evidence that he had any stockpiles of WMD weapons since shortly after the end of the first Gulf War. Is there a vial of Antrax or something buried somewhere in Iraq? Probably but do you think anyone that can do anything with it knows where any more? I dont think so. Pity the poor archiologist some thousand years from now...
The same way you know we destroyed all his WMDs after Desert Storm.
Actually, what the idiots believe is that the UN, Russians, Germans, British, French, and Israelis, as well as Clinton, Gore, Madeleine Albright, Bill Cohen, Tom Daschle, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, et.al. were honestly confused when they thought Iraq had WMDs, but that Bush knew better and lied. The lefties' faith in Bush's omniscience is touching to behold.
If I had to bet the mortgage money today, I would still wager Saddam had most of what we thought he had. The tough question is whether the stuff was moved, is still buried, or was mostly destroyed in the immediate runup to or early phases of the war. Since concealment, transportability and, presumably, a destruct option if necessary would all be obvious parts of a clandestine WMD program, none of these possibilities requires a stretch. I just find it difficult to believe the whole world was wrong about this, inasmuch as the subject was a matter of intensive scrutiny by all concerned. Occam's razor.
David Kay had two choices: Admit "I can't find them," or claim, "They must not be there." He's covering his butt.
They also weren't foolish enough to use WMDs during Desert Storm, when they without a doubt possessed them. Do you remember why?
Not really... he didn't dare use them against the US for fear of just what we might do. He did indeed use them against the Kurds and Iran. I think that up till the bitter end he was hoping that the international community (in other words, France) would pressure us to pull out prematurely, and he could resume power. Different measures for different enemies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.