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.

[Coop]

The parcelling out theory is nothing but BS.

You haven't a clue as to whether or not it's BS.

[sarasota]

The workers on the Taj Mahal had their hands cut off after their work was finished.

[savedbygrace]

Both are correct. IMO.

[plain talk]

We have over a hundred thousand boots on the ground,

This reminded me of a local incident where a guy liked to keep snakes in his trailer and a cobra escaped in the neighborhood. The whole area was combing looking for this snake. To me, it seemed incredible they couldn't find it. I then drove over to the "neighborhood" which bordered on extremely dense woods more akin to jungle. After seeing this I realized - they ain't ever gonna find this snake! And they never did. I think it's the same thing with trying to find thimble-fulls of bio agents in desert the size of California.

[kinghorse]

Folks we are in the economic fight for our survival. Murdering a few thousand people with WMD's is child's play compared to the fallout of an energy crisis. Let's keep our eye on the ball and accept the political posturing as a means to an end.

[wizardoz]

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.

A lot of them HAVE come forward. A lot of the programs HAVE been identified and reported on. It's just the actual supplies we're looking for now. And as I said, even the "large stockpile" in question is quite small in terms of square footage.

[ConservativeLawyer]

That's not accurate. We've located many facilities and personnel involved with the WMD programs.

We located facilities and personnel involved in WMD programs that were active?

I thought Dr. Kay's testimony was that the scientists were taking the money for the programs, but not actually making any weapons. And that all the Generals all thought some other General actually had the weapons, but none actually did. Maybe I missed something.

[reegs]

Also, we're not going to find "stock piles" of chemical weapons laying around! From my limited understanding, the chemicals have to be mixed right before firing. So, the idea of us stumbling across some war heads fully loaded is a misconception -- one you'd think the Dem candidates would be aware of if they were being truthful.

[eyespysomething]

Genghis Khan (saw this on the History Channel last week)

When he died, a group of 50 soldiers and many maids made the trek into the steppes, killing anyone they came across. After they buried Attila, then 50 soldiers killed those soldiers and maids and those 50 soldiers were killed...

Madmen do not care about life.

No one has ever been able to find the burial tombs/sites of the Khans. They did a good job of hiding them.

[GigaDittos]

Baathist Broadcasting Company

[dc-zoo]

Anyone anywhere near to the hiding of saddam's weapons would be very dead. You can bet on that.

[Solson]

While he had months and months and years to hide them, where was our intelligence? We should have been able to track em down.

As Kay said, this is a collosal failure on the part of US Intelligence, primarily the CIA. Many of these failures have taken place under George Tenet.

Why GW Bush won't sack Tenet is something I really fail to understand. The guy has not been working for Bush and it shows.

The Bush Administrations biggest mistakes during these years has been the failure to clean house in the State Department, Intelligence apparatus and the Joint Chiefs. The failure to aggressively use Spec. Ops, the failure of having US diplomats vocally opposing the President's initiatives and the failure of the intelligence community are, right now, severely hurting this President. I hope he understands that.

[HankReardon]

Very dangerous to use WMD's. We are winning this war, the people trained to properly disperse chemical or biological weapons are probably gone. Besides, the low level insurgients that are left would not have been told where the WMD's have been taken, hidden or whatever.

[GigaDittos]

On the other hand, if he didn't have them why didn't he cooperate fully to show that? He could have kept his palaces and all. So he's a fool or didn't know that he didn't have any.

[hobson]

From my limited understanding, the chemicals have to be mixed right before firing.

I heard that too but I cannot remember which chemical. Mustard?

[Kadric]

Heavy water. It is used to moderate a nuclear reaction the same way that the US scientists used carbon bricks in Chicago. The German scientists believed that it was the only way to control a reaction so once their source was lost the project was basicly stopped.

[NYC Republican]

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

I agree with all of this.

[kegler4]

You are exactly right.

If there are huge piles of WMDs hidden somewhere, there are numerous people out there who know about them and at least one of those people would find it worth the reward (either money or a free pass out of prison) to tell. It hasn't happened because the WMD stockpiles aren't there, pure and simple. Does anybody really believe these scumbags are so honorable and loyal that they'll rot in prison or rat holes rather than give it up?

[Dave S]

What evidence do you have other than in your mind?

[HankReardon]

No, the question of whether there ever was any WMD's in Iraq is NOT still hanging.