Ya'alon: Iraq had chemical weapons

Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 26, 2004 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[yonif]

Iraq had chemical weapons and the means to deliver them ahead of last year's US-led invasion, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said in an interview published Monday.

Iraq may have transferred the weapons to Syria or buried them in desert sands, Ya'alon said, speaking a month after a parliamentary investigation criticized Israeli intelligence gathering on Iraq.

The parliamentary report found that Israeli warnings that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction were based on speculation and that Israeli authorities had little evidence to support this belief.

The report did not specifically address the issue of whether or not Saddam possessed chemical weapons.

In Monday's interview in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, Ya'alon said that before the war, Iraq had developed the ability to fit planes with chemical weapons that could have been used against Israel.

"There is no doubt that in the eight months leading up to the war, the Iraqis prepared an ability to deliver by air chemical weapons, at least at us," Ya'alon said.

He said the Iraqis were preparing drones and Russian Tupolev-16 and Sakhoi aircraft to carry dozens or hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of chemical substances.

He said the US military destroyed the planes in the first two days of the war - based on Israeli intelligence information. The chemical weapons, Yaalon said, were more carefully hidden.

"Perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria," Yaalon said. "We very clearly saw that something crossed into Syria. Perhaps, they (the Iraqis) buried them."

The United States cited Iraq's weapons capabilities as justification for the war. But since ousting Saddam last year, inspectors have failed to find chemical or biological weapons.

Yaalon, in tacit criticism of the US operation in Iraq, said he would have carried out searches in Iraq in a "different way than the Americans," but did not elaborate.

Yaalon did not relate to the parliamentary committee's findings.

In the weeks leading up to the war, the Israeli military ordered citizens to unseal gas masks they keep with them on a permanent basis. The decision cost the country millions of dollars, although no missiles were fired on Israel during the war.

In the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel. All had conventional warheads, causing considerable damage but few casualties.

[yonif]

Ping.

[yonif]

"Perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria," Yaalon said. "We very clearly saw that something crossed into Syria. Perhaps, they (the Iraqis) buried them."

[Tribune7]

bump

[tiamat]

I can't expose where I got this from. I also have pictures. I will try to upload those, but please be patient, as i am slow, and am working with dialup.


)

The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in
the sand after an informant tipped off U.S. troops.

The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by
U.S. Air Force recovery teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen
Iraqi jets buried in the sand, like hidden treasure, waiting to be
recovered at a later date.

Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets
found were from the Gulf War era.

The Russian-made MiG-25 Foxbat being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops in
the photos is an advanced reconnaissance version never before seen in the
West and is equipped with sophisticated electronic warfare devices.

U.S. Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to
uncover the MiG, which is over 70 feet long and weighs nearly 25 tons.

The Foxbat is known to be one of Iraq's top jet fighters. The advanced
electronic reconnaissance version found by the U.S. Air Force is currently
in service with the Russian air force. The MiG is capable of flying at
speeds of over 2,000 miles an hour, or three times the speed of sound, and
at altitudes of over 75,000 feet.

The recovery of the advanced MiG fighter is considered to be an
intelligence coup by the U.S. Air Force.. The Foxbat may also be equipped
with advanced Russian- and French-made electronics that were sold to Iraq
during the 1990s in violation of a U..N. ban on arms sales to Baghdad.

The buried aircraft at Al Taqqadum were covered in camouflage netting,
sealed and, in many cases, had their wings removed before being buried more
than 10 feet beneath the Iraqi desert.

X Marks the Spot

The discovery of the buried Iraqi jet fighters illustrates the problem
faced by U.S. inspection teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass
destruction. Iraq is larger in size than California, and the massive
deserts south and west of Baghdad were used by Saddam Hussein to hide
weapons during the first Gulf war.

U.S. intelligence sources have already uncovered several mass grave burial
sites in the open deserts with an estimated 10,000 dead hidden there. In
addition, Iraq previously hid SCUD missiles, chemical weapons and
biological warheads by burying them under the desert sand. U.N. inspection
teams found the weapons in the early 1990s after detailed information of
the exact locations was obtained.

Top U.S. weapons inspector Dr. David Kay is known to favor human
intelligence as the primary means to find Iraq's hidden treasure trove of
weapons and secrets.

While there are rumors of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons being
shipped to nearby Syria, the weapons may very well still remain inside Iraq
buried under the vast desert wastelands.

Some critics of the Bush administration have claimed that the inability of
U.S.. forces to uncover weapons of mass destruction is proof that the
president misled the nation into the war with Iraq.

However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly
leaked from Iraq that major discoveries have already been made and are now
being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any
such discoveries secret for the moment.



Pics are next.

[cake_crumb]

That explosion at the Baghdad warehouse wasn't caused by chem weapons...but there is reason to believe the warehouse contained chem weapons.

[billbears]

Pics are here, Friday's thread

It was a joke Friday just as it is today. A MIG is not a WMD

[tiamat]

He's still not supposed to have it.

And it doesn't make me feel good that there is all that new French equipment on it!

[billbears]

Sorry but I'm quite sure there are plenty of world leaders that aren't supposed to have a lot of things. Some may actually represent a threat to the borders of this nation of states. A MIG does not.

[Steve_Seattle]

However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly leaked from Iraq that major discoveries have already been made and are now being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment.

How reliable is this, and is this current information?

[TomasUSMC]

We have not found any WMDs in Iraq yet, but soon WMDs are going to find US in Iraq.

Time is not on our side.
Fight with everything you have now and win now

or get everything you have out now.

[tiamat]

The person who handed it to me was 10th Special Forces way back when. ( He's older and out now. He's also at work, which is why I filed the headers off of it. )


He says he got it from an Air Force NCO that he talks to.

[tiamat]

Sorry.

Forgot to finsih answering you.

The guy I am talking to says he found it in his mail this morning.

[Travis McGee]

WMD ping.

[Eagle Eye]

Don't know a dam thing about them. Dam things are really hard to find. Who knows where those dam things could be hiding?

[Enduring Freedom]

Photo of MiG fighter jet recently being extracted from desert sands in Iraq. If fighter jets were buried in the sand, do you think small caches of WMD could be somewhere in the sands of Iraq too? Liberals are too stupid to run the Free World.

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[oolatec]

Well then, where the hell are they? Something needs to break, and break soon...

[Imal]

Forgotten Treasures Bump

[daybreakcoming]

Sir, I have been thinking the same as you on this subject for some time now. I worry that our troops are being drawn in for disaster. But then I am a worrier.