Posted on 08/11/2004 8:38:45 PM PDT by COEXERJ145
Saddam Hussein gave up all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, the scientist who headed his nuclear program, Jaffar Dhia Jaffar, said in a BBC interview on Wednesday.
"There was no capability. There was no chemical or biological or any what are called weapons of mass destruction," said Jaffar in what BBC television called his first-ever broadcast interview.
Speaking in Paris, where he now lives, Jaffar - who ran Saddam's nuclear program for 25 years - said there was "no development" of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons "at any time after 1991".
He said he knew that for a fact "because I am in touch with the people concerned".
Saddam's quest for weapons of mass destruction - and the fear that they might fall into the hands of global terrorists - was one of the prime reasons given for the US and British invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Nearly 18 months on, no such weapons have been uncovered - a fact that both US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been forced to concede.
Jaffar told the BBC he remained loyal to Saddam's regime until he slipped out of Iraq via Syria two days before the fall of Baghdad which signalled the collapse of the longtime Iraqi dictator.
(Excerpt) Read more at afr.com ...
>>>He said he knew that for a fact "because I am in touch with the people concerned".
Then why isn't he in custody?
OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (DAVID KAY SAYS NORTH KOREA APPARENTLY BILKED IRAQ IN A MISSILE DEAL GONE SOUR) WASHINGTON (AP) — Missing: $10 million. Last seen in North Korea. If found, please contact Saddam Hussein. In a double-cross between nations President Bush has labeled parts of an "axis of evil" with Iran, North Korea apparently bilked Saddam's Iraq out of millions of dollars in a missile deal gone sour, according to chief CIA weapons hunter David Kay. In 1999, Saddam's minions sought some clandestine missile help from North Korea, Kay told reporters Friday. He described it as evidence Iraq intended to build long-range missiles in violation of U.N. prohibitions. The North Koreans were willing, particularly after Saddam plunked down a $10 million down payment. In exchange, Pyongyang was to provide parts from its No Dong class of ballistic missiles, a sort of super-Scud that can hit targets 800 miles distant, as well as send some other, unspecified assistance. A contract was inked. The money was sent. By 2002, Pyongyang hadn't delivered. "As a result of the Iraqis' inquiring 'Where is the stuff we paid for?', the North Koreans said, 'There's so much U.S. attention on us that we cannot deliver it," Kay said. "The Iraqis said, 'Well, we don't like this, but give us our $10 million back." The North Koreans refused, and kept refusing until Saddam's regime fell in April. Kay described Iraqi documents that contained increasingly desperate entreaties from the Iraqis for the money. "It's a lesson in negotiating with the North Koreans, as the Iraqis found out the hard way," Kay said. "Money in advance may not come your way if there's non-delivery on a contract." . - 'North Korea holds onto $10M payment," By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, The Associated Press 10/3/2003, 7:11 p.m. ET
Well, he was in custody. Why he no longer is, I don't know.
This is AFP, Australia. On Britt Hume tonight, Britt named an Iraqui scientist who stated today that Iraq was two years away from nuclear in 1991 and that after the Gulf War, the Republican Guard moved WMD of chemical and biological weapons around Iraq so they were never discovered by the UN inspectors. This scientist said Saddam had them.
I believe the news media do NOT consider chemical and bio weapons WMD--only nuclear devices would satisfy them on the subject. As though chemical and biological weapons are not WMD.
vaudine
Uh, would ya believe he shot himself six times? If Abu Nidal could do it, why can't a scientist?
OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (KAY SAYS AFTER SPEAKING WITH INVESTIGATORS IN IRAQ; ONE SCIENTIST ASSASSINATED, ONE WAS SHOT SIX TIMES AND SURVIVED - THIS SCIENTIST'S NEPHEW HAD ALSO BEEN SHOT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Iraqi scientists were shot in Baghdad after they talked to the U.S.-led team hunting weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and others believe they will be in danger if they collaborate in the search, Washington's chief weapons inspector David Kay said on Friday. Kay, who is directing the WMD hunt as an adviser to the CIA, presented an interim report to U.S. lawmakers this week that said no banned weapons had yet been found. Some Iraqi scientists have sought relocation in the United States out of fear for the safety of their families, and others who want to stay in Iraq seek security guarantees, Kay told reporters on a conference call. "They believe they are in genuine danger ... if they collaborate with us," he said.
One scientist was "assassinated literally hours after meeting" with a member of the WMD-hunting team, killed by a single shot to the back of his head outside his apartment, Kay said. There were no signs of robbery.
Another scientist, who was "really golden for us," was shot six times but survived, he said. Kay declined to name them. "The scientist who took six bullets was ... key to starting our understanding of the biological weapons program and pointing us in the direction of others," he said. His nephew was also shot in the incident a month and a half ago, Kay said.
"We engaged in a lot of conversations with him. We perhaps were not as sensitive to his security needs as now in retrospect we realize we should have been," he said. "It's very difficult to conduct clandestine meetings in Iraq when you have to go pick people up because ... transport was hard to come by."
But Kay said cooperation from Iraqis, inside and outside detention, has increased. "This is an intelligence-led operation, we are absolutely dependent on the cooperation of Iraqis to help us discover the complete truth about the WMD programs," he noted. - "Kay: Two Iraqi WMD Scientists Shot for Helping U.S.," by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters , 10/3/03
>>>Well, he was in custody. Why he no longer is, I don't know.
Can BBC quote you on that?
/teasing.
I think you can give Iraq Watch, http://www.iraqwatch.org a run for their money :)
>>>Uh, would ya believe he shot himself six times? If Abu Nidal could do it, why can't a scientist?
ROFL!
Pay no attention to those other bullets.
I WELCOME this opportunity to discuss the progress that the Iraq Survey Group has made in its initial three months of its investigation into Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs.--- "PAYDIRT ," (David Kay-Must Read), New York Post , David KayThe Interim Progress Report is a snapshot, in the context of an ongoing investigation, of where we are after our first three months of work. It does not represent a final reckoning of Iraq's WMD programs, nor are we prepared to close the file on any of these programs.
While solid progress - I would say even remarkable, progress considering the conditions the ISG has had to work under - has been made in this initial period, much remains to be done.
We are still very much in the collection-and-analysis mode, still seeking the information and evidence that will allow us to confidently draw comprehensive conclusions to the actual objectives, scope and dimensions of Iraq's WMD activities at the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A HUGE TASK
IRAQ's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and were elaborately shielded by security and deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The very scale of this program, coupled with conditions in Iraq, dictate the speed at which we can move to a comprehensive understanding of Iraq's WMD activities. With the regime of Saddam Hussein at an end, ISG has the opportunity for the first time of drawing together all the evidence that can still be found - much evidence is irretrievably lost - to reach definitive conclusions concerning the true state of Iraq's WMD program.
It is far too early to reach any definitive conclusions; in some areas, we may never reach that goal. But the unique nature of this opportunity requires that we take great care to ensure that the conclusions we draw reflect the truth to the maximum extent possible given the conditions in post-conflict Iraq.
We have not yet found stocks of weapons, but we are not yet at the point where we can say definitively that such weapon stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone. We are actively searching, based on information being supplied to us by Iraqis.
WHY THE SEARCH REMAINS TOUGH
WHY are we having such difficulty in finding weapons or in reaching a confident conclusion on their existence or removal?
1) From birth, all of Iraq's WMD activities were highly compartmentalized within a regime that ruled and kept its secrets through fear and terror and with deception and denial built into each program.
2) Deliberate dispersal and destruction of material and documentation related to weapons programs began pre-conflict and ran trans- to post-conflict.
3) Post-war looting destroyed or dispersed important and easily collectable material and evidence concerning Iraq's WMD program. As the report covers in detail, significant elements of this looting were carried out in a systematic and deliberate manner, with the clear aim of concealing pre-war activities of Saddam's regime.
4) Some WMD personnel crossed borders in the pre/trans-conflict period and may have taken evidence and even weapons-related materials with them.
5) Any actual WMD weapons or material is likely to be small in relation to the total conventional-armaments "footprint" and difficult to near-impossible to identify with normal search procedures. Even the bulkiest materials we are searching for, in the quantities we would expect to find, can be concealed in spaces not much larger than a two-car garage.
6) The environment in Iraq remains far from permissive for our activities, with many Iraqis that we talk to reporting threats and overt acts of intimidation and our own personnel being subject to threats and attacks.
WMD PROGRAMS: REAL EVIDENCE
WHAT have we found in the first three months of our work? We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery came about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence.
A few examples:
* A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to U.N. monitoring and suitable for continuing chemical and biological weapons research.
* A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of biological weapons agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for U.N. inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the United Nations.
* Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.
* New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the United Nations.
* Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists' homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation.
* A line of UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] in not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.
* Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the United Nations.
* Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the United Nations. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East.
* Clandestine attempts between late 1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles - probably the No Dong - 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.
SIGNS OF MASSIVE CONCEALMENT
IN addition, to the discovery of extensive concealment efforts, we have been faced with a systematic sanitization of documentary and computer evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies suspected of WMD work. The pattern of these efforts to erase evidence - hard drives destroyed, specific files burned, equipment cleaned of all traces of use - is one of deliberate, not random, acts.
For example:
* On July 10, an ISG team exploited the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) Headquarters in Baghdad. The basement of the main building contained an archive of documents situated on well-organized rows of metal shelving. The basement suffered no fire damage despite the total destruction of the upper floors from coalition air strikes. Upon arrival, the exploitation team encountered small piles of ash where individual documents or binders of documents were intentionally destroyed. Hard drives had been deliberately destroyed. Computers would have had financial value to a random looter; their destruction, rather than removal for resale or reuse, indicates a targeted effort to prevent Coalition forces from gaining access to their contents.
* All IIS laboratories visited by IIS exploitation teams have been clearly sanitized, including removal of much equipment, shredding and burning of documents and even the removal of nameplates from office doors.
THERE are two reasons that drive us to want to complete this effort.
Whatever we find will probably differ from pre-war intelligence. Reality on the ground is, and has always been, different from intelligence judgments that must be made under serious constraints of time, distance and information. Yet it is only by understanding precisely what those difference are that the quality of future intelligence and investment decisions concerning future intelligence systems can be improved. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is such a continuing threat to global society that learning those lessons has a high imperative.
We have found people, technical information and illicit-procurement networks that if allowed to flow to other countries and regions could accelerate global proliferation. Even in the area of actual weapons, there is no doubt that Iraq had at one time chemical and biological weapons. Even if there were only a remote possibility that these pre-1991 weapons still exist, we have an obligation to troops who are now there and the Iraqi population to ensure that none of these remain to be used against them in the ongoing insurgency activity.
I am certain that I speak for Major-Gen. Keith Dayton, who commands the Iraqi Survey Group, when I say how proud we are of the men and women from across the government and from our coalition partners, Australia and the United Kingdom, who have gone to Iraq and are carrying out this important mission.
NOVEMBER 16, 2003 Sunday : (IRAQ NEWS REPORTS ON DAVID KAY'S DISCOVERIES IN IRAQ- ALUMINUM ISSUE) The CSIS website carries notes by Anthony Cordesman from a recent trip to Iraq. Those covering an interview with David Kay on Iraq's weapons programs (pps 6 & 7, lower left #'s ) are at: http://www.csis.org/features/031114current.pdf
The notes underline the importance to Saddam of Iraq's biological weapons program: "Situation is complicated by shift of bio program from Al Hakim to Tuwaitha in 96 [ie after Hussein Kamil defected], which fooled the UN because Tuwaitha was seen as a nuclear site at [sic] looked at by IAEA and not UNSCOM." Is Kay suggesting that his group has found significant aspects of Iraq's BW program that were unknown to UNSCOM, so well was this program hidden?
Regarding the nuclear progran, "Kay said people still misunderstand the aluminum tube issue. Never able to track overall progress in centrifuge design after 1991. Knew Iraq used aluminum tubes for rockets, but Iraq steadily upgraded specifications after 1999 for tubes that were never delivered but could be used for centrifuges. Said government that opposed war (Germany or France) blocked the shipment and warned US could be used for centrifuges." The Sunday Times (UK), today, carries a story, "Spies close in on Saddam's ailing terror mastermind," by Richard Miniter. It includes more information on Iraq's BW program: " Two top Iraqi scientists, codenamed Charlie and Alpha, are helping the coalition to learn more about Iraq's anthrax programme, Kay said. The Iraqis had made shocking innovations in the milling and drying processes needed to weaponise anthrax. 'Almost every week there is a new discovery that boggles your mind,' Kay said." --"Latest on Iraq's Weapons ," by Laurie Mylroie, IRAQ NEWS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2003
NOVEMBER 16, 2003 : (CNN APPARENTLY GETS IT WRONG, EQUATES CSIS WITH CIA IN SAYING "CIA SAID THERE IS NO EVIDENCE IRAQ TRANSFERRED ANY CHEM/BIO WEAPONS TO AL QAEDA"- SEE CORDMAN)
To: Badabing Badaboom
Interesting. In light of the leaked intel that the Weekly Standard published yesterday, I was slightly taken aback this AM to hear CNN announce that the CIA said there is no evidence that Iraq transferred any chem/bio weapons to Al Qaeda. If this is the AP news story to which they were referring, it wasn't the CIA, but the opinion of someone from CSIS, and his comments aren't exactly conclusive. But then again, any scrap of denial from any source will do nowadays.
November 16, 2003
Study: No Sign Saddam Transferred WMD
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:39 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new study by an independent military and intelligence expert who toured Iraq recently found no evidence that Saddam Hussein tried to transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, met with top U.S. officials in Iraq, including David Kay, the CIA representative leading the search for chemical, biological and other unconventional weapons.
President Bush, in justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq, said he feared Saddam, then Iraq's authoritarian president, would supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida.
``No evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons of mass destruction technology or weapons to terrorists. Only possibility was Saddam's Fedayeen, and talk only,'' Cordesman wrote of his briefing with Kay. The Fedayeen is the deposed leader's former paramilitary force. Cordesman, who also met with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, said foreign terrorists appear to be crossing the border from Syria, with some entering from Saudi Arabia and a few from Iran. He said that U.S. troops ``still face major threats from criminal elements released at the end of the war.''
The report said Saddam appears to be cut off and isolated, constantly on the move with no real role in controlling the anti-American forces.
Over the course of his Nov. 1-12 visit, Cordesman traveled to Baghdad, Babel, Tikrit and Kirkuk, among other areas, meeting with combat commanders and staff in high-threat areas.
His report was released Friday.
^------
On the Net:
CSIS: http://www.csis.org/
18 posted on 11/16/2003 1:31 PM PST by browardchad
Charles A. Duelfer, who in January replaced David A. Kay as a special adviser to the CIA, reported finding no caches of weapons in Iraq. But in a public statement released by the CIA, he stressed a refocusing of the U.S. effort. "My strategy is to determine the regime's intentions for all the activities" being uncovered by the Iraq Survey Group. The group's new task, he said, is "to investigate Iraq's WMD programs and to determine the truth about their existence, their extent, their capabilities, and where the regime was headed." Duelfer evinced frustration with the lack of cooperation from Iraqi scientists and engineers. But he was adamant that "there is more work to be done to gather critical information about the regime, its intentions, and its capabilities, and to assess that information for its meaning."
Duelfer stressed new information developed from recovered documents, debriefings of relevant personnel, and scrutiny of research and production facilities. Iraq's dual-use facilities and ongoing research programs, he contended, would have allowed Iraq "to produce biological and chemical agents on short notice."
He cited "a crash program" to build new chemical production facilities that was in effect up to March 2003, when a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq. A few of these plants were slated to produce dual-use chemicals such as N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. Before 1991, Duelfer said, Iraq used DCC as a stabilizing agent for the nerve agent VX.
-- "IRAQ'S WEAPONS: TOP U.S. INSPECTOR BRIEFS CONGRESS; Lack of cooperation thwarts effort to define suspected arms programs," BY LOIS R. EMBER, Chemical & Engineering News, ISSN 0009-2347, Copyright © 2004, April 1, 2004
Thanks for the link
(* My note : Tuwaitha was formerly thought to be a purely nuclear research site )
MARCH 30, 2004 : (DEMOCRAT SENATOR LEVIN COMPLAINS THAT THE CIA DIDN'T SPIN DUELFER'S IRAQ SURVEY GROUP INTERIM THE WAY HE WANTED IT TO BE SPUN) Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sits on the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees that heard Duelfer's testimony, complained that the public version released by the CIA was misleading "in a number of instances." It "includes material that suggests that Iraq had an active WMD program while leaving out information that would lead one to doubt that it did." Levin called on the CIA to declassify Duelfer's interim report in its entirety, if possible.-- "IRAQ'S WEAPONS: TOP U.S. INSPECTOR BRIEFS CONGRESS; Lack of cooperation thwarts effort to define suspected arms programs," BY LOIS R. EMBER, Chemical & Engineering News, ISSN 0009-2347, Copyright © 2004, April 1, 2004
Please point me in the direction of the evidence for Iraq's possesion of 500 tons of Uranium. Thank you.
APRIL 1, 2004 : (DAVID KAY TESTIMONY : HE BELIEVES IRAQ & AL QAEDA COOPERATED ON VX NERVE GAS) ... David Kay, has testified he believes Iraqi nerve gas experts worked with Osama bin Laden and ... the National Islamic Front in Sudan preparing VX nerve gas. Mr Butler returned to Australia ... --- "Spinning totally out of control," , 1 Apr 2004 06:4
APRIL 6, 2004 : (USA : STATE DEPT SAYS THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE JORDAN WMD PLOT WERE LINKED TO AL-ZARQAWI) Five days later [after Jordan arrests several terrorist suspects], the State Department revealed the attackers were linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-based terrorist considered to be one of al Qaeda's most dangerous. One of Zarqawi's targets was the U.S. embassy in Amman. -- "King Abdullah: Al Qaeda WMDs Came From Syria," Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, NewsMax.com, 4/17/04
APRIL 17, 2004 : (JORDAN : WMD BOMB PLOT ; SYRIA INVOLVED?) Jordan's King Abdullah revealed on Saturday that vehicles reportedly containing chemical weapons and poison gas that were part of a deadly al Qaeda bomb plot came from Syria, the country named by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay last year as a likely repository for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. "It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government," King Abdullah told the San Francisco Chronicle. Jordanian officials estimated that the death count could have been as high as 20,000 - seven times greater than the Sept. 11 attacks. Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of explosives had come from Syria - "Foiled Al-Qaeda Caught with WMDs," by Carl Limbacher, Newsmax, 04/17/2004 0 GMT
The Bolean search engine it uses can be frustrating...
But I need to warn you. Once you master using that search engine....
We may never see you again Piasa. That site is AMAZING with the information you will get.
My FAVORITE downloads from there:
>>>NIX TO BLIX: ...The second has been the failure to implement Congress's Iraq Liberation Act - which was supposed to fund the overthrow of the dictator by native opposition groups. President Bill Clinton signed the 1998 act which was supposed to invest $97 million in this project. Apparently only $20,000 has been disbursed to the opposition groups - enough to buy some basic office supplies. The London office of the Iraqi National Congress, the main democratic opposition group, shut down at the end of last year... <<<<<
http://goexcelglobal.com/NJ_DefenseForce/NIXTOBLIX.doc
http://goexcelglobal.com/NJ_DefenseForce/OpenLettertothePresident.doc
>>>GILMAN, HELMS DEMAND ANSWERS ON SANCTIONS-VIOLATING FLIGHTS INTO IRAQ <<<<
http://goexcelglobal.com/NJ_DefenseForce/PressRelease.doc
Again, http://www.iraqwatch.org
fyi
When Libya decided to turn over it's WMD program, they admitted that they were collaborating with... IRAQ.. in researching and developing nuclear weapons..
In fact, the head of the nuclear weapons lab was an IRAQI Scientist..
Libya turned over at least 1,000 tons of yellowcake..
And then of course, there is the 3rd partner, EGYPT...
Egypt mostly provided funding for the research..
Once noted, these facts were conveniently forgotten..
GOOGLE Search Term: "Jaffar Dhia Jaffar"
http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Jaffar+Dhia+Jaffar%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&filter=0
GOOGLE Search Term: "JAFFAR"
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Jaffar%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&filter=0
THE BULLETIN.org - BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS: "SECRETS THAT MATTER"
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2000/nd00/nd00albright.html
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