Posted on 02/27/2006 10:29:29 AM PST by inpajamas
In the 1970s and 1980s there were several indications about Saddam Hussein’s development of the WMD programs (biological, chemical and nuclear). The Israeli attack on the Iraqi French-made Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 slowed down the progress of the Iraq’s nuclear weapons program but the biological and chemical WMDs were highly developed, due to the Soviet assistance, Iraqi scientists and a sophisticated system of procurement, organized by the Iraqi Intelligence in Western Europe and in other parts of the World. The nuclear weapons program was never abandoned by the regime, and before the first Gulf War (1991) Iraq was very close to producing its own nuclear weapons. (There is some evidence that Saddam could have purchased nuclear technology from Pakistan, through Dr. Khan’s network, and that he has tried to buy nuclear weapons or components from China). The war destroyed the technical base for the production. But the highly skilled scientific and technical personnel (over 200) remained in place, dispersed. The regime managed to save their nuclear fuel, many technical means of production and the blueprints of the nuclear weaponization. The after-war international (UN) control proved ineffective. Iraq also saved an essential part of its biological and chemical warfare technology, materials and personnel. Some of the WMDs, materials, specialists from Iraq have been transferred abroad to continue research and to organize the production abroad: mainly to Sudan, Libya and Algeria but also to the neighboring Syria (with a purpose to strengthen Syrian regime’s offensive capabilities against Israel)....[much much more at source]........
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
About the author:
The author of this paper; David M. Dastych, is a veteran international journalist and a former intelligence operative (of the Polish Intelligence and the CIA). In the 1970’s and 1980’s, he had frequent contacts with Palestinian terrorist groups, with the Saddam Hussein regime’s diplomatic, intelligence and commercial personnel, as well as with Soviet officials, diplomats and intelligence operatives(some of them serving in Iraq and other Arab countries). Arrested by the then Polish Communist Security Service (SB) in 1987, condemned by a secret Communist Military Court to 8 years in special prison wards for allegedly working for the CIA, Japanese Prime Minister’s Intelligence Service and for conspiring against the Warsaw Pact, he was released by virtue of general amnesty on February 28, 1990, after the regime change in Poland. Soon after the release, he resumed his journalist and business activity, cooperating with American diplomacy and intelligence and with Israeli diplomats and nuclear experts. Traveling extensively under the cover of businessman and tour-operator, he collected ample evidence of the illegal trade in nuclear materials, weapon parts and technology between Russia and other post-USSR states and Arab and Muslim countries, through a variety of intelligence, military and mafia channels. His activity covered Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Russia, China, Israel and several Middle East countries.
PING
ping to my friend gary.
attack me all you want but are you going to share your thoughts on the article gary?
The Russians are the fox in the Middle East hen house.
Long time ago, when GWB was looking into 'the soul' of Putin, maybe, shoulda, woulda, coulda ....
stick something in the heart.
Unfortunately we were too quick in celebrating the demise of the evil empire.
Hooks in their jaws...
When I look at Vladimir Putin, I only see Hammers and Sickles in his eyes.
Which would separate you from President Bush and Secretary Rice who have an amazing background in such matters, especially Sec. Rice, not to mention much more information. Both consider Russia and ally, and do not feel it's anything like the hammers and sickels of the Soviet Union.
"Which would separate you from President Bush and Secretary Rice who have an amazing background in such matters"
You must have missed or ignored the background of the man who wrote the article posted.
He was an undercover agent working with the Russians and M.E. terror groups. He sent me an email stating that he had worked WITH the Russians for 30 years, not just read stuff about them.
Yeah he was really active 15 years ago.
Rice was also at the head of several Soviet think tanks throughout the time period, and if she feels Russia is nothing like the Soviet Union I take her word on it.
I stand corrected. I wrote he had worked "with" them but he said "against".
Quote:
"I have been working against the Soviets for almost 30 years, and this experience taught me not to trust them. The same can be told of Putin's Russia, a police state, which is rather unfriendly to the open society like the American one (to put it in mild terms). America should be alerted at all regional and global policies that Russia is developing now."
Unquote.
He has remained in the information loop though he no longer works undercover.
Statements by Secretary Rice:
"I want to be very clear. It isn't the Soviet Union. You know this place. This Russian Government is not the Soviet Government and sometimes people overstate this to say things have gone all the way back"
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/59375.htm
"This is not the Soviet Union; let's not overstate the case. I was a Soviet specialist. I can tell you that Russia bears almost no resemblance to the Soviet Union."
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2006-41-23.cfm
I very well know Mr. Medvedev. We have talked on a number of occasions.
But could I go back to the broader question here, which you began to ask? How do we see development of U.S.-Russian relations? Is Russia a strategic partner? Russia is not a strategic enemy or we are not against Russia. It is a country with which we have developed excellent relations over a very long period of time now, really going back to the period of perestroika and the Soviet Union and continuing. And I think that President Bush and President Putin have gained a respect for each other and that they work very well together.
So we see Russia as a strategic partner moving forward. We see Russia as a strategic partner in the war on terrorism. We see Russia as a strategic partner in stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction. We see Russia as a strategic partner in solving regional issues, like the Balkans or the Middle East.
http://www.usembassy.ru/bilateral/transcript.php?record_id=117
But is Rice qualified to make such statements?
Well let's see what experience she has:
"Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions."
From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/ricebio.html
You're talking about someone who's been privy to practically all top secret information on the Former Soviet Union for more than 20 years. I put a lot of stake in her opinion.
I am afraid that after all her studies Rice is somewhat naive on the nature of the beast.
I wouldn't generally describe Secreatary Rice as naive.
Um, you really and truly don't actually beleive him do you?
1.) People who do what that guy claims he's been involved do NOT going around advertizing it.
2.) This person does not really know you? Correct? Why would he confide in you information of a sensitive nature? He would have zero way of knowing whether you can be trusted.
3.) How can he still be "in the information" loop after he's outed himself?
Logic logic logic. Beware of those who spin a romantic tale... It's usually just that - a lovely story and they tell it so well...
PS - Eastern Europeans (Russians included) are very adept at telling people what they THINK the person WANTS to hear. That's how they survived under the communist regime for soooo long.
(They seem to have a penchant for embelishing on the great deeds they've done as well :)
they moved your thread here
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