I give Russert credit for asking the question, even if he did only do it in a context where a "real expert" could "knock it down" and discredit it without providing any of the evidence that this is, in fact, what happened. Maybe he read Peach's post. Or maybe he should read Peach's post.
I think I'll send it to him as a comment. With your permission, Peach?
Blix: "They were destroeyed in 1991, that is what Saddams son-in-law has said, and I believe that is the truth"
Good for you, Hans. I believe that he did have them and that they were moved and that is what Israel's top general during the Iraq war Moshe Yaalon, former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security John A. Shaw, retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong, the first head of the Iraq Survey Group David Kay, interrogations of former Iraqi officials, a Syrian journalist who defected, Nizar Nayuf, and the deputy chief of Saddam Hussein's air force have said and I believe them. One difference, Saddam's son-in-law has a HUGE motive for lying to you, you moron!
Hans, you have to get your story straight. Saddam's son-in-law painted a far different picture:
Interview with Robin Wright
Before Hussein Kamel's defection, in August of 1995, you write that Saddam was beating the West in some way, and UNSCOM. How?
In 1995, Saddam Hussein actually appeared to be winning in his strategy of cheat and retreat. He had actually managed to hide so many of his weapons that many of the U.N. weapons inspectors thought that he had turned over most of them, and were prepared to make that kind of recommendation. And it was only on the defection of his son-in-law and cousin [Kamel] that the international community realized how much he really still had. The whole crisis actually might have ended at that point, if it hadn't been for that very ... defection. ...
What was revealed in Kamel's defection?
Kamel's defection led to two important disclosures. One was the information he provided Western intelligence agencies. But, secondly, Saddam Hussein knew that he was about to be caught, and so he took weapons inspectors down to Kamel's chicken farm, and said that they'd only just discovered these containers full of documents about weapons of mass destruction. Of course, feigned his own ignorance, and blamed it all on Kamel.
What changed for Saddam after that?
Well, it became apparent that he had hidden an extraordinary amount of material, and from that point on UNSCOM was, again, a going concern.
The quantity was staggering. It took the U.N. weapons inspectors months and months and months just to go through and translate every -- and create a database for what was in those papers. It revealed that Saddam Hussein had also hidden far more than anyone ever realized he had, to begin with. This really was the critical turning point of the entire eight years in trying to deal with Saddam Hussein. It put the U.N. weapons program back on track.
Gen. Hussein Kamel, the former director of Iraq's Military Industrialization Corporation, in charge of Iraq's weapons programme, defected to Jordan on the night of 7 August 1995, together with his brother Col. Saddam Kamel. Hussein Kamel took crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to UNSCOM. Iraq responded by revealing a major store of documents that showed that Iraq had begun an unsuccessful crash programme to develop a nuclear bomb (on 20 August 1995). Hussein and Saddam Kamel agreed to return to Iraq, where they were assassinated (23 February 1996).
Just back on for a few minutes before cooking dinner for the family; please DO mail those links to Russert. I'm glad he at least did ask the question you outlined.