I recall Saddam throwing his whole country open to UN inspectors before we invaded.
No.
He SAID he was throwing everything open to inspections, but ONLY AFTER he spent 6 months stonewalling and protesting (and hiding his development tools and eqpt and partially-finished weapons).
Then, when the inspectors actually arrived (in front of TV cameras), they were slowed, delayed, prevented from checking many areas, and hamstrung from really looking - but all of the delays and interferences were concealed (deliberately) from and by the TV cameras. The TV editors chose NOT to reveal how shallow the inspections really were.
Two known facts:
1. Saddam unquestionable had, AND USED, WMDs prior to the early 1990s. Ask the victims of his gas attacks.
He did not produce evidence of the dismantling required by the UN. That's why we invaded and threw his sorry ass out of power.
2. Saddam did not have significant WMDs after the US invasion of Iraq. We've been there for over four years and have turned up next to nothing compared to what he undoubtedly had in the past.
Therefore it is reasonable to infer -- but mostly unproven as yet -- that Saddam dismantled and/or moved the WMDs he had 15 years ago.
He had time to move them between the time we said we were going to invade, and the time we actually did. They may have moved to Syria, or elsewhere -- we have a lot of circumstantial evidence (some here will say it's solid, others argue; I'm not going there today).
Unfortunately, we'll never know for sure unless either somebody finds a huge cache of Iraqi WMDs in Iraq tomorrow (unlikely), or one of the other countries in that area who got them, uses them (hopefully not).
Maybe Saddam had WMDs in Iraq before the invasion, maybe not. But that's not important now. What's important is wiping out terrorists.
"WMDs don't kill people. Terrorists kill people."
And as we all have seen, they don't need nukes or gas to do it. God help us all if they get their hands on some real WMDs. We MUST prevent that from happening.
Actually it was the burden of Saddam to prove what he did with the WMD he said he had to UNSCOM. He gave various excuses but no evidence. Why was Iraq's nuclear facilities being rebuilt by unnamed countries (France or Russia most likely)
"I recall Saddam throwing his whole country open to UN inspectors before we invaded."
Yeah, a DOZEN or so UN inspectors running around Iraq, chasing rumors and constantly being delayed and lied to. Remember that it was Saddam to furnish all info about his programs. Why trust the guy? Oh yeah, it was the the IAEA who was bought and paid for by Saddam. Now the same game is played by Iran.
JANUARY 2003 mid : (IRAQ, UN, ONE SCIENTIST SEARCHED HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PAPERS, ANOTHER WAS CAUGHT BY IRAQ TRYING TO ESCAPE, WAS PROBABLY EXECUTED) UNITED NATIONS weapons inspectors in Iraq revealed last night that they had discovered 3,000 documents linked to nuclear arms technology while searching a scientist's house. The documents were recovered from the home of Faleh Hassan, an Iraqi physicist and director of a military installation west of Baghdad. Mohamed El Baradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Hassan's papers related to a laser technique for enriching uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. ...* This weekend American intelligence officers were investigating a report that a senior official in Iraq's ministry of industry and military industrialisation, which oversees weapons production, had been killed. He had been trying to flee the country for Jordan with his wife and two children a week ago, but had been stopped. "He was trying to leave with information, but the Mukhabarat [intelligence service] are watching him and all people like him," said an Iraqi source opposed to the regime. "They brought him back to Baghdad. We think he [was] executed." There has been no confirmation of the claim.
JANUARY 16, 2003 : (IRAQ : UNMOVIC DISCOVERS EMPTY CHEMICAL MUNITIONS - IRAQ ACTS INNOCENT AND APPOINTS A "COMMISSION OF INQUIRY" ) Among other developments, the report [ the twelfth quarterly report of the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999), covering UNMOVIC's activities from 1 December 2002 to 28 February 2003.] notes that, on 16 January, UNMOVIC inspectors discovered a number of empty 122-mm chemical munitions. Following that discovery, Iraq appointed a commission of inquiry. - "Statements to the UN Security Council by two Inspectors and Members of the SC, 7 Mar 2003 ," UN Press Release SC/7682, 07/03/2003, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/859554/posts
JANUARY 16, 2003 : (IRAQ) Previously undisclosed warheads for chemical weapons are discovered by UN inspectors. A joint UNMOVIC/IAEA team also find a significant cache of documents related to Iraq’s uranium enrichment program in the home of Iraqi scientist Faleh Hassan. --------------- Bio-Chemical Weapons & Saddam: A History.
JANUARY 30, 2003 : (IRAQ : RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE UN INSPECTORS IN IRAQ, IRAQI MILITARY STILL CONCERNED ABOUT HIDING EVIDENCE OF WMD : OFFICER FROM THE REPUBLICAN GUARD HQ ISSUES INSTRUCTIONS TO AN OFFICER IN THE FIELD: THE US SECRETLY TAPES THE CONVERSATION AND POWELL WOULD PLAY PART OF IT BEFORE THE UN IN FEBRUARY 2003)
... HQ : "They are inspecting the ammunition you have, yes?"-- Source: "Remarks to the United Nations Security Council," by Secretary Colin L. Powell, New York City, February 5, 2003FIELD OFFICER : "Yes. For the possibility there are forbidden ammo."
HQ : "For the possibility there is, by chance, forbidden ammo?"
FIELD OFFICER : "Yes.
HQ : "And we sent you a message yesterday to clean out all the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there.”
...
HQ : "After you have carried out what is contained in this message, destroy the message because I don't want anyone to see this message."
FIELD OFFICER : "Okay."
...
JANUARY 2003 : (IRAQ : UNMOVIC INSPECTIONS : UNMOVIC ASKS IRAQI SCIENTISTS, ETC, TO SIT FOR INTERVIEWS IN BAGHDAD, BUT REQUEST IS REFUSED; IRAQ SHIFTS FOCUS BACK ONTO UN WITH HALF-MEASURE PROMISE) During the review period, UNMOVIC requested 28 individuals to present themselves for interviews in Baghdad without the presence of observers. None of them agreed. During the January meeting, the Iraqi side committed itself to "encourage" persons to accept interviews "in private." - "Statements to the UN Security Council by two Inspectors and Members of the SC, 7 Mar 2003 ," UN Press Release SC/7682, 07/03/2003, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/859554/posts
(* Note that Iraq refused this - claiming the scientists refused in order to preserve its media image- and note that the UN never did get useful interviews by interviewing people outside of Iraq )
FEBRUARY 3, 2003 : (DATE OF IRAQI DOCUMENT CONCERNING CHEMICAL WARFARE RELATED EQUIPMENT)Document Dated February/3/2003: Chemical Gears for The Chemical Group http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603039/posts
FEBRUARY 2003 : (TWO GERMAN NATIONALS ARE CHARGED WITH TRYING TO SMUGGLE MISSILE PARTS INTO IRAQ) Two German nationals are charged with attempting to smuggle over 2,000 missile parts into Iraq.-- via "Bio-Chemical Weapons & Saddam: A History, " Various Sources , 02-20-03 , by PsyOp
FEBRUARY 2003 : (IRAQ : AL-TUWAITHA : IAEA INSPECTORS SEARCH KNOWN SITES AT AL-TUWAITHA, BUT MISS AN UNDERGROUND CITY OF LABS, WAREHOUSES AND OFFICES WHICH WOULD LATER BE FOUND AFTER THE COALITION INVASION) International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who combed the site [al-Tuwaitha] - "Marines hold nuclear site," by Carl Prine, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Wednesday, April 9, 2003
FEBRUARY 19, 2003 : (UN ON IRAQI WMD) The UN says, though, that Iraq has failed to account for 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents from the war against Iran; to reveal the whereabouts of 6,500 missing chemical rockets; to produce evidence it has destroyed 8,500 litres of anthrax; and to account for 380 rocket engines smuggled into Iraq with chemicals used for missile propellants and control systems. ---- 'Three mystery ships are tracked over suspected 'weapons' cargo," independent.co.uk ^ | 2/19/03 Posted on 02/18/2003 4:47:00 PM PST by knak
FEBRUARY 21, 2003 : (IRAQ & UN INSPECTIONS : UN ORDERS IRAQ TO DESTROY AL SAMOUD 2 MISSILE SYSTEM & REBUILT CASTING CHAMBERS) Iraq has declared development and production of two types of missiles that were capable of surpassing the proscribed range limit of 150 kilometres. As a result of expert assessments, it was concluded that all variants of the Al Samoud 2 missile were inherently capable of exceeding the range and, therefore, constituted a proscribed weapons system. Clarification of the Al Fatah missile data was required before the capability of the missile system could be assessed. On 21 February, UNMOVIC directed Iraq to destroy the proscribed missile system, as well as reconstituted casting chambers. - "Statements to the UN Security Council by two Inspectors and Members of the SC, 7 Mar 2003 ," UN Press Release SC/7682, 07/03/2003, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/859554/posts
(* No one seems concerned that Iraq reconstituted its casting chambers?)
FEBRUARY 2003 : (IRAQI MISSILE EXPERT, GENERAL MUHAMMAD SA'ID AL DARRAJ IS POISONED) SADDAM Hussein’s top missile expert has been murdered to stop him blabbing to the UN.
General Muhammad Sa’id al Darraj died on Thursday after Saddam’s men poisoned his drink.
Relatives say he was ordered to hide details of Iraqi Scuds from the UN — but devious Saddam did not trust him....
----------- "Iraq Scud boss poisoned, " by GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON, The Sun, March 1, 2003
FEBRUARY 23, 2003 : (IRAQ : UN ARMS INSPECTORS VISITED FACILITY IN THE VICINITY OF KARBALA CHEMICAL PLANT - KARBALA PLANT IS WHERE US ARMY WOULD LATER FIND BURIED SHIPPING CONTAINERS OF LAB EQUIPMENT) U.N. arms inspectors visited a facility in the immediate vicinity of the [Karbala] chemical plant Feb. 23, but did not find the buried equipment. [that 101st Airborne later found buried at the plant] Officials at the U.S. Central Command suggested that no conclusions should be drawn.- "Experts: U.S. 'Discovery' of Nuke Materials in Iraq Was Breach of U.N.-Monitored Site," Thursday, April 10, 2003 Associated Press via Fox News
MARCH? 2003 : (SATELLITES SPOT FLOW OF TRAFFIC INTO SYRIA JUST BEFORE THE US INVASION OF IRAQ IN MARCH) In a briefing for journalists reported on October 29, 2003, the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency said satellite images showed a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion in March 2003. Retired Air Force Lieutenant General James Clapper Jr. said he believed "unquestionably" that illicit weapons material was transported into Syria and perhaps other countries. He said "I think people below the Saddam- Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse. ... I think probably in the few months running up to the onset of the conflict, I think there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private hands, to bury it, and to move it outside the country's borders." ----------------- "Iraqi Chemical Weapons," http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/
******
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph published on January 25, 2004, Dr. David Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, said there was evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before the start of the war to overthrow Saddam. "We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."---------------------- "Iraqi Chemical Weapons," http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/
2003 : (US SATELLITES SPOT SUBSTANTIAL VEHICULAR TRAFFIC GOING FROM IRAQ TO SYRIA JUST PRIOR TO US ATTACK ON MARCH 19, 2003- See WEAPONS INSPECTOR DAVID KAY) "In his testimony before Congress last year, weapons inspector Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S. attack on March 19, 2003." 47 posted on 04/18/2004 11:38:09 AM PDT by Maria S
2003 end of summer : (IRAQI WMD GOODS PLACEMENT IN HEZBOLLAH-CONTROLLED LEBANON IS IDENTIFIED) Towards the end of summer 2003, Israel identified the placement of Iraqi WMD goods in Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Israeli spy satellites had captured on film several tractor-trailers filled with Iraqi weapons (they assessed them to be WMD later) in the Bekka Valley. The weapons were then connected to strange shipments that occurred between January and the first week of March 2003. Additional information indicated that Saddam Hussein paid Bashar Assad, Syria’s president, approximately $35 million to hide the supplies.[67] Not long after this was reported, additional press reports indicated that privately the United States had begun to suspect that the theory about WMDs in Lebanon to be correct.------------ ?Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties ?