Posted on 03/16/2002 4:44:26 PM PST by Pokey78
A DEFECTOR from Iraq has given American intelligence details of a secret underground network of laboratories where Saddam Hussein is believed to be building weapons of mass destruction.
The defector is a 43-year-old civil engineer named Adnan Sayeed who worked on 20 sites. He has provided evidence suggesting they are part of a network of bunkers where chemical and biological weapons have been made and where attempts are under way to create a nuclear bomb. A second defector has reported that Iraq has constructed seven mobile germ laboratories, which have been disguised as milk lorries. Saddam’s efforts to conceal his weapons programme have reinforced fears among American and British officials that he has rebuilt a clandestine arsenal since United Nations weapons inspectors were forced out of Iraq three years ago. Amid growing tension over plans by President George W Bush to force Saddam from power, the Foreign Office has alerted all its embassies after eight Iraqis were found spying on British diplomats in Sweden in preparation for suspected terrorist attacks. The eight, including two diplomats, were expelled or banned from the country after carrying out reconnaissance on British and American missions in Sweden. The expulsions in January were the first sign that Saddam may have activated a European network of spies to retaliate if he is attacked. Sayeed escaped from Baghdad in June 2001 by paying £14,000 in bribes and driving his two wives and children north to Kurdistan. According to a senior British official, his information about underground sites is regarded as “high-grade” by the Pentagon’s Defence Intelligence Agency. He has supported it with a stack of Iraqi government contracts, complete with technical specifications, which have been seen by The Sunday Times. The 3,000-word manuscript of a preliminary interview with Sayeed shows that he claims to have created “clean” rooms, using special materials to line floors and walls. The sites were under private houses, state factories and the Saddam Hussein hospital in Baghdad. Sayeed says a unit producing mustard gas has been hidden between factories making insulation material at the Al-Taji compound north of Baghdad. At the city’s Waziriya complex two years ago, he was ordered to wear a protective suit, mask and gloves to seal a floor in an area where the air passed through seven layers of filtration before reaching the outside. He also speaks of a biological laboratory under the Adwaniya presidential palace and of wells situated 10 miles south of Baghdad that were dug six metres underground and were lined with 1.25 metres of concrete mixed with lead. “My assumption is that there is radiation there. Why use lead otherwise?” he said. The second recent defector, whose name is being withheld until his family reaches safety, said he worked in a concealment unit to foil UN searches. “We learnt our lesson,” he said in a videotaped interview with Iraqi opposition officials. “Houses and factories can be searched. So I had the idea to use trucks. If we disguised them as milk and yogurt trucks, who would suspect they are carrying anything suspicious?” According to his account, Iraq took delivery of seven flatbed lorries that were fitted with computers, microscopes and other equipment. They move between the central Iraqi cities of Hilla and Kut, he said. Such claims are expected to add momentum to America’s efforts to win support for military action against Iraq. Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, arrived in Saudi Arabia yesterday on the latest stage of a tour of the Middle East. Concern about retaliatory strikes in Europe in the event of war intensified when two Iraqis were expelled from Sweden. Muhsen al-Haidai, a chargé d’affaires, and Abdul Kadir Hussein were given 12 days to leave the country after Swedish police were provided with evidence of their spying.
I was thinking about how in Afghanistan we found, for example, a white Chevy Suburban we were looking for (I think we'd hoped Omar was in it, but he wasn't).
I sure as sh!t wouldn't want to be the lucky guy picked to mix in that thing when cluster bombs were going off all about...
Shortly after he testified to the Senate Committee, where Biden told him decisions made relative to the inspections were way above his pay grade, Ritter began to change his tune.
Now, did Iraq get to him with threats and/or money, or did the DNC tell him about a few choice morsels in his FBI file?
That, to me, is the real question.
Couldn't agree more. I wish the talking head programs would find another expert, that doesn't reek of being compromised in some fashion or another.
Absolutely the best of times to be alive!! A live enemy, and 'Buck-Rogers' weapons to be tried-out! By God, I wish I was 20 again!
These Islamaniacs have no idea what's coming their way, and I'd give my left-nut to be able to try it out on them!.........FRegards, Sniper
And the instant we blow these up, we'll be accused of denying milk to the starving Iraqi people...
Isn't it nice to be able to say that? No need to worry about whether Bush will check polls first, what the PR or other angle will be or if he will not act in America's best interest.
How about 100 feet of concrete?
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