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.
......Iraq needs several divisions of Marines acting as 'weapons inspectors'; of course, neutralizing them immediately would all be part of the plan.
No one has caught this little gem. Who noticed that the iraqis were spying? Apparently not the Swedes. Sometimes the EU strikes me as a total basket case, good Lord, can't they even hold up their miniscule end in their own country?
And Americans might want to learn first aid, too. The stuff's going to hit the fan here at home when we take out a muslim hospital.
Who says you have to be twenty? The neatest stuff in the U.S arsenal is operated from a comfy chair in a safe location. And truly the most important weapon in the U.S. arsenal (or anyone's arsenal, for that matter) is good intelligence.
Though not as prominent or colorful as modern U.S. weapons of battle, the intel capabilities the U.S. is now rapidly developing would make Sun Tzu drool lustfully. Put the best warriors and the finest intel possible in the hands of a modern military genius, and it won't take too long at all before the enemy is demoralized and defeated.
While there are plenty of exotic new "Buck-Rogers" weapons for the boys to run around with, their success and safety depend most critically on having intel superiority over the enemy. Combine the two, and you have a military instrument far more terrifying than any weapon of mass destruction: the ability to quickly and reliably locate and strike any individual or group of any size, anytime, anywhere in the world, without warning. Efficient, precise, accurate and deadly projection of power.
Especially important in this war is the fact that such a capability can be used to prevent the enemy from even being able to attack -- if the intel is good enough. The U.S. already had a strong lead in surveillance technology before 9-11. Now, radical new technologies and methods are being put in place that are years ahead of what we would have otherwise had, and are focused on exactly the problems we face in fighting terrorists.
Already, people are concerned about privacy, and with good reason, because the power the U.S. is developing to fight terrorism can easily be abused. Nonetheless, it is a power the U.S. needs to effectively defend itself, and by its very nature needs to be absolute to assure victory.
Consider what successful use of this power will mean: anyone who so much as thinks about attacking the United States would be neutralized before they could do anything about it.
That would redefine the meaning of the word "terror".
Imal
What pray tell is a kilo pound?
Kilo=1,000. You know what a pound is. Of course kilopound isn't a standard unit -- of weight, explosive yield, or anything else -- but it illustrated a point to tomahawk's satisfaction.
FWIW, in The New Hacker's Dictionary, you'll find whimsical units like nanofortnight.
Wake me when CNN defects to our side.
Never, nocomad! Islam is just the word they hide behind this year.
The real word is: Totalitarian-Dictatorship, and we've seen it before, in Hitler, and Lenin, and Stalin.
Saddam and Arrafatt don't give a shit about Islam - they just want absolute control!
And the hard words are: "We're gonna have to kill these corksuckers!!"
In my perfect-world, these two assholes would've been dead 20 years ago.........FRegards
What you said there - that was good! Thanx, pal......FRegards
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.