Posted on 07/29/2002 1:27:14 PM PDT by grimalkin
WASHINGTON, Jul 29, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Iraq has learned how to hide its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs from U.S. surveillance based on information provided by American defectors to Russia and the Soviet Union before it, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday.
Rumsfeld told an audience at Joint Forces Command in Suffolk, Va., that Iraq has "deeply buried" its weapons facilities.
"The Iraqis have benefited from American spies defecting to the Soviet Union or Russia and providing information as to how we do things, and then they proliferate that information on how another country can best achieve denial and deception and avoid having the location, precise location, actionable locations of things known," Rumsfeld said.
The spies told their Russian handlers about U.S. surveillance methods and capabilities, and Russia subsequently shared that information with Iraq. Rumsfeld did not specify during what time frame that information was shared. The Bush administration now considers Russia a friend and ally, especially with regard to the war on terrorism.
Bush administration officials confirmed to the Senate on Monday that Russian entities continue to share missile and weapons technology with Iran, also one of the members of Bush's so-called "axis of evil."
One way Iraq hides its weapons programs is by putting laboratories in nondescript mobile trailers, making them nearly impossible for the United States to locate.
"A biological laboratory can be on wheels in a trailer and make a lot of bad stuff, and it's movable, and it looks like most any other trailer," Rumsfeld said.
An air strike such as that carried out Sunday in southern Iraq to destroy a communications bunker is unlikely to be able to take out such facilities, he said.
"The idea it's easy to do from the air ... is a misunderstanding of the situation," he said.
U.S. aircraft bombed a communications bunker at a military site in southern Iraq early Sunday morning. It was the sixth bombing by U.S. forces in the no-fly zones in Iraq since the beginning of July. All the attacks came in response to "hostile acts" against the aircraft by Iraqi military forces.
The six incidents in July follow five in June and five in May in both the northern and southern parts of Iraq.
The no-fly zones have been in effect since 1992. They were enforced without incident until 1998, when Iraq began firing on U.S. aircraft following a four-day strike on Baghdad, itself carried out because Iraq refused to allow United Nations arms inspectors unfettered access to weapons sites.
With the war in Afghanistan winding down, attention in Washington is turning toward what to do about Iraq, if anything. The Bush administration maintains that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is a menace to global security, with an active program of weapons of mass destruction and as an alleged sponsor of terror.
"They have chemical weapons. They have biological weapons. They have an enormous appetite for nuclear weapons. They were within a year or two of having them when (Desert Storm) got on the ground and found enough information to know how advanced their program was. They've kept their nuclear physicists and scientists together in a kluge, and they're continuing to work," Rumsfeld said.
Scott Ritter, a former Marine and chief U.N. arms inspector, disputes that view.
"I believe that Iraq does not pose a threat to the U.S. worthy of war. I bear personal witness, through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the U.N., to both the scope of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and the effectiveness of the U.N. weapons inspectors in ultimately eliminating them.
"While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament," he stated Monday through the Institute for Public Accuracy.
There has not been a U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq in nearly four years.
Hans Von Sponeck, who headed the UN "oil-for-food" program until he resigned two years ago in protest over the continued sanctions on Iraq, also disagrees with the assessment of the Iraqi threat and said assertions that Iraq is collaborating with the al Qaida terrorist network is untrue.
"Evidence of al-Qaida/Iraq collaboration does not exist," Von Sponeck stated through the Institute for Public Accuracy. Sponeck just returned from a trip to Baghdad.
Plans for a new Iraqi war are apparently under discussion, although no decisions have been made as to the timing and scope, according to Pentagon officials.
The New York Times reported Monday that one plan under discussion involves an attack on Baghdad and one or two other key facilities, in hopes of bringing about a quick collapse of the government.
"The aim would be to kill or isolate Mr. Hussein and to pre-empt Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction, whether against an incoming force, front-line allies or Israel. Those weapons are the wild card in all the outlines of a military confrontation," the Times reported.
Rumsfeld, who has been outraged by recent Pentagon leaks to the media, sought to cast doubt on the report, saying that military officials who knew what plans were under discussion were not talking to the press.
"All I can tell you is that the senior military have every opportunity in the world to work with the senior civilians," Rumsfeld said. "And they do, and they do it intelligently and they do it constructively, and they don't do it to the press. Now, if they're not doing it to the press, somebody else is doing it to the press, and it's obviously somebody who knows a heck of a lot less than they do."
Rumsfeld opened an investigation into a leak in early July to the New York Times of a different war plan for Iraq that envisioned using as many as 250,000 troops to invade the country from the north, west and south.
By PAMELA HESS, UPI Pentagon Correspondent
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
"I believe that Iraq does not pose a threat to the U.S. worthy of war. I bear personal witness, through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the U.N., to both the scope of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and the effectiveness of the U.N. weapons inspectors in ultimately eliminating them.
"While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament," he stated Monday through the Institute for Public Accuracy.
There has not been a U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq in nearly four years.
I understand Scott Ritter's impulse to justify his past job, which I don't discount, but I'm not sure 90 - 95% is good enough for WMD's in the post 9/11 world.
This also seems to have been written to support the containment position. I don't think this administration will follow that course in the long run.
No sir, no way, nohow--absolutely no evidence at all, in any way, whatsoever.
But wasn't Scott kicked out of Iraq because they refused to open up some of their facilities to inspection, and he refused to take no for an answer? What happened to him since then?
Shermy we are thinking alike...I saw the headline and Scott Ritter came to mind..
Paid by whom.....is the question...
Mo-ney makes the world go-round, the world go-round...
If the government would enforce the US Constitution, we'd probably see fewer traitors.
 Click to see larger image |
Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam by Henry Mark Holzer, Erika Holzer McFarland & Company Sales Rank: 408 - Avg. Rating: 4.2 (out of 5) Released: 04 March, 2002 - ISBN: 078641247X Hardcover |
| Top Customer Reviews Rating: 5 (out of 5) Summary: A thorough review of historico-legal precedent. Comment: This is a historico-legal research and summary of the applicable treason law--as actually applied to convict and sentence other American citizens who gave aid and comfort to our enemies during armed conflict. The author clearly shows that Jane Fonda's actions in 1972 would have brought her case to a grand jury. Based on comparison to the actions of convicted American citizens during WWII, Jane Fonda would likely have been convicted as well. The eight-minute O'Reilly Factor in which author Professor Henry Mark Holzer confronted Fonda's former husband and comrade Tom Hayden is devastating to observe. Hayden falls back on a lame First Amendment defense, and cannot even grasp that North Vietnamese leaders themselves said Fonda had given them the strength to continue. The American citizens who broadcast for the Nazis and Japanese propaganda radio in WWII were convicted on less evidence than is displayed concerning Fonda's July, 1972 work for the North Vietnamese. That the U.S. Department of Justice failed to prosecute for fear of a public relations backlash seems in retrospect cowardly and badly reasoned. The service of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines was valiant, and their betrayal by Fonda is a vile thing to behold. Her betrayal of the duties of a citizen is clear, and resonates in the cases of John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla. Aid and Comfort is relevant for then and now. |
One Demo-rat Administration. ;)
Pardon me for being so candid. :)
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