Britain finds Iraq's 'smoking gun': a top-secret missile

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 05/25/03 | Con Coughlin

[Pokey78]

British military officers have uncovered an attempt by Saddam Hussein to build a missile capable of hitting targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel, The Telegraph can reveal.

Plans for the surface-to-surface missile were one of the regime's most closely-guarded secrets and were unknown to United Nations weapons inspectors. Its range of 600 miles would have been far greater than that of the al-Samoud rocket - which already breached the 93-mile limit imposed by the UN on any Iraqi missiles.

Saddam's masterplan for the new missile, which was being developed by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission (MIC), the body responsible for weapons procurement, constitutes the most serious breach uncovered so far of the tight restrictions imposed on Iraq's military capability after the 1991 Gulf war. The range of Saddam's missiles was restricted to prevent him from using them as a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction.

David Kay, the former United Nations weapons inspector responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear weapons programme in the 1990s, said the British discovery proved that Saddam had no intention of complying with UN requirements.

"This is the smoking gun we have been looking for," he said. "We have known all along that Saddam was desperate to develop a delivery system for his mass destruction weapons, and this missile would undoubtedly have given him that capability."

Details of Saddam's secret missile programme were discovered by British weapons experts after interviews with several former senior officials of the MIC.

Gen Mudh'her Sadeq Sabe'a, the head of missile technology at the MIC, was in charge of the development programme, which began in 1999. Once a week Gen Mudh'her and Abdul Tawib Mulla Hawish, the minister responsible for the MIC, would travel to the presidential palace in Baghdad to deliver a progress report to Saddam, who is said to have taken a keen personal interest in the project.

Mr Hawish surrendered to coalition forces shortly after the war and has provided British officials with a detailed breakdown of Saddam's plans to manufacture the weapon.

The rocket motor was to be built at the Abu Ghraib military base, the main fuselage at al-Waziriyah and the navigation system at al-Taji. "We had finished the research stage and entered the development stage," said a senior Iraqi engineer who worked at the MIC and is now co-operating with British officials. "If it had not been for the war, development would have been completed within a year."

Iraqi officials insist that the missile was intended to carry a conventional warhead, but British weapons experts believe it could easily have been adapted to carry chemical or biological weapons.

The Iraqis say that the missile's main purpose would have been to protect Iraq from attack by neighbouring countries. However, it could also have been used to attack Israel. During the Gulf war Saddam launched Soviet-made Scud missiles at targets in Israel.

The discovery of the plans for Saddam's secret missile programme is being hailed as a significant breakthrough by coalition commanders, who have so far failed to find any convincing evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programme.

[Dog Gone]

I've read that special forces captured the Scud "launch box" region in western Iraq, but I've not seen anywhere that they captured a single Scud.

[Dr. Frank fan]

You know, the article doesn't claim it's a "WMD". Just that it's a 'smoking gun'. You know the difference, right?

[Dog Gone]

No, tell me the difference. We already knew that Iraq had missiles and other weapons in violation of the UN restrictions.

So explain to me how this is the "smoking gun". Thanks.

[psychopuppy]

Well, if Turkey had lot us use their country as northern base they would never have gotten into Syria, but the Turks had to screw us over.

[Jorge]

"While important, it's not a WMD, and not even evidence of a plan to build a WMD. It's a plan to build a missile with an illegal range."

Just what was Saddam going to deliver with these long-range missiles? Krispy Kremes?

Thank you!

[bart99]

"As for the SCUDS, they launched a SCUD into Kuwait during the war, if you remember, there were causalties, it hit a shopping Mall. The information minister denied it was fired from iraq and didn't know how it got into the mall (not joking, I'm serious)."

---

Wasn't a Scud that hit that mall..... it was a chinese silkworm missle. I think the scud that was fired at Kuwait landed without caualties of any sort.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Interesting ............

[bart99]

What interests me is the numbers of trailor trucks that went into Syria a few weeks before the war.... AND.... still..... those three IRAQI ships that went into the Arabian Sea and just cicled in the middle somewhere maintaining radio silence. Initial reports were that we were afraid to do anything with the ships for fear they conained bio and chem stuff and if one sank it was cause a worldwide ecological disaster. But I still haven't heard what has happened with those ships.

[RightWhale]

We should have given Iraq more time to build a deliver a smoking gun.

That would explain the sense of urgency Tony Blair conveyed. Just a matter of time.

[basque69]

I do believe that W has something up his sleeve on WMD.
Bits of tantalizing anecdotal evidence (the chemical trucks, etc) have come to light. There are hundreds of our
folks out looking and beaucoup Iraqis who should know are in captivity. Not a whisper of publicity. I would love for W to drop the WMD findings at Evian this weekend and invite the frogs to eat merde.

[RetiredArmy]

This was just a part of Saddam's lunar program of sending a terrorist into orbit of the moon and landing on Mars. Not a weapon to kill. He was wanting Terroranots!

[Defender2]

#1&#2. "Britain finds Iraq's smoking gun': a top-secret missile project" JOLLY GOOD SHOW!!!!:-)

[JustPiper]

Good find Bump Pokey!

[JustPiper]

"We had finished the research stage and entered the development stage,"

'Entered ' being the key word for the naysayers to minimize the importance of this. 'Manufacture is a whole other game. What was developed? Any materials found besides verbal or even paper?

[ladyinred]

This won't satisfy the left who is using this as a political weapon of mass destruction against the President. They won't care that it was capable of hitting Israel, that is for sure.

I for one, firmly believe Saddam had WMD in Iraq. Where they are now, I don't know, but they existed. He had plenty of time to hide and or dismantle them while we fiddled around with the UN. Perhaps that was the point of the clamor for the UN approval from our dear "friends." Some would want him to have time to get rid of the evidence.

[Dr. Frank fan]

We already knew that Iraq had missiles and other weapons in violation of the UN restrictions. So explain to me how this is the "smoking gun".

Whether a gun is "smoking" doesn't depend on whether we "already knew it was smoking". A gun is either "smoking" (=displaying evidence of a Crime) or not. This is such a case: evidence of violations of UN rules. You might say "but we already knew that".

I agree. Tell it to The French Of The World. When you do so, you can point out that we've found (yet another) "smoking gun". Best,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping!

Pokey thanks for the post!

Another piece of the puzzle now seems to be in place!
More yet to be found!

Bush Doctrine Unfolds :

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Bush Doctrine Unfold , click below:
	click here >>>	Bush Doctrine Unfold	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

David Kay, the former United Nations weapons inspector responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear weapons programme in the 1990s, said the British discovery proved that Saddam had no intention of complying with UN requirements.

To me, this is the bigge!

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

You are mistaken. There were no Scuds fired by Iraq at Kuwait during the recent "war". The Iraqis fired some smaller, shorter ranged missiles: these missiles were not Scuds. Please get your facts right.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

That wasn't a Scud. Please acquaint yourself with the proper terminology. In spite of what CNN or Fox News may think, not every missile launched by Iraq is a "Scud".