Meanwhile, Saddam's secrets rise from the desert

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 08/17/03 | Con Coughlin

[Pokey78]

New revelations from the man leading the WMD survey team show that Saddam gave the order to fire his deadly weapons. Con Coughlin assesses the meaning of this little-acknowledged breakthrough

Thousands of miles from the febrile atmosphere of Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice in London where Lord Hutton is conducting his inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, one of the British scientist's former colleagues was last week making yet another highly significant discovery in the hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction arsenal.

Dr David Kay, the American weapons expert who heads the 1,400-strong Iraq Survey Team that is conducting an extensive search for Saddam's biological, chemical and nuclear programmes in Iraq, made the startling revelation that the Iraqi dictator had ordered his commanders to fire chemical shells at invading coalition troops during the recent conflict.

Dr Kay's discovery, which will be contained in a congressional report to be published in Washington next month, is just the latest of a number of telling breakthroughs that have been made in Iraq by the survey team but which, because of the furore that has gripped the British media over the Kelly case, have gone largely unreported.

And if Dr Kay's recent predictions about uncovering the secrets of Saddam's various weapons of mass destruction programmes prove to be correct, then the painstaking investigation currently being undertaken by Lord Hutton into whether the British Government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam would be rendered irrelevant.

Certainly many of the discoveries now being made by the survey team would come as no surprise to Dr Kelly who, irrespective of the doubts he expressed about the Iraqis' ability to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of Saddam giving the order, was under no illusion about the wider threat posed by the Iraqi leader's clandestine programmes.

Indeed, the reason that Susan Watts, Newsnight's science editor, and other BBC reporters such as Andrew Gilligan were in contact with Dr Kelly in the first place was that, because of the work he had undertaken as a member of Dr Kay's United Nations weapons teams in Iraq in the 1990s, he was well-acquainted with all aspects of Saddam's weapons programmes.

As Miss Watts made clear in her evidence to Lord Hutton last week, Dr Kelly "thought very definitely that there were [Iraqi] weapons programmes and that if there were to be any evidence of this, it might well be a lengthy process to find that evidence and a process of putting together pieces of information, and that that process was really only beginning".

The fundamental purpose of the work now being carried out by Dr Kay's survey team in Iraq is to complete the process to which Dr Kelly was referring, namely to bring to a close the painstaking weapons inspection process that was launched following the 1991 Gulf war - in which Dr Kelly played an important role but which, because of Saddam's various attempts to obstruct the process, was never completed.

Despite having to work in onerous conditions, Dr Kay and his inspection teams remain confident that they will be able to provide convincing evidence of Saddam's illegal weapons programmes.

When asked during a recent interview with the American NBC television network whether he would find evidence on Saddam's biological, nuclear and chemical weapons programmes, Dr Kay replied: "I think we will have a very strong case on all of those. I think we'll have a strong case on missiles as well."

That was undoubtedly Dr Kay's view when I spent time with him in Baghdad in the spring and he helped to corroborate documents discovered by The Telegraph that indicated Saddam was attempting to develop a ballistic missile with a range of 600 miles.

Since then Dr Kay has been recruited by America's Central Intelligence Agency to head the survey team. Apart from interviewing scores of Iraqi scientists who were involved in Saddam's various weapons projects, Dr Kay has seized a number of top-secret documents that reveal in extraordinary detail the lengths to which Saddam's officials went to conceal the various weapons programmes.

Dr Kay has also been assisted by the fact that Ba'ath party officials were meticulous in keeping records on every aspect of their work, from the deals they did with foreign governments to the frequent progress reports they delivered to Saddam.

Consequently he is more confident than ever that the survey team will eventually be able to provide a definitive account of Iraq's various weapons programmes. "I'm certain that we're going to find the truth," he said. "We want to understand the programme from the beginning to its end, to how it was proceeding at every step, to who was involved."

Dr Kay's discovery that Saddam actually issued the order to his commanders to use chemical weapons against coalition forces might also help to shed light on another crucial aspect: the involvement of British intelligence as the conflict in Iraq developed.

One of the great success stories of Operation Iraqi Freedom is that Saddam's commanders declined to implement Saddam's order because, prior to the war, many had been successfully persuaded by British intelligence not to fight.

No mention of this brilliant intelligence coup, of course, will be made at the Hutton inquiry because it is not deemed relevant to the more parochial issue of whether or not Saddam's forces could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

• Con Coughlin is the author of Saddam: The Secret Life

[dr_who_2]

The Democrats don't give a rat's behind whether Saddam had WMD or not. They're not in power, and so it's just an election issue, nothing more.

[CyberAnt]

Add to this the new revelation that Israeli satelites have found several trucks from Iraq in Lebenon which are loaded with weapons.

Poor Daschle is right!

In Rush's latest magazine, he wrote an article about Daschle being shown the door by Bill and Hill - it seems (according to Rush), that Hill wants Daschle's job. Rush played it like a scene from Godfather - it was hysterical - including the horses' head in the bed! Then .. Rush said, "It's over, Tom. Get out, now! Otherwise, mark my words: your career sleeps with the fishes".

This is so typical of the Clintons - they used the guy up to do their dirty work, and now that they're through with him - they just get rid of him (and you can take that anyway you want).

[M Kehoe]

There will be 33% of the democRAT party which will deny that WMD have been found no matter what. Even if someone put some Iraqi VX on Daschle and Pelosi watched from afar.

No amount of physical or circumstancial evidence will convince them. They hate G.W. Bush with a passion.

And, damn, still no special prosecutors, convictions or impeachment. The alphabet soup (nytabccbsnbccnnlatnpr) hasn't reported that fact. I wonder why.

8^)

5.56mm

[Samurai_Jack]

Once they release this mid Sept report, and once the Energy Infrastructure project starts up and the economy begins to take off under a new capital project the size of the National Highway Project of the 40s... Tom Dashle is going to require admission for sedation, and treatment of Clinical Depression.

[bluelowrider57]

lol

[rwfromkansas]

What do you think will happen in the capital project (something to do with upgrading the grid?)

[GailA]

btt

[MHGinTN]

The criminal enterprise democrat party power structure will merely switch from lying about WMDs and Bush complicity in 9/11, to the Bush family cabal on the energy systems of this nation, complete with ENRON cabal and Mowhawk power sabatage. They've already begun the set up, sending Palast around to all the cable nets with the foundational lies. The obsessed Bush haters at LibertyPost.com are orgasming over the pseudo-cabals.

[sydbas]

Dr Kay's discovery, which will be contained in a congressional report to be published in Washington next month, is just the latest of a number of telling breakthroughs that have been made in Iraq by the survey team but which, because of the furore that has gripped the British media over the Kelly case, have gone largely unreported.

They haven't exactly been reported much here by our liberal media either.

[sarasmom]

Bump.
But I find still find it somewhat amusing that one of the "reasons" the democrats were opposed to military action against Iraq was the threat of Hussein using the very WMDs he threatened to use,that are now touted as figments of the imagination of the entire world.
Only a deluded liberal could enjoy that type of mental gymnastics.

[shadowman99]

.

[Atchafalaya]

He's been stealth.

[FairOpinion]

"One of the great success stories of Operation Iraqi Freedom is that Saddam's commanders declined to implement Saddam's order because, prior to the war, many had been successfully persuaded by British intelligence not to fight."

---

Exactly. Something the media carefully avoids mentioning. In fact Democrats were almost whining over that "see, Saddam didn't even attack our soldiers with WMD", almost wishing that he had.

[FairOpinion]

"Nothing to see here people - we all know Saddam had thousands of WMD scientists to build no WMDs. We all know that Saddam ordered his WMD scientists to keep extremely detailed documents on WMD tests on weapons that never existed. We all know that Saddam refused to cooperate with WMD inspectors for 10+ years because he had no WMDs in the first place. We know that Saddam gave orders to fire WMDs which never really existed. We all know that Saddam went to great lengths to hide a WMD program that never existed. Move along people. "

==

Good summary. That's about it.

One more thing -- Bin Laden and Saddam never existed, since we haven't found them yet.

[FairOpinion]

and this one:

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/965072/posts

"Israeli intelligence has identified what are believed to be Iraqi weapons of mass destruction goods in Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, U.S. officials said.

The Israelis used a spy satellite to photograph several tractor-trailer loads of suspected weapons into the Bekaa Valley, where the Islamist terrorist group is based. "

[maica]

One of the great success stories of Operation Iraqi Freedom is that Saddam's commanders declined to implement Saddam's order because, prior to the war, many had been successfully persuaded by British intelligence not to fight.

When Vice-president Cheney made the Sunday morning show rounds shortly before March 17, Tim Russert and others asked him about the horrors of house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. Cheney's reply was very clear: Baghdad would fall from the inside. He was so certain in his message, it was obvious that he was sure that the cooperation (or at least the attention) of those Iraqi Generals had been achieved.

[Grampa Dave]

You might want to add the ChiComs and the NK's to your list.

[Grampa Dave]

Where is $inator Da$$hole?

We hardly hear anything from him anymore.

[MizSterious]

And the Russians. We already know they sold them night vision technology just before and during the war.

[Samurai_Jack]

Senator Dashole is likely succumb to his 'deeply saddened' state and being treated for Clinical Depression given the circumstances.