"THE" Reason We Went Into Iraq

Guest: John Loftus (the author of four histories about Intelligence operations, a consultant for CBS 60 MINUTES and ABC - PRIME TIME, among others. He was a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department Nazi hunting unit with unprecedented access to top secret C.I.A. and NATO archives)

Eric Shawn: "John Loftus told us about it months ago right here on Inside Scoop. John, that's why we call it, 'Inside Scoop' - you beat the New York Times again. Congratulations!"

John: "Well, ummm, this little country lawyer used to have a Q clearance for nuclear weapons secrets and I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, 'My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they're going to find out about our nuclear program. And who's going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?''"

Eric: "You're saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?

John: "Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree (sp?). He was the foreign minister of Iraq. And he went to Khadafy and they worked out a whole protocol. Khadafy would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium. And they would literally make a factory for nuclear weapons. And once that factory was complete, we had lost the war on terrorism. People don't realize that even a small nuclear weapon can kill 300,000 people. That's one hundred 9-11's. So that's why we put [garbled] bin Laden on the back burner -- we were really focusing on getting the Ali Sobree protocol - we had to smash that ring."

Eric: "Now when you talk about Saddam and the war on terror - we've had conversations - your indication is that President Bush understood this after 9-11 and he was mostly concerned about a nuclear bomb from Libya or Iraq or Iran."

John: "Eric, that's EXACTLY it. Within a month after 9-11, British wiretaps showed that we had a MAJOR risk. Nuclear weapons in terrorist's hands would be devastating. And that's why the president said, 'OK, we're gonna shift the emphasis from Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. We're gonna go into Iraq - that's where the evidence is - we have to capture Ali Sobree."

Eric: "Yeah, but critics say, 'Oh the war is about oil' - ' The war is about democracy'. You say there's someting else going on. ..."

John: "This is absolutely necessary, Eric. Had we not smashed the program, within the next 3 or 4 months - on the schedule they were on - Libya would have finished the nuclear factory - we couldn't touch it. We were designing nuclear bunker-busters to try and get into the mountain [but] even that wouldn't work. Once the Islamic bomb was finished - America - the rest of the western nations were finished. We couldn't stand city after city evaporating by nuclear weapons."

Eric: "In other words, going into Iraq, in your view, having Khadafy now basically give up and surrender everything to us, getting the connection to North Korea and Iran - was a major strategy in the war on terror?"

John: "It was THE major strategy. Khadafy has now confirmed he is going to hand the Ali Sobree protocols over to the United States. Sobree, himself, is now in US custody and he is already scheduled as one of the first three witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Sadam's biggest crime? While he was starving his own people to death, his money and his scientists were hiding in Libya to make a factory for nuclear weapons to attack any major power in the world." ...

Here's a copy of the full transcript just in case Jim Robinson doesn't agree to restoring what the admin.moderator deleted. Jim requested a copy by personal freepmail and I sent it to him. Hopefully he will decide to restore it.

Fox News Channel http://www.foxnews.com Inside Scoop- Sunday, 5-23-2004 11:20 AM Host Eric Shawn

Guest: John Loftus (the author of four histories about Intelligence operations, a consultant for CBS 60 MINUTES and ABC - PRIME TIME, among others. He was a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department Nazi hunting unit with unprecedented access to top secret C.I.A. and NATO archives)

Under discussion is this story in the NY Times today:

Evidence Is Cited Linking Koreans to Libya Uranium
New York Times ^ | 5/23/04 | DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140538/posts

Transcribed by me from my videotape:

Eric Shawn: "John Loftus told us about it months ago right here on Inside Scoop. John, that's why we call it, 'Inside Scoop' - you beat the New York Times again. Congratulations!"

John Loftus: "Thank you very much."

Eric: "How do you do it?"

John: "Well, ummm, this little country lawyer used to have a Q clearance for nuclear weapons secrets and I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, 'My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they're going to find out about our nuclear program. And who's going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?''"

Eric: "You're saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?

John: "Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree (sp?). He was the foreign minister of Iraq. And he went to Khadafy and they worked out a whole protocol. Khadafy would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium. And they would literally make a factory for nuclear weapons. And once that factory was complete, we had lost the war on terrorism. People don't realize that even a small nuclear weapon can kill 300,000 people. That's one hundred 9-11's. So that's why we put [garbled] bin Laden on the back burner -- we were really focusing on getting the Ali Sobree protocol - we had to smash that ring."

Eric: "Now when you talk about Saddam and the war on terror - we've had conversations - your indication is that President Bush understood this after 9-11 and he was mostly concerned about a nuclear bomb from Libya or Iraq or Iran."

John: "Eric, that's EXACTLY it. Within a month after 9-11, British wiretaps showed that we had a MAJOR risk. Nuclear weapons in terrorist's hands would be devastating. And that's why the president said, 'OK, we're gonna shift the emphasis from Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. We're gonna go into Iraq - that's where the evidence is - we have to capture Ali Sobree."

Eric: "Yeah, but critics say, 'Oh the war is about oil' - ' The war is about democracy'. You say there's someting else going on. ..."

John: "This is absolutely necessary, Eric. Had we not smashed the program, within the next 3 or 4 months - on the schedule they were on - Libya would have finished the nuclear factory - we couldn't touch it. We were designing nuclear bunker-busters to try and get into the mountain [but] even that wouldn't work. Once the Islamic bomb was finished - America - the rest of the western nations were finished. We couldn't stand city after city evaporating by nuclear weapons."

Eric: "In other words, going into Iraq, in your view, having Khadafy now basically give up and surrender everything to us, getting the connection to North Korea and Iran - was a major strategy in the war on terror?"

John: "It was THE major strategy. Khadafy has now confirmed he is going to hand the Ali Sobree protocols over to the United States. Sobree, himself, is now in US custody and he is already scheduled as one of the first three witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Sadam's biggest crime? While he was starving his own people to death, his money and his scientists were hiding in Libya to make a factory for nuclear weapons to attack any major power in the world." ..."

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