Posted on 04/23/2007 11:00:26 AM PDT by jveritas
“It was clear that there is another branch committee from the Industrial Committee headed by Dr. Mahdi Shakr Ghali that currently evaluates the Researches That Cannot Be Declared, Researches with relation to the previous Prohibited Programs... This is an important subject and it is dangerous in case this information is leaked one way or another.”. That was a quote General Housam Ahmad Amin, one of Saddam regime top officials on September/16/1998 talking about secret programs related to WMD according to Iraqi document CMPC-2003-002284.
Below is part I of my findings and analysis based on the captured Iraqi documents that I read. This part deals with Saddam regime programs related to Chemical Weapons. The documents that I read regarding this issue were written by high ranking officials in Saddam regime in particular “Iraq Military Industrialization Committee (MIC)” as well as top officials in Saddam Presidential circles. Based on the content, format, style, signatures, and seals, there is no doubt that these documents are authentic.
After December 1998 when the UN weapons inspector had been kicked out of Iraq, there is no doubt that Saddam regime began actively working on WMD programs and in particular producing the chemical materials called “Chemical Weapons Precursors” required to build their arsenal of “Chemical Weapons”. Once the “Chemical Precursors” are available, then Saddam regime can build the final product of “Chemical Weapons” in a very short period of time and when it is required to do so. It was better for Saddam to build the “Chemical Weapons Precursors” and hide them rather than build the “Final Chemical Weapon Products” and hide them. That is because the “Chemical Precursors” fall under the category of “Dual Use Material”, i.e. materials that can be used in both the civilian industry and to make “Chemical Weapons”. Therefore Saddam regime can always camouflage their “Chemical Weapons program” under the cover of civilian industrial usage. Moreover it was better to store the “Chemical Precursors” since it has a much longer shelf life than the final “Chemical Weapon Product”.
Based on many Iraqi documents that I have read; it is my opinion that Saddam regime produced the “Chemical Weapons Precursors” for the “Chemical Weapons” under the cover of a project the Iraqis called “The Pharmaceutical and Pesticides Project” that effectively started somewhere in the year 1999. The Iraqis always gave industrial names as a deceptive mean to cover their WMD projects. For example their previous Nuclear Weapons Program prior to the 1991 Gulf War was called “Petrochemical 3 Project”. The Iraqis were very careful in camouflaging their WMD programs and productions even prior to the 1991 Gulf War. They rarely used the expression “Chemical Weapons” and even when they were using Chemical Weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds in the 1980’s and they called it “Special Ammunition”.
There are many documents pertaining to “The Pharmaceutical and Pesticides Projects” and in these documents we find the plans, and the production projects for the “Chemical Precursors” to build “Chemical Weapons”. Under the United Nations sanctions, the Iraqi were totally prohibited to locally produce these “Chemical Precursors” but rather they may import it in very limited quantities and under strict UN importing regulations.
Under “The Pharmaceutical and Pesticides Projects” are the productions and research of materials like Potassium Cyanide and Sodium Cyanide which is used to make TABUN Nerve Gas. Also DICYLOHEXYLDIACARBODIIMIDE and Phosphorus Pentasulfide which are used to make VX Nerve Gas. Other materials in this project include Phosphorus oxychloride, Thiophosphoryl Chloride and Thionyl Chloride that are used to make different types of Chemical Weapons. These Chemical Weapons precursors are listed in Iraqi documents ISGQ-2003-00044424, CMPC-2003-013956, ISGQ-2005-00023243.
From 1998 to 2001 Saddam regime produced a lot of prohibited “Chemical Defensive Equipments” such as devices to “Detect Nerve Gas” and “Chemical Decontamination Vehicles” as per Iraqi documents CMPC-2003-016083 and ISGQ-2004-00220151. Though these equipments sound defensive in nature, the UN did not allow Saddam regime to produce it because they are also required when conducting a Chemical Weapon attack or transferring Chemical Weapons. Moreover a large number of documents talks in details about the extensive Chemical Warfare exercises that the Iraqi conducted for different branches of their military, these exercises increased in frequency and scale in the years 1999-2002 to the point of obsession. In addition according to the documents the Iraqis were always looking to purchase and store tens of thousands of Chemical protection gears and anti-Chemical Weapons medicine such Atropine injections.
Where are the “Chemical Weapons Precursors” located?
In my opinion Saddam regime buried the “Chemical Weapons Precursors” in the Western Desert, in particular in the Anbar province. I doubt very much that Saddam moved those materials outside Iraq to a different country for fear that this country can turn against him and bargain a deal on their expense with the US. I have read some Iraqis documents that give a strong hint about the possible locations where these “Chemical Weapons Precursors” can be buried and all these locations are in one particular district in the remote area of the Anbar province. According to the documents that were written in 1999-2003 Saddam regime was looking for location in the Western desert to bury what they call “Chemical Materials” and in some instances they call it “Chemical Waste Materials”. Saddam himself was directly involved in this issue according to the documents and he gave high priority orders for his top officials to come up with these burial sites. Some may say that these were only “chemical waste burial sites” however I find it is very odd that the Iraqis never thought about locations to bury their chemical waste until the year 1999! Why suddenly the Iraqis were so interested in finding burial sites for their chemical products and why Saddam himself was giving high priority orders for such a trivial matter if in fact the sites were only to bury Chemical Waste. The oddity of the issue leads to believe that these were no Chemical Waste burial sites but rather the burial sites of much more important materials such as “Chemical Weapons Precursors” and other equipments related to the production of “Chemical Weapons”.
Many of us remember the reporting about satellite pictures prior to the Iraq war that showed a convoy of suspect trucks that can be carrying Chemical Weapons moving toward the West and it was thought by many analysits that they were going to Syria. However in my opinion these trucks were going to the remote areas of the Anbar province in Western Iraq to bury the “Chemical Weapons Precursors” and the equipments required to make it.
The documents mention by name the few towns and one district in the Anbar province where Saddam regime wanted the Chemical materials burial sites. Because these towns are located in the Anbar province the heart of the terrorist insurgency in Iraq I will not mention these documents in a public forum for security concerns.
It is very important to understand the paranoid nature of Saddam regime and why it was extremely important for them to possess the ability to produce “Chemical Weapons” very quickly. It was the “Chemical Weapons” that saved Saddam regime during the Iraq-Iran war from 1980-1988. It was the “Chemical Weapons” that crushed the Kurds rebellion in 1987-1988 when Saddam savagely massacred tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians. Saddam regime was totally paranoid that Iran will attack them at anytime and the only way for them to resist and stop the Iranians who are superior in numbers is to use “Chemical Weapons” against them, therefore the Baghdad regime cannot afford not to have the capability of producing these weapons. They simply cannot be in “defensive mode” against a Chemical attack from Iran but they need to have the capability of attacking back and decisively with Chemical Weapons of their own.
That concludes part I of my findings and analysis about Saddam WMD. I will post in the next few days other threads that further discuss the WMD and Saddam strong relations to terrorism.
As promised.
bttt
It has been a while :). If you still have the Prewar docs pingees list, can you please ping them for this thread. As always thank you very much for all your help.
Mark to read later...thanks, jveritas.
Thank you, jveritas. BTTT and bookmarking. :)
A wise move. And this is a possible reason for the Bush administration to keep their knowledge of these chemicals from the public. Maybe no WMD's per se, but precursers that could quickly be made into chemical weapons. One of these days we need the whole story out there, AFTER the chemicals are found and removed.
Once again outstanding work!
By the way, what is the status of the documents? Are they back on line?
Great work. bttt
The liberals and their media have been spreading the lie of no WMD found where in reality so far we did not find stockpiles of Chemical Weapons in its final product from. That is the mistake the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) made when they worked and focused on finding the “stockpiles of Chemical Weapons” rather than focus on the Precursors to make Chemical weapons. For the reason I explained above, I think it was much better and more efficient for Saddam to work on all the Precursors i.e. ingredients required to make Chemical Weapons and store it so they can very quickly produce the final Chemical Weapon when it is required. The estimation that some of these weapons can be produced in one week once the precursors to make it are available.
Not yet, unfortunately the website is still shut down.
Thank you, jveritas, for all your hard work
Thanks Jveritas, you do good work!
Thanks! What about my other point? I like your analysis but I have problems with that one point. Was hoping you might have more insight as to why Bush denies WMD. A subject that drives me nuts.
bump, and I have the same question as L’s G ...
bump
bookmark
bttt
Winston Churchill said it best
“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.”
Excellent Joseph.
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