Posted on 11/16/2002 5:32:45 PM PST by MadIvan
Saddam Hussein is hiding chemical and biological weapons supplies in mosques and hospitals in an effort to thwart the new United Nations inspection mission to Baghdad, Iraqi dissidents have revealed.
America says the Iraqi leader has also set up highly-trained "clean-up" squads at his most sensitive secret weapons sites to hide evidence and "sanitise" key facilities even as inspectors are on their way.
Saddam was completing his concealment strategy as French and Russian diplomats wrangled with their American and British counterparts at the UN in New York over the Security Council resolution backing the return of the weapons inspectors.
American intelligence has intensified its information-gathering campaign about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme as Washington prepares to provide the inspectors with the data to counter Baghdad's concealment efforts.
In a significant breakthrough, the claims of Adnan al-Haideri, an Iraqi civil engineer who defected to America last year and revealed how Saddam was building underground vaults to hide chemical and biological weapons laboratories, have been backed up by US spy plane missions.
The aircraft are fitted with a device that detects underground voids - such as bunkers and tunnels - through variations in the earth's gravitational field. The device found a void where Mr al-Haideri said there was a subterranean nerve-agent laboratory.
Several scientists responsible for Iraq's WMD programme have been shifted out of the country on false passports already to prevent the inspectors questioning them, leading exiles have told The Telegraph.
In the past fortnight two scientists have been sent to Yemen, two elsewhere in the Middle East and one each to Romania, Malaysia and Singapore, according to the Iraqi National Accord (INA), an opposition group with good contacts within the regime.
Dr Ayad Alawi, the INA's leader, also disclosed that the regime was moving documents and materials from weapons laboratories and a ballistic-missile site into hospitals, schools and mosques in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.
The concealment operation is being co-ordinated by Brig Gen Walid al-Nasri, a trusted aide from Saddam's home region of Tikrit who reports directly to Qusay Hussein, the dictator's second son and head of his powerful State Security Organisation.
An official of the US Defence Intelligence Agency said: "They have trained large numbers of personnel in how to deal with an intrusive inspection regime."
These "clean-up" squads have developed methods for rapidly cleaning and sterilising equipment such as fermenters and centrifuges used to manufacture and store chemical and biological agents.
Iraq has also tried to "bury" small-scale weapons-making activity in larger-scale industrial sites.
British and American intelligence have developed a plan for the weapons inspectors that meets a timetable for attack early next year. They want them to look at about 1,000 sites. About 100 are considered certain to contain evidence of illegal activity.
In his first public comments since the UN resolution was passed, Saddam said yesterday that he had accepted the harsh terms to avert a US attack. After again insisting that Iraq was "devoid of weapons of mass destruction", he used typically vituperative language to denounce Israel, America and the "devils" that followed them.
The first test will come on December 8, the deadline set by UN Resolution 1441 for him to declare Iraq's stocks of biological and chemical agents, its nuclear-bomb programme and remaining ballistic missiles.
"If the Iraqis stick with a declaration of 'nil', then it's war," said Dr John Chipman, director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the London-based think-tank that produced a damning recent dossier on Iraq's weapons programme.
He said that Baghdad would most probably come up with a "middling" declaration.
America, backed by Britain, would argue at the Security Council that an incomplete December 8 declaration would put Baghdad in "material breach" of Resolution of 1441. France and Russia would in turn be expected to contend that the inspectors be given the chance to prove that Saddam was lying.
Despite the growing American military build-up, Pentagon planners would still prefer to launch a closely co-ordinated air and ground offensive after late December, when more than 200,000 US troops would be in the region.
The plan is that US intelligence will provide the UN inspectors with the "killer" data once America is ready for the military finale. The inspectors would then make unannounced spot checks while the US kept the sites under surveillance relayed live by unmanned spy drones.
Washington believes the Iraqis will be seen either trying to conceal weapons material or will be caught out. The UN Security Council will be allowed a short time to debate, but the Pentagon will already have launched the final, brief countdown to war.
Why not. The Brits have done it before.
I say GO GO GO . What's the U.N. gonna do , kick us out ? Bwahahahahaha...
WASHINGTON TIMES.com (AP): "IRAQ TAKES DELIVERY OF POWDER USED IN CHEMICAL ARMS" (ARTICLES SNIPPETS: "Iraqi scientists know how to make chemical weapons that can penetrate military protective clothing, and Iraq imported up to 25 metric tons last month of a powder that is a crucial ingredient to such "dusty" weapons. Iraq told the United Nations the powder was destined for a pharmaceutical company."..."The powder, sold under the brand name Aerosil...") (111802)
TIMES ONLINE.co.uk: "SADDAM PAYS GADDAFI $3 BILLION TO GIVE HIS FAMILY SAFE HAVEN IN LIBYA" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Word of Saddam's deal with the Libyan leader has emerged from diplomatic sources in Tripoli following a visit to the Libyan capital on September 8 by General Ali Hasan al-Majid, a cousin and trusted member of Saddam's clan. General al-Majid is known by the Kurds of northern Iraq as "Chemical Ali" because he was in charge of the Iraqi forces which launched a chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. He was also initially the "Governor" of Kuwait after Iraq's invasion of the Gulf state in August 1990, and is now one of the Baath Party regional command leaders. He is believed to have travelled to Tripoli to deliver a personal missive from Saddam to the Libyan leader, confirming the arrangements for his family.") (111602)
FOX NEWS.com: "IRAQ STOCKPILING GAS ANTIDOTE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The fate of 31,600 chemical munitions, 550 mustard gas bombs and 4,000 tons of chemical precursors remain unknown, according to Congressional Research Services. In fact, the primary remaining chemical weapons questions center on the VX nerve agent, which atropine can be used to counter. By 1995, UNSCOM uncovered enough evidence to force Iraq to admit to producing about 4 tons of VX, but UNSCOM thought the country had imported enough material to actually produce 200 tons of VX, according to CRS.") (111202)
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