Saddam 'hiding the weapons in mosques'

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | November 17, 2002 | Philip Sherwell and David Wastell

[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.

[neutrino]

Hmm. Well, if Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are in mosques...

and if the WMD must be destroyed...

and if we're not allowed to remove the WMD from the site...

then...

(Big grin!)

[TLBSHOW]

Where do you think they are hidden in America? Yep in the mosques'

[Sungirl]

Well..if they know this...I hope this is the one of the first places they inspect.

[TLBSHOW]

Ban Islam in America! Islam is the enemy!

[rintense]

Maybe we can ask Clinton to get his black-clad ninja warriors to go get Saddam.

[GoldMan]

I am beginning to wonder what is being hidden in mosques in the United States.

Did I here someone say Mosque burnings?
Oh, that was church burnings........

[TLBSHOW]

Internet Performs Global Role, Supplementing TV

At FreeRepublic.com, conservative posters called for religious observance ('Pray for the families of the dead,' was an early post from CoolGuyVic) and vengeance.

Freeper Mol spoke for many: 'I pray that GW stands up and deliberately, and swiftly crushes these bugs under the heel of the armed forces of The United States of America. Let them tremble before our rage.'

[Siobhan]

Time to reclassify each mosque/masjid as an enemy military compound.

[TLBSHOW]

time to close everyone of them down and get the muslims out of America! Ban this Cult! Peaceful they are not. Islam is the enemy!

[Republic]

I would suggest operatives flood yemin, malaysia, singapore and romania immediately and interview anyone flying in from Iraq or the middle east. Or-I would insist that the inspectors in Iraq have full access to these departed scientists' families-including pulling them out of the country, in order to draw out the folks Saddam has sent away to avoid interviewing. If the names or known-and Saddam will not provide the scientists-family access is the key.

[Muleteam1]

Smart move on Saddam's part? I once was shown a mosque while in Morocco and was told I could not enter because an "infodel" entering a mosque would be no worse than pouring pig blood on its floor.

Muleteam1

[Mo1]

WOW .. did I say that .. LOL

[TLBSHOW]

You would be surprised what high profile posters said here at FR about Islam! To what they are saying now.

Everyone, Islam is still the enemy!

[tsomer]

Showdown time. He puts his stuff in the mosques. We go to look for it & their muckwucks deny entry. Do we bomb? If we do they declare Jihad! and off we go. But there's a problem: those assholes have already declared Jihad!-- numerous times already. So we bomb the hell out of the mosques, arguing that they were infested with faux moslems and thus corrupted. They'll disagree but who cares? If we bomb then during prayers, only men will get targeted. They've already culled the innocents for us.

This scenario don't look too bad.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Saddam Hussein is hiding chemical and biological weapons supplies in mosques

This is actually a smart move on Saddam's part because the chances of Hans Blix inspecting mosques are approximately zero.

[ApesForEvolution]

I agree, all doubles need to be shadowed by 3rd parties and snuffed. There has to be a way to leave Bush and Blair 'plausible denial'. This is the only solution, although I'd still take out approx. the top 200 in the command structure below Insane. The loyal.

[Procyon]

The mosques are not government locations (he can say) so they do not have to allow inspections if the inmans choose to keep the UN out. It would be the same in our country, I don't think the government could legally force a property owner to open it's doors to a foreign power.

What's the law have to do with it? Back in 1991, in exchange for a cease fire, Saddam agreed to the inspections. No restrictions. You want to pull some legalism B.S.? Fine, we're back at war! It would be the same in our country if the U.N. were really more than a debating society and ever got the better of us. Not to say that will ever happen!

[Mo1]

Well it is possible I did but that doesn't sounds like me .. but I do agree the SOB need to be squashed like a bug

[aristeides]

Chamberlain's Air Minister refused to bomb the Ruhr because it was private property! When Churchill became prime minister, that nonsense ended.

[Cindy]

Well, hiding weapons in mosques sure isn't an original idea...

GAMLA: "TERRORISTS HIDE WEAPONS IN MOSQUES"
(ARTICLE SNIPPET: "16 April 2002

Nasser Yatima , a resident of Tulkarem and a military operative of Hamas, was arrested by IDF forces in Nablus during the Defensive Shield operation . During interrogation he admitted to personal involvement in the Park Hotel bombing in Netanya on Passover night, in which 28 civilians were killed and 65 wounded.

In the interrogation Nasser said that a month before the bombing he was asked by one of his controllers to empty a weapons cache that was hidden in the women's toilet of a mosque in Tulkarem . Nasser and another friend came to the mosque on a Thursday and late at night, with his friend guarding the entrance, Nasser entered the women's toilet and removed a heavy handbag that contained an explosive belt.")
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/667873/posts

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE - Fact Sheet: "TALIBAN ACTIONS IMPERIL AFGHAN CITIZENS" 2 November 2001
(2 SNIPPETS from this fact sheet: "The Taliban are deliberately putting Afghan civilians in great danger. Recent actions by the Taliban in Afghanistan have disrupted delivery of humanitarian food supplies, and have transformed civilian neighborhoods into military targets, by hiding military personnel and equipment in civilian areas, including in mosques. The Taliban have harassed humanitarian NGOs and UN agencies, looted UN World Food Program offices, and seized food and fuel stores, vehicles, communication equipment and humanitarian supplies. And the Taliban have engaged in forced conscription of young boys."..."The Taliban have put the Afghan civilian population in grave danger by deliberately hiding their soldiers and equipment in civilian areas, including in mosques.

*

An Afghan refugee recently arrived in Pakistan from Kabul said, "Now the Taliban are taking their guns to the residential areas, and when they fire at the [American] planes, the planes see them and drop bombs on them. That's when the innocent people die." (As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 30)
*

Refugees from Kabul report that some Taliban are taking over private homes in order to avoid their barracks and reduce the risk of being bombed. These refugees also say the Taliban are storing weapons in mosques and schools. (As reported in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24)
*

The Taliban park their vehicles among the taxis at the central bus station in Kabul by day, and sleep in nearby hotels by night. (As reported in the New York Times, Oct. 26)
*

The spokesman for the Department of Defense, Navy Rear Admiral Stufflebeem, said on October 24: "The Taliban regime has been moving troops and equipment and perhaps its leaders into civilian areas. The reports indicate that troops and equipment are being housed in mosques and schools to shield them from the U.S. bombardment...."")
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/sasia/afghan/fact/1102tlbn.htm

GOOGLE Search Term: "WEAPONS IN MOSQUES"
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