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Downing Street reveals ‘deception skills’ of Saddam, the artful dodger
The Sunday Times ^ | February 2, 2003 | Nicholas Rufford

Posted on 02/01/2003 4:01:36 PM PST by MadIvan

From bugging inspectors to hiding papers in mosques, Iraq is said to be running rings round the UN, writes Nicholas Rufford

Downing Street has assembled a document designed to paint a picture of Saddam Hussein’s regime systematically deceiving United Nations weapons inspectors.

The unpublished briefing portrays an operation by Saddam’s security services that is running rings around United Nations inspection teams.

It claims spies monitor the UN teams’ every move and conversation, enabling incriminating material to be moved from any facility about to receive a visit from the inspectors.

In a phrase that seems to have been crafted more by Downing Street spin doctors than by sober-minded intelligence officials, the report notes: “Saddam and his inner circle control the state infrastructure of fear.”

It says houses, farms and mosques are used as hiding places and that the Iraqis are using sophisticated equipment to deceive the inspectors. There are claims that ground-penetrating radar is being used to test whether packages hidden underground could be detected by similar UN devices.

The briefing will be crucial in building up the American and British case that Saddam’s non-co-operation with UN inspectors is a “material breach” of his international obligations.

However, the report is likely to prove vulnerable to critics who will point out that it gives almost no details of what Saddam may be hiding in breach of UN resolutions.

Critics will argue that its findings contrast with those of Hans Blix, the chief inspector. He told the UN last week that Iraq was not actively obstructing his teams, but was failing to give evidence that it had got rid of its weapons of mass destruction.

The British report, entitled Iraq — Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation, states plainly: “Iraq has deliberately hampered the work of the weapons inspectors and is now engaged in a campaign of obstruction.”

It continues: “The regime has intensified efforts to hide documents in places where they are unlikely to be found, such as private homes of low-level officials and universities . . .

“There are prohibited materials and documents being relocated to agricultural areas and private homes or hidden beneath hospitals and even mosques.”

Some of the methods said to be used are hardly surprising for an experienced police state such as Iraq. Surveillance equipment has been installed in all the hotels and offices used by the UN, while all phone calls are said to be tapped.

When the teams leave for their inspections, their drivers are intelligence agents and security officers stationed by roadsides give notification about where the motorcades are heading.

In addition to their picture of Saddam as willing to resort to anything to outwit the UN, the British and Americans are using the confessions of senior Al-Qaeda figures to show the Iraqi regime’s willingness to sponsor terrorism.

The main confession comes from a leading Osama Bin Laden apparatchik who has told Sudanese authorities that in the 1980s, before he joined Al-Qaeda, he trained Syrian fundamentalist fighters at a camp just outside Baghdad.

The man has said that he worked at the Al-Rashdiya camp near Baghdad, now a Republican Guard headquarters. The camp trained hundreds of fighters from Syria’s fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

The source, who once ran Bin Laden’s business interests in Khartoum, was named in a New York courtroom in February 2001 as a member of Al-Qaeda’s executive board.

One of his alleged trainees is Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, now under arrest in Spain and suspected of being head of the Spanish cell of Al-Qaeda.

Another graduate of Al-Rashdiya was Mustafa Sitmirian Nasar, a 44-year-old Syrian who was named in the New York trial two years ago as running a group trying to buy uranium in Africa on behalf of Bin Laden.

A separate thread being followed for connections between Al-Qaeda and Saddam’s regime runs through northern Iraq. Abu Musab Zarqawi, a middle-ranking Al-Qaeda member, is said to have had medical treatment in Baghdad then travelled to the Kurdish north and visited Ansar al-Islam, a small Muslim militia linked to Bin Laden.

US intelligence officials suspect Zarqawi has helped with work on chemical weapons. He has also been linked to the murder of the American diplomat Lawrence Foley in Jordan last October and to the recently uncovered ricin plot in London.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: blair; bush; hiding; iraq; saddam; uk; us; warlist; weapons
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To: Principled
..now you're quoting liberal press.... another worrying sign...

You (of all people) should have learned to stop worrying by now, Princ.


41 posted on 02/02/2003 5:29:27 PM PST by Byron_the_Aussie
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To: Byron_the_Aussie
Sad that you don't understand how a representative democracy works. Down under, indeed.

I neither worship the President nor the state. I do however respect our form of government and the Constitution under which it was created. Please point to any part of the US Constitution that requires the President to take a poll, listen to the media, get the consent of the UN, make sure Zogby checks his approval ratings, etc. before he acts as Commander-in-Chief.

Also, since things I've posted here on FR have been seen around the world and appeared in millions of inboxes, you should most definitely be scared of this "newbie".

Bootyist
42 posted on 02/02/2003 5:51:16 PM PST by bootyist-monk
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To: bootyist-monk
..please point to any part of the US Constitution that requires the President to take a poll, listen to the media, get the consent of the UN, make sure Zogby checks his approval ratings, etc. before he acts as Commander-in-Chief....

Huh? The point is, that's what this president does. He takes polls, listens to the media and won't move on Iraq without Security Council consent. Bet the farm on it. Who do you think he is? Reagan?

As to your Bad Republican minute of fame, it's utterly banal.

43 posted on 02/02/2003 6:01:22 PM PST by Byron_the_Aussie
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To: Byron_the_Aussie
Yawn.
44 posted on 02/02/2003 6:07:05 PM PST by bootyist-monk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]


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