Posted on 02/18/2003 5:08:48 AM PST by kattracks
Feb. 18? By Ruben Alabastro
MANILA (Reuters) - A former top Iraqi scientist said on Tuesday he believed Saddam Hussein had dismantled his nuclear program but was making chemical and biological weapons that were hidden deep underground beyond the eyes of U.N. inspectors.
Hussain Al Shahristani said the Iraqi president did not have the capacity to deliver a payload of the weapons to distant countries but could pass them to overseas cells of supporters which he had built up over the years.
"There's no way that they can really find them, unless by pure accident," Shahristani, a former chief scientific advisor to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, told a briefing organized by an association of foreign journalists in the Philippines.
"These materials are hidden deep underground or in a tunnel system."
He said he was jailed for 11 years by Saddam's regime for refusing to develop banned weapons but that he escaped from Iraq in 1991. He now lives in London.
Shahristani said his information came from former colleagues and dissidents who had recently fled the country.
"My understanding is that the nuclear program has been, for all practical purposes, dismantled," he said. "But the program to produce chemical and biological weapons continued even during the years when the inspectors were in Iraq in the 1990s."
Hans Blix, chief weapons inspector for the United Nations, said in a report to the world body's Security Council on Friday that his teams had discovered no banned weapons in Iraq.
The report was seen as a setback for U.S. and British efforts to get U.N. endorsement to use military force against Iraq over its alleged failure to get rid of weapons of mass destruction.
CHEMICAL BELT AROUND BAGHDAD
Shahristani said he believed Saddam planned to make his last stand in Baghdad in the event of a U.S.-led attack and use the capital's four million residents as human shields.
"There has even been discussion within his circle to set up what they call a chemical belt around Baghdad using his chemical weapons to entrap the residents of Baghdad inside," he said.
Shahrastani quoted his informants as saying Saddam was banking on 50,000 to 100,000 soldiers to defend the city, but the scientist doubted they would fight to the last man.
"Based on contacts that we are having with the people inside Iraq, who are talking with the military all the time, the general understanding of the population now is that the army is not going to fight," he said. "The army is not going to defend Saddam."
Reports that Saddam had look-alikes to confuse potential assassins were "absolutely true," Shahristani said.
"I have seen them," he said. "There are usually between four and eight convoys that leave the palace through different doors -- identical convoys of black Mercedes -- each of them having one who looks like Saddam. They leave in different directions."
What's the problem? We take tham all out. Call it collateral damage and move on!
IF this happens, you know who will be blamed. Bush
"There has even been discussion within his circle to set up what they call a chemical belt around Baghdad using his chemical weapons to entrap the residents of Baghdad inside," he said.
No wonder the Democrat Socialists and Communists love this guy. He's also pro-death.
There's a job I wouldn't want.
On the contrary. Saddam and his UN inspectors said there were no chemical weapons. A world full of leftist politicians and protestors agree with them.
IF chemical weapons are used, that's when we can say "We told you so. You should have followed us instead of letting your anti-American hate clowd your itty bitty little brains."
"Bush forced him to use these weapons. If we had only left him alone..."
Kill 'em all and let Allah sort them out.
Iraqi Scientist: Suicidal Saddam Plans Doomsday for Bagdad !
That is what the meat of the article is: Saddam will murder hundreds of thousands of his own people and destroy Bagad and try to blame the United States. The U.S. must start talking about this NOW. The world needs to know before this event unfolds. Powell and Bush need to use this damning infrmation against Saddam ... NOW !
I have predicting this as an unfolding scenario all along. This is the secret message hidden in Saddam's 'Holy scripture written in blood' now in place in that huge Mosk sitting miles away from Bagdad. Saddam intends to die a false martyr, frame the U.S. when he murders is own people, and start WW III with carefully plotted 'end of times' scenario.
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