A thread for the discussion of Iraq's WMDs.
Original threads found here:
Iraqi WMDs
A thread for the discussion of Iraq's WMDs.
Original threads found here:
Re: Iraqi WMDs
U.S. Military Finds Chemical Site In Iraq
The U.S. military released on Saturday photographs of chemical containers found in a Tuesday raid.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military is trying to determine if more than 1,500 gallons of chemicals found this week at an abandoned storage site in northern Iraq were being used to make weapons, a military spokesman told CNN on Saturday.
The chemicals are commonly used for industrial purposes, but could potentially be combined to produce weapons, said Lt. Col. Jackson McRae, deputy public affairs director for multinational forces in Iraq.
He said not enough information indicates the site, which appeared to have been abandoned six weeks ago, was a chemical weapons facility.
"We have nothing to indicate there's anything specifically going on here," he said. "We're still just in the process of analyzing things and trying to get intelligence to find out just what was going on."
McRae said the investigation was in its early stages.
"My experts are still up there or on the way back," he said. "We haven't received anything conclusive except to say they have found some chemicals."
The list of chemicals included glycerin, sodium hydroxide and ethanol sulfate, he said.
Task Force Freedom, which is based in Mosul, conducted raids Tuesday using information obtained in detainee interrogations, according to a military news release.
McRae said he did not believe that conventional weapons had been found on the site.
The U.S. military has found many suspected chemical sites in the past, none of which contained chemical or biological weapons, The Associated Press reported, adding that testing can take several days.
Insurgents have been very active in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.
On Sunday, the U.S. military said 32 people were detained and one suspected insurgent was killed in raids last weekend.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Carl Levin: Saddam Had Nukes
Iraq war critic, Sen. Carl Levin made a startling admission Monday night - confessing that he believed the Bush administration was not wrong when they claimed Saddam Hussein posed a nuclear threat.
"Look, there was plenty of evidence that Saddam had nuclear weapons," Levin told MSNBC's "Hardball." "That is not in dispute. There is plenty of evidence of that."
Unfortunately, the White House's nuclear claims are in dispute - and by none other than Sen. Levin himself.
"When they said that the aluminum tubes that Saddam Hussein was seeking could only be used to make nuclear material, that was not true," the Michigan Democrat told the Senate the same day. "There is a pattern of exaggeration, distortion, misleading statements by the administration prior to the war."
We tend to think Levin's "plenty of evidence" statement is closer to the truth - especially given the fact that Saddam had 500-tons of uranium at his disposal and centrifuge parts and blueprints stored away for a rainy day. In the meantime, it might be a good idea for Sen. Levin to get his story straight before excoriating the White House any further.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Colin Powell's Tape Shows Iraqis 'Evacuating' WMDs
Bush officials have done such a poor job defending themselves against charges they lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that even their supporters seem to have forgotten about some of the most compelling WMD evidence.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, for instance, keeps apologizing for his speech to the United Nations on the eve of the Iraq war. But at least one chilling bit of evidence he introduced there has never been refuted.
Here's how Powell introduced his case on Feb. 5, 2003:
POWELL: Let me begin by playing a tape for you. What you're about to hear is a conversation that my government monitored. It takes place on November 26 [2002], on the day before United Nations teams resumed inspections in Iraq.
The conversation involves two senior officers, a colonel and a brigadier general, from Iraq's elite military unit, the Republican Guard.
TAPE TRANSCRIPT:What type of "modified vehicle" do Iraq war critics think Saddam's general was worried about? A souped-up 1967 Mustang?
IRAQI COLONEL : About this committee that is coming with [U.N. nuclear weapons inspector] Mohamed ElBaradei.
IRAQI GENERAL : Yeah, yeah.
COL: We have this modified vehicle. What do we say if one of them sees it?
GEN: You didn't get a modified... You don't have a modified...
COL: By God, I have one.
GEN: Which? From the workshop...?
COL: From the al-Kindi Company
GEN: Yeah, yeah. I'll come to you in the morning. I have some comments. I'm worried you all have something left.
COL: We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left. [END OF POWELL TAPE EXCERPT]
And what, pray tell, do they think Saddam's colonel was referring to when he said, "We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left"?
Re: Iraqi WMDs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542772/posts
BrianFormer IDF Chief-of-Staff, Lt.Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, said in an interview with the New York Sun last Thursday that Iraq moved its chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started.
"He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria,” said Ya’alon. “No one went to Syria to find it.”
Ya’alon’s assertion that Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction were clandestinely sent to Syria on the eve of the war contradicts President George W. Bush’s statement last Wednesday at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., that “much of the intelligence” on Iraq “turned out to be wrong.”
Despite his admission to what could be one of the greatest intelligence blunders of all time, Bush defended his decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
“Given Saddam's history and the lessons of September the 11th, my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat - and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power,” said Bush.
Ya’alon, who was IDF Chief-of-Staff from July 2002 – June 2005, speculated, however, in April 2004, that Iraq transferred its weapons “to another country, such as Syria.”
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also contended that Iraq’s WMD were transferred from Iraq to Syria before the war. In December 2002, Sharon told Israeli television Channel 2 that “chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria."
Syria has long been known to be developing its own chemical weapons of mass destruction. In March 2004, former CIA director George Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW." A senior official in the Iraqi embassy, Entifadh Qanbar, generally supported Ya’alon’s claim that Iraq moved its chemical weapons to Syria, but said that his government “is basically operating in the dark” because it doesn’t control its own intelligence agency.
Brian Baldwin
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil.... For I am the meanest S.O.B. in the valley.
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Re: Iraqi WMDs
This guy is claiming they were moved to Syria. Something we've been speculating for years.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...712.shtml?s=ic
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Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006 11:47 a.m. EST Iraq Official: Saddam Moved WMD to Syria
The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.
Georges Sada revealed the charges in an interview Wednesday with the New York Sun. They are detailed in his new book, "Saddam’s Secrets.â€
"Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Sada told the Sun. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians.â€
The former Iraqi general said Special Republican Guard brigades loaded WMDs onto two converted Iraqi Airways planes.
Story Continues BelowHe said he was told of the operation by two pilots that helped transport the materials. Sada says 56 flights were made, and were accompanied by a ground convoy of trucks carrying similar materials. The Sun reports that the flights attracted scant international attention because they occurred at the same time that Iraq was sending relief to Syria for a dam collapse.
Sada’s claims echoed those made by Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s top general in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yaalon told the Sun in December that Saddam had "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria.â€
According to the Middle East Quarterly, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon issued a similar warning in a Dec. 23, 2002 television appearance on Israel’s Channel 2. "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria,†Sharon said.
Together, their claims challenge the conventional wisdom in the United States and Europe that pre-war intelligence estimates were incorrect in suggesting the mass-murdering Iraqi dictator either possessed or was close to possessing WMDs.
Even President Bush has conceded the point, telling Americans in a televised address in December, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong.â€
Recent reports by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard have similarly challenged the conventional wisdom on Saddam’s relationships with al-Qaida.
Hayes is calling for the release of approximately 2 million unclassified documents recovered in Iraq from the Hussein regime. He claims the documents could prove Saddam maintained significant contacts with al-Qaida.
Sada’s and Yaalon’s claims will be even more difficult, if not impossible, to prove, but several U.S. Senators will try to get to the bottom of the claims. Sada is scheduled to meet with Senators Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., next week. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Georges Sada will be interviewed live on the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity radio program at 4pm EST.
Coming up right now...
Re: Iraqi WMDs
I was digging around the FoxNews website last night and found this transcript of an interview with Sada.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: He was one of Saddam Hussein's top military advisors and the only man who disagreed with the dictator and lived to tell about it. Now Iraqi General George Sada is breaking his silence with a new book, "Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein." He joins us for an exclusive interview tonight.
General, when did you come to the United States?
GEORGE SADA, AUTHOR, "SADDAM'S SECRETS": Well, I came two years ago.
HANNITY: And up to that point, you were in Iraq?
SADA: Yes, I was in Iraq.
HANNITY: And you were Saddam Hussein's top military advisor?
SADA: Yes, I was No. 2 in the air force.
HANNITY: And how many years did you work under him?
SADA: I worked since the revolution of 1968.
HANNITY: From the beginning?
SADA: Yes. I was retired in '86 and then I was recalled again when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
HANNITY: Yes. You reveal in this book, there's been so much discussion about weapons of mass destruction, whether they had them, where they were stored, how they got rid of them, you know, when it came time for the United States to invade and where are they now? You answered these questions.
SADA: Well, I want to make it clear, very clear to everybody in the world that we had the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, and the regime used them against our Iraqi people. It was used against Kurds in the north, against Arabs — marsh Arabs in the south...
HANNITY: Some people say they were destroyed. Did we still have them leading up to the invasion?
SADA: No, he had a very good organization that Saddam was created to show some of them but to continue to hide.
HANNITY: So he had them.
SADA: Yes.
HANNITY: Where were they? And were they moved and where?
SADA: Well, up to the year 2002, 2002, in summer, they were in Iraq. And after that, when Saddam realized that the inspectors are coming on the first of November and the Americans are coming, so he took the advantage of a natural disaster happened in Syria, a dam was broken. So he — he announced to the world that he is going to make an air bridge...
HANNITY: You know for a fact he moved these weapons to Syria?
SADA: Yes.
HANNITY: How do you know that?
SADA: I know it because I have got the captains of the Iraqi airway that were my friends, and they told me these weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria.
BECKEL: How did he move them, general? How were they moved?
SADA: They were moved by air and by ground, 56 sorties by jumbo, 747, and 27 were moved, after they were converted to cargo aircraft, they were moved to Syria.
BECKEL: So I assume this would not have happened without the permission of Damascus. Is that correct?
SADA: Well, of course, you know, when the aircraft would land in Syria, they must have some sort of agreement between the two.
BECKEL: So the Syrian government knows exactly where these weapons are today?
SADA: I think so. Because I am sure that these weapons have landed in Damascus. Where could they have gone?
BECKEL: OK, let me ask you a question. This may be a little tough, but I have to ask you this, general. You talked about the use of these weapons, and it's been documented. They're horrible, you said. And you were in the military during that time.
SADA: Yes.
BECKEL: Do you have any personal regrets? Your military used these weapons, correct?
SADA: Yes.
BECKEL: And you were part of — and you were part of that military. So I guess my question is, do you now feel a great deal of regret for having used the weapons?
SADA: Yes, of course. Iraq had used that weapons, it was a great time. And especially when it was used against our people, Kurds in the north and Arabs in the marsh areas.
BECKEL: And during the eight-year Iranian war, it was used against Iranians, as well, right?
SADA: Yes, to be very frank, it was used when the Iranian used to penetrate our defenses in our territories.
BECKEL: Do the Iranians have chemical weapons of mass destruction, as well?
SADA: Well, I cannot tell, but as you know they are building now a nuclear portion.
BECKEL: Last question for you, did Saddam Hussein have a nuclear weapon capability? Was he moving towards it? And if so, when would he have had it if the United States had not invaded?
SADA: Well, you see, Iraq had some projects for nuclear weapons but it was destroyed in 1981.
BECKEL: So — so there was no — so there was no chance there were nuclear weapons or on their way to nuclear weapons when we invaded?
SADA: Not in Iraq.
BECKEL: OK.
HANNITY: And let me ask you about this. You describe this conversation that you had with Saddam Hussein and your disagreement with him.
SADA: Yes.
HANNITY: Not many people got to disagree with Saddam Hussein and live to tell about it.
SADA: Yes.
HANNITY: What happened?
SADA: Yes, actually, I had many times— I have disagreed with Saddam Hussein on many things. And for some reason, he used to believe me and he used to listen to me.
And thank God that in the last war, we were so supposed to attack Israel by like eight aircraft, all equipped with nuclear — chemical weapons in two waves, one wave through Jordan and the other wave through Syria, without telling Syrians and Jordan about that.
But I mentioned to the president, "Sir, this is going to be a disaster, because Israelis have got plans to destroy these airplanes before they go to Israel. Although whatever air defenses are good, but still some aircraft can penetrate."
HANNITY: Was he an evil man?
SADA: Well, I think to a certain degree, yes, he was.
HANNITY: All right. Thank you for sharing that. Wonder if the mainstream media will pick up on your comments. Appreciate you being with us.
The only question I have is what is this guy doing walking around a free man. If he was truly the number 2 guy in the air force, surely he is complicit in some of the war crimes. What about Halabja?
Re: Iraqi WMDs
According to an interview with the NY Sun, Sada says there are two pilots, that are friends of his, that flew on these missions. Apparently they now work for different airlines outside of Iraq. These men need to be found and put their testimony on the record. An ivestigation needs to be launched yesterday.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Brent,
Thanks for finding and posting that transcript!
Just found this...
Unfinished Story of Iraqi WMD
Speaking routinely now with Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard and John Loftus of IntelligenceSummit.org and also my best source with regard the Byzantine tale of the Iraqi WMD program that cannot be proved or unproved by the public record of facts established since the capture of Baghdad in April 2003.
I mention again the promising mysterious treasure said to be coming to all of us within the next month. John Loftus is in possession of a CD that came to him by a reportedly trustworthy route that represents a collection of recorded sessions from 1988 to early this century (perhaps as late as 2002) in which Saddam Hussein plots with thirty other voices to supervise and conceal WMD.
The voice of Saddam Hussein is now verified by trustworthy agent; the voice of Tariq Aziz is verified by trustworthy agent. Blix and ElBaradei are said to be mentioned most despairingly and or damagingly. The core topic is how to manipulate inquiries and searches for WMD, after the Gulf War I, 1990-91, during the UN inspection regime from 1991-98, after the inspectors returned to Baghdad in 2002.
Why did Saddam Hussein order the recordings? Working assumption is that Saddam Hussein intended to write a book about how he had fooled and defeated UNSCOM and UNMOVIC and the rest of the sanctions first and last crowd.
More intriguingly is the fact that the CD is a compilation of many long sessions. Where are the original recording tapes? The search is said to be underway in the mountains of unexplored captured documents that is the focus of the operation called DOCEX.
Best source confirms that the undiscovered story of Iraqi WMDs is in plain sight and has been since the war. The most dangerous material was moved to Syria, and some of it to Lebanon; major weapons systems were also moved to Syria during the April 2003 fighting. Other reports point to undiscovered storage facilities underground in west Baghdad; other reports point to transfers to Iran.
These reports have not changed or diminished in the nearly three years since the March 2003 invasion.
What also has not changed or diminished is the political threat to many (from Damascus to the DNC) when (and not if) the full story of the Iraqi regime WMD is revealed and told.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Ryan,
Let's hope these tapes are as good as Nixon's. That Iraqi general (Sada?) must be aweare of those thousands of boxes of docs, and would know if the evidence would sink his story, so maybe he's telling the truth about the movement of WMD.
David Kay alluded to the same thing in his Congressional testimony.
EM
Diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
Re: Iraqi WMDs
Ex-Officer Spurned on WMD Claim
A former special investigator for the Pentagon during the Iraq war said he found four sealed underground bunkers in southern Iraq that he is sure contain stocks of chemical and biological weapons. But when he asked American weapons inspectors to check out the sites, he was rebuffed.
David Gaubatz, a former member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, was assigned to the Talill Air Base in Nasiriyah at the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His job was to pick up any intelligence on the whereabouts of senior Baathists and weapons of mass destruction and then send the information to the American weapons inspectors gathering in Baghdad that would later become the Iraq Survey Group. For his intelligence work he received accolades and meritorious service medals in 2003 and prior years. Before the war he helped uncover a spy in the Saudi military. He also assisted with the rescue and repatriation to America of the family of Mohammed Rehaief, the Iraqi lawyer who helped save Private Jessica Lynch.
Mr. Gaubatz said he walked the streets of the largely Shiite city of Nasiriyah, interviewing local police, former senior civilian and military leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime, and local civilians.
Between March and July 2003, Mr. Gaubatz was taken by these sources to four locations - three in and around Nasiriyah and one near the port of Umm Qasr, where he was shown underground concrete bunkers with the tunnels leading to them deliberately flooded. In each case, he was told the facilities contained stocks of biological and chemical weapons, along with missiles whose range exceeded that mandated under U.N. sanctions. But because the facilities were sealed off with concrete walls, in some cases up to 5 feet thick, he did not get inside. He filed reports with photographs, exact grid coordinates, and testimony from multiple sources. And then he waited for the Iraq Survey Group to come to the sites. But in all but one case, they never arrived.
Mr. Gaubatz's new disclosures shed doubt on the thoroughness of the Iraq Survey Group's search for the weapons of mass destruction that were one of the Bush administration's main reasons for the war. Two chief inspectors from the group, David Kay and Charles Duelfer, concluded that they could not find evidence of the promised stockpiles. Mr. Kay refused to be interviewed for this story and Mr. Duelfer did not return email. The CIA referred these questions to Mr. Duelfer.
The new information from the former investigator could also end up helping the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which recently reopened the question of what happened to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Like many current and former American and Israeli officials, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Peter Hoekstra, says is not convinced Saddam either destroyed or never had the stockpiles of illicit weapons he was said to be concealing between 1991 and 2003.
"I have no doubts the sites were never exploited by ISG. We agents begged and begged for weeks and months to get ISG to respond to the sites with the proper equipment," Mr. Gaubatz said in a telephone interview. He returned to his wife and daughter in July 2003, and then wrote letters about the sites to more senior officials in military intelligence. But he said he never received any satisfactory response and says that to this day the sites have never been fully checked out.
He says the reasons he was given by the survey group were that the areas of the sites were not safe, they lacked manpower and equipment, and at the time the survey group was focusing activities in northern Iraq. "The ISG team was not organized nor outfitted for this mission in my opinion and were only concerned to look in northern Iraq. They were not even on the ground during the first few weeks of the war, and this was the most critical time to go out and exploit sites. I feel very comfortable in saying the sites were never exploited by ISG," he said. In one instance a few inspectors did come out once to follow one lead, Mr. Gaubatz said. But they lacked the equipment and manpower to crack the bunker. "An adequate search would have required heavy equipment to uncover the concrete, and additional equipment to drain the water."
Mr. Gaubatz would not disclose the names of his Iraqi sources, but he said they were "highly credible" by his supervisors. He said some of them were members of the new government and others are now in America. "The four sites were corroborated with more than one source. The sources were deemed highly credible due to access and knowledge of the sites. Many of these sources and ourselves put their lives on the line to assist in identifying WMD. The sources would continuously ask us when the inspectors were going to come to the sites with heavy equipment to uncover the WMD," he said.
Mr. Gaubatz said each site he visited had similar characteristics. "Everything was buried and under water. They would drain canals and parts of the rivers. They would build tunnels underneath and they would let the water come back in," he said. But the water would only be allowed back into the tunnels after concrete walls were installed sealing off the secret caches of unconventional arms, Mr. Gaubatz said. He added that the tunnels in all four sites were wide enough for tractors. One of the giveaways, he said, was that homes near the sites were equipped with gas masks and other items to protect against a chemical weapons attack.
One site outside of Nasiryah, near the main highway in an isolated area featured a rock nearby that said, "Death to America," in Arabic. At this site, Mr. Gaubatz found gas masks, boots, and an imprint of an al-Samoud missile in the ground nearby a canal used to flood the tunnel. Mr. Gaubatz said he could find a wall under the earth and in the water whose dimensions were 50 by 75 feet. Another site near Umm Qasr contained the remnants of military activity as well, Mr. Gaubatz said. He said that former senior Iraqi military officers and local farmers confirmed there was military construction over the course of six months in 2002.
Today, Mr. Gaubatz is the chief investigator for the Dallas County Medical Examiner. On the weekends, he trains Texas state troopers in basic counterterrorism and basic Arabic. When asked about the weapons hunt by his students, he says he tells them, "Before we can say there is no WMD in Iraq, we must first look. I have no doubts WMD was and is still in Iraq."
Re: Iraqi WMDs
More food for thought...
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http://www.worldthreats.com/middle_e...lk_tikriti.htm
A WORLD THREATS.COM exclusive interview
ANOTHER FORMER HIGH-RANKING IRAQI OFFICIAL CONFIRMS WMD WENT TO SYRIA
The Changed Baathist: Interview with Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti
By: Ryan Mauro
TDCAnalyst@aol.com
Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti was a southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s and a personal friend of the dictator. Units under his command dealt with chemical and biological weapons. He was known as the “Butcher of Basra†due to his campaigns and defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991. This interview aims to gain some insight into the current situation in Iraq.
RM: Is there a single incident that you can point to that made you regret your actions and turn against the Baath Party?
IT:The single incident was my wife being willing to stand before me, not as my wife but as an Iraqi, and before one of Saddam's most brutal enforcers and question my tactics. This really made me think because no one has ever even considered to question the tactics of myself or any others and lived to tell about it. This courageous move made me think deep and hard.
RM: Do you still maintain good sources inside Iraq to draw information from?
IT: I will maintain very close sources in Iraq and outside of Iraq. Some of Saddam's key scientists are personal friends of mine as well as other key leaders in the former Iraqi military. I have helped draw information since my defecting to the United States government voluntarily and with the permission of these contacts. The only difference between many of them and I, is that I had the opportunity to defect and they didn't.
RM: Many observers say the Syrian and Iraqi Baath Parties did not trust each other and were rivals until around 2000. How serious was the disagreements between Syria and Saddam Hussein?
IT: The disagreements were not as dramatic as many would lead you to believe. Yes they were deep enough that Iraq and Syria could never move in the direction of forming one pan Arab nationalist state but both remained the closest of allies. The ideologies of both were identical in almost every respect but the biggest problem was with the fact that Saddam and Assad were so alike they couldn't bare each other in terms of sharing power.
RM: What can you tell us about Iraqi sponsorship of terrorists, from Palestinian groups to Al-Qaeda?
IT: Iraq had sponsered Palestinian militant organizations for the longest time with logistical and some material support. Most of the material support came around after the first Gulf War in terms of buying munitions for the various terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. As far as Al-Qaeda is concerned this support was limited for a long time, mainly due to the fact that Al-Qaeda had the hopes of creating an Islamic empire while Saddam wanted a secular Arab nationalist empire. They only really came to terms in the mid 90's due to the fact that both knew they shared the same short term enemy. Once they came to terms on this Saddam provided Al-Qaeda with intelligence support and whatever money or munitions they could provide. Saddam has had very long standing contacts in the black market as well as with Moscow and would provide whatever munitions he could through these contacts.
RM: In your experience, would either side (the Iraqi Baathists or radical Islamists) be able to put aside their differences to cooperate against the United States?
IT: Yes, as I have noted above they did and will continue to strengthen ties until both are defeated. If you look in Iraq today you are witnessing Arab nationalist terrorist organizations and Islamist terrorist organizations working together to fight the United States.
RM: Is it true the United States helped bring Saddam Hussein to power, as some allege, and then arm him with WMDs?
IT: This is absolutely ludacris. I was in the Ba'athist Revolution who receieved support from the Soviet Union because of the socialist ideology behind it. The Soviet Union openly supported and backed the Ba'athist revolution in Iraq at the time and I am sure you can find news articles about it in European press agencies and others at the time. I was there helping with the revolution and worked on two occassions with Soviet KGB officaials to help train us, much like the United States did with the Taliban during the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. The United States never directly gave us any WMDs but rather ingredients. They were not mixed and these 'ingredients' could have been easily used for commercial use but were rather used to build low life chemical weapons.
RM: Why do you think Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are in Syria? Why didn't he use them or simply destroy them before the war?
IT: I know Saddam's weapons are in Syria due to certain military deals that were made going as far back as the late 1980's that dealt with the event that either capitols were threatened with being overrun by an enemy nation. Not to mention I have discussed this in-depth with various contacts of mine who have confirmed what I already knew. At this point Saddam knew that the United States were eventually going to come for his weapons and the United States wasn't going to just let this go like they did in the original Gulf War. He knew that he had lied for this many years and wanted to maintain legitimacy with the pan Arab nationalists. He also has wanted since he took power to embarrass the West and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After Saddam denied he had such weapons why would he use them or leave them readily available to be found? That would only legitimize President Bush, who he has a personal grduge against. What we are witnessing now is many who opposed the war to begin with are rallying around Saddam saying we overthrew a soverign leader based on a lie about WMD. This is exactly what Saddam wanted and predicted.
RM: What can you tell us about Iraqi and Iranian relations? There have been reports that small amounts of Iraqi WMD went to Iran and that Iran is currently helping the Iraqi insurgency.
IT: The reports on weapons being sent to Iran are absolutely false. They have no basis and are written by people who have no knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs or they are being written by people who are just intellectually dishonest. As far as the support for the insurgency today, there is no doubt in my mind that Tehran is backing the Islamist insurgency of the Shiites. Iran would want nothing more than a destabalized Iraq, not because they want to control Iraq as much as they want something to throw at the United States politically on the international stage.
RM: On what levels did Iraq and Libya cooperate? Some reports indicate Iraq was involved in Libya's nuclear program.
IT: Iraqi scientists were turned over to Libya along with many documents and research from Iraq on nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that Saddam was attempting to use Libya as a labratory to further his nuclear development just like he was attempting to do by sending his weapons to Syria. Saddam knew after the Gulf War he needed to start shipping his weapons and programs outside of his borders to avoid detection which is exactly why Saddam became so emboldened and laughed at the West everytime he stood in front of the camera. If you were to compare him in the 80's and 90's you would see a much more confident and defiant Saddam in the latter due to the fact he knew there was nothing to materially pin him on within the borders of Iraq.
RM: Why do you think the insurgency is still living on in Iraq? What can be done to win the guerilla war there?
IT: The insurgency is still alive and well in Iraq today due to mismanagement and failure on the part of those managing the rebuilding effort. If you want to break the back of the insurgency what is needed is, obviously, to continue the military campaign and train the Iraqi forces BUT you need to rebuild more schools, provide more jobs and increase the standard of living. You can't rely on the Army Corps of Engineers to do most of the civil rebuilding. They are a great company and have done much good but something of this magnitude requires large private companies to be engaged. If you provide the Iraqis with jobs and really show them a better way of life you will win thier hearts and minds which will cripple the insurgencys efforts to find safe haven in Iraq, material support in Iraq and above all, recruits in Iraq.
RM: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the near-term future of Iraq?
IT: There is no doubt that the United States military has learned the mistakes of the past and are really getting on track in terms of the learning curve of the reconstruction of Iraq. My criticism was aimed at the politicans on the Hill who are beginning to run the war from Congress and taking this role from the military. I see this in the very near future. I have a lot of fears that with upcoming elections and poll numbers down for the Iraq war the politicans are sticking their fingers in the air and they are wanting to cut and run essentially and isolate themselves from the war.
I am optimistic that the Iraqis and the U.S. military can salvage whatever damage may be done due to this. There is much more progress in Iraq today than there was in Vietnam when we pulled out than. The biggest hurdle is going to be putting enough pressure on the Hill to just let the Pentagon run the war and allow our military establishment to do what we entrusted them to do. Win the war and reconstruct the country. The day the politicans take that away from the Pentagon is the day I really see a serious escalation in terrorism to continue a propoganda war from Iraq to persuade the politicans to cut and run. Zarqawi and the rest have been attempting to do this from day one and they are getting closer to their goal if you look at the sentiment within the Senate alone.
I am still quite optimistic that the Iraqis will prevail due to the amount of progress and reconstruction the United States military has made in Iraq but there is always that small amount of doubt and fear which I have. I have seen politicans try to rake the reigns of a war from the military and the war is lost almost immediately. The ball though is in the Iraqis court in terms of defending their newfound democracy and being able to energize the public enough to make this work irregardless of what happens in Washington or the number of troops left in Iraq in the near future.
That being said I think the Iraqis have a very good shot of developing a true and vibrant democracy but it really is up to them and how badly the Iraqis public really wants it and if they are up to the sacrifice, both financially and in terms of body count.
RM: Do you support the rumored partial withdrawal of American troops in spring of 2006?
IT: Now of course I would like to see a drawing down of U.S. troops as to have them return back stateside and be with their families. It would also give the Iraqi security forces the opportunity to prove what themselves to the Iraqi people. The problem though is the political climate here in Washington as I explained earlier.
If there is no sight of the political environment changing in the near future than there is no doubt that drawing down U.S. troops will be more disastrous in the long run than just leaving them there until the Administration or the political climate changes here at home. We can not take the chance of allowing another Vietnam to occur because this will be the Mujahadeens victory over the Soviet Union to the 10th power.
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Last edited by Ryan Ruck; February 14th, 2006 at 17:03. Reason: Fixed Font Visibility
Re: Iraqi WMDs
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Originally Posted by Malsua
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