Evidence Concerning Iraqi WMD Programs

By Bob Ellis

Dakota Voice

Did Saddam have WMDs? Would he have built some if we hadn't invaded Iraq? I think the answer to the first question is "Almost certainly," and the answer to the second is "Absolutely."

We've been over this many, many times in the past four years, so why do I bring it up again? Well, the liberals are making a fresh run at trying to repaint history to make it more palatable to them. So let's look at the information again.

A 2005 Washington Times report says

The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that WMDs may have been moved there.

The article also says
 

Speculation on WMDs in Syria was fueled by the fact that satellite images picked up long lines of trucks waiting to cross the border into Syria before the coalition launched the invasion. Mr. Duelfer previously had reported that Syria was a major conduit for materials entering Iraq that were banned by the United Nations.

Saddam placed such importance on illicit trade with Syria that he dispatched Iraqi Intelligence Service agents to various border crossings to supervise border agents, and, in some cases, to shoo them away, senior officials told The Washington Times last year.

Today, U.S. officials charge that Syria continues to harbor Saddam loyalists who are directing and financing the insurgency in Iraq. The Iraq-Syria relationship between two Ba'athist socialist regimes has further encouraged speculation of weapons transfers.

A 2005 NewsMax report says
 

Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.

A 2006 WorldNetDaily report reveals one of Saddam's military officers said Iraqi WMDs were moved to Syria, and discusses some of Saddam's terrorist ties:
 

Last month, Saddam Hussein's No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, told the New York Sun Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria six weeks before the war started. Sada claimed two Iraqi Airways Boeing jets converted to cargo planes moved the weapons in a total of 56 flights. They attracted little attention, he said, because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in 2002.

Discussing Saddam's support of terrorism, al-Tikriti said the dictator's regime sponsored Palestinian groups with logistical and material support.

A 2006 NewsMax report says Russians (who were in bed with Iraq financially) helped move the WMDs out:
 

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va. (www.intelligencesummit.org).

A Fox News report has a link to a House Intelligence Committee report showing 500 chemical weapons found that contained degraded mustard gas and sarin.

A Fox News report on a top Iraqi scientist:
 

Hussain Al-Shahristani, former chief adviser to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, said he believes Iraq’s nuclear program has been dismantled, but Saddam still has chemical and biological weapons.

He said such weapons are relatively easy to make and that Saddam has "mobile" laboratories that roam the countryside, making it hard for U.N. weapons inspectors to find them.

He said stockpiles of those weapons are also located underground and in tunnels.

“Saddam has mastered his concealment tactics,” Al-Shahristani said in a TV interview in the Philippines. “He has appointed thousands of security officers and trained them well in hiding these weapons."

A Reuters report quotes weapons inspector Hans Blix disputing that Saddam destroyed all his WMDs, and mentions the production of banned missiles:
 

Blix questioned Iraqi statements that it had stored all bulk biological warfare agents during the 1991 Gulf War at the Al Hakam plant and destroyed those unused after the war.

"There is credible information available to UNMOVIC that indicates that the bulk agent, including anthrax, was in fact deployed during the 1991 Gulf War," the report said. "The question then arises as to what happened to it after the war."

"Based on this information, UNMOVIC estimates that about 5,547 gallons of biological warfare agent was stored in bulk at locations remote from Al Hakam. About half of this, about 2,641 gallons was anthrax," Blix wrote in the report.

"It therefore seems highly probable that the destruction of the bulk agent, including anthrax, stated by Iraq to be at Al Hakam in July-August 1991 did not occur," the report said."

 

The new report also said Iraq may be producing more banned missiles in addition to the Al Samoud 2 rockets it is now destroying and had declared last year to inspectors.

An April 2, 2003 MSNBC report mentions positive tests for ricin and botulinum in a camp in Iraq "allegedly used as a terrorist training center by Islamic militants with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network."

An April 2003 report from MSNBC and USA Today said
 

Marine units testing drinking water found cyanide and mustard agents in the Euphrates River, MSNBC reported, as concerns mounted that Iraq would resort to chemical weapons as coalition troops closed on Baghdad.

From News 24, weapons inspector Richard Butler backs claims that Syria helped hide Iraqi weapons:
 

United Nations former chief weapons inspector Richard Butler has backed United States claims that Syria helped conceal Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, saying he has seen the evidence.

The former Australian diplomat said that when he headed the UN team in Iraq from 1997 until 1999, he saw intelligence which seemed to indicate Syria had helped conceal Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

While some in retrospect don't believe Saddam had a functioning WMD program, most credible sources believe that he would have gone forward with all haste and quickly developed them, had we backed off.
 

"it needs to be recognised that Iraq possesses an industrial capability and knowledge base, through which biological warfare agents could be produced quickly and in volume, if the Government of Iraq decided to do so" - UNSCOM, 1999

 

"Saddam Husayn so dominated the Iraqi Regime that its strategic intent was his alone. He wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when sanctions were lifted." - Duelfer Report

 

"Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized...aspired to develop a nuclear capability—in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks—but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities." - Duelfer Report

 

"Saddam’s advisors have revealed much about a deliberate, secretive decision-making style, which accounts for the lack of information (for example, the lack of documentary evidence) on his strategic intent for WMD. Many, however, believe that Saddam would have resumed WMD programs after sanctions were lifted." - Duelfer Report

 

"We do not have a complete paper trail of the execution of Saddam’s decisions on state security issues or WMD at a senior level. But there is some documentary evidence." - Duelfer Report

 

"But, despite the war, some of Iraq’s WMD arsenal remained intact, and was preserved by the MIC. The MIC assisted in concealing banned weapons and attempting to deceive the UN weapon inspectors up until 1995, when Husayn Kamil Hasan Al Majid, Saddam’s son-in-law and MIC director, fled to Jordan" - Duelfer Report

 

"His chain of command for WMD was optimized for his control rather than to ensure the participation of Iraq’s normal political, administrative or military structures. Under this arrangement, the absence of information about WMD in routine structures and the Iraqi military’s order of battle would not mean it did not exist." - Duelfer Report

 

"Saddam felt that any country that had the technological ability to develop WMD had an intrinsic right to do so. He saw WMD as both a symbol and a normal process of modernity. Saddam’s national security policy demanded victory in war, deterrence of hostile neighbors (including infiltration into Iraq), and prestige and strategic influence throughout the Arab world. These concerns led Iraq to develop and maintain WMD programs." - Duelfer Report

 

"Saddam implied, according to the former presidential secretary, that Iraq would resume WMD programs after sanctions in order to restore the “strategic balance” within the region." - Duelfer Report

 

"According to ‘Abd Hamid Mahmud, Saddam privately told him that Iraq would reacquire WMD post-sanctions and that he was concerned about Iraq’s vulnerability to Israeli WMD and Iran’s growing nuclear threat." - Duelfer Report

 

"Saddam would have restarted WMD programs, beginning with the nuclear program, after sanctions, according to Tariq ‘Aziz. Saddam never formally stated this intention, according to ‘Aziz, but he did not believe other countries in the region should be able to have WMD when Iraq could not. ‘Aziz assessed that Iraq could have a WMD capability within two years of the end of sanctions." - Duelfer Report

 

"According to a mid-level IIS official, the IIS successfully targeted scientists from Russia, Belarus, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, China, and several other countries to acquire new military and defense-related technologies for Iraq. Payments were made in US dollars. The Iraqi Government also recruited foreign scientists to work in Iraq as freelance consultants. Presumably these scientists, plus their Iraqi colleagues, provided the resident “know how” to reconstitute WMD within two years once sanctions were over, as one former high-ranking Iraqi official said was possible." - Duelfer Report

Keep in mind, also, that even if Saddam never had WMDs in the first place, he was in defiance of several UN resolutions requiring him to be forthcoming about his disarmament after the Persian Gulf War, and to allow inspectors to ensure the disarmament took place. We had every right, even the obligation, to go in and ensure compliance.

Also, Saddam had fired on US and British planes flying the no-fly zone some 400 times in the year leading up to the war. Each one of those incidents was an act of war.

The liberal drumbeat of "no justification for war" is as empty now as it was back in 2002 when the media was preaching their doctrine of appeasement. They can try to revise history, but some of us remember the truth.