Saddam Had WMD

Investors Business Daily has posted their analysis of the first tapes released of conversations Saddam had in his presidential offices.

IBD
In a tape dating to April 1995, Saddam and several aides discuss the fact that U.N. inspectors had found traces of Iraq's biological weapons program. On the tape, Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, is heard gloating about fooling the inspectors.

"We did not reveal all that we have," he says. "Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use. None of this was correct."

There's more. Indeed, as late as 2000, Saddam can be heard in his office talking with Iraqi scientists about his ongoing plans to build a nuclear device. At one point, he discusses Iraq's plasma uranium program — something that was missed entirely by U.N. weapons inspectors combing Iraq for WMD.

This is particularly troubling, since it indicates an active, ongoing attempt by Saddam to build an Iraqi nuclear bomb.

"What was most disturbing," said John Tierney, the ex- FBI agent who translated the tapes, "was the fact that the individuals briefing Saddam were totally unknown to the U.N. Special Commission (or UNSCOM, the group set up to look into Iraq's WMD programs)."

Perhaps most chillingly, the tapes record Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz talking about how easy it would be to set off a WMD in Washington. The comments come shortly after Saddam muses about using "proxies" in a terror attack.

9-11, anyone?

The tapes show up the "Bush lied," and "there were no WMD" memes for what they have always been: empty. As for where the WMD went?

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," said John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense, in comments made at an intelligence summit Feb. 17-20 in Arlington, Va.

"They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special ops) units out of uniform that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence," he said.

Neither revelation—not the fact that there were WMD, nor that they went to Syria—is a surprise to anyone who has followed the story with anything approaching objectivity. Here are a few post's of my own on the subject:

-This should pop the balloon belonging to the "Bush lied about WMD's" camp.
-Panetta Said Bush Did Not Lie About Intel.
-Missing the point.
-MSM finds WMD in Iraq--again.
-Democrats on WMD's.
-Saddam's WMD have been found.
-The Other Shoe.
-Syria and North Korea Sittin' in a Tree...
-Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties
-Charles Duelfer Reports... What Exactly?

Read IBD's whole piece.

Comments

[Mark Jaquith]

This would be a bombshell indeed, but everything I have read indicates that this translation of the tapes was made by one person: John Tierney. It might be prudent to wait until the tapes have been translated by many more people, with an open review process... not a closed translation like ABC did or a one-man translation like John Tierney did.

[EricWilds]

I suspect that either this translation is inaccurate or these papers are simple forgeries. The content of these papers fits a little too conveniently into the Bush Administration's case for war -- we have everything in it: shipping WMD to Syria, seeking nuclear weapons, and terrorist attacks in the United States involving anthrax. However, the only evidence for such activity comes from these papers. Are the papers anymore accurate than the Iraqi defectors who spun yarn after yarn of fables?

In a tape dating to April 1995, Saddam and several aides discuss the fact that U.N. inspectors had found traces of Iraq's biological weapons program. On the tape, Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, is heard gloating about fooling the inspectors.

This is a very unusual "secret" conversation since Iraq openly and publicly declared its bioliogical weapons program in March of 1995! So why is Saddam talking with his aides about fooling the inspectors when the inspectors are already aware of Iraq's biological activity?

None of this adds up and my guess is that these "papers" are simple forgeries. These "papers" are receiving very little media attention even among the hard-core Bush cultists, so I seriously doubt their authenticity.

Also, if we want to take seriously the idea that Iraq sent weapons to Syria then this just raises more questions. If Iraq did send weapons to Syria then that would mean Iraq had an active biological and chemical weapons program. So why can't anyone name the facility Iraq was using to produce these weapons?
The references to Iraq's secret weapon facilities are just as vague and generic as descriptions of El Dorado and the lost city of Atlantis.

But the Bush cultists prefer the comfort of lies to the pain of truth -- we went to war over nothing.