Search This Blog

2.27.2006

Sada, the tapes, and WMD

Saddam Had WMD
The first 12 hours of the tapes -- there are hundreds more waiting to be translated -- are damning, to say the least. They show conclusively that Bush didn't lie when he cited Saddam's WMD plans as one of the big reasons for taking the dictator out.

Nobody disputes the tapes' authenticity. On them, Saddam talks openly of programs involving biological, chemical and, yes, nuclear weapons.

Gunsmoke On ABC
WMD: Did Saddam Hussein possess weapons of mass destruction? We've always thought so. But proof positive may soon be forthcoming if secret tapes of the Iraqi dictator turn out to be real.

The tapes in question, 12 hours in all, represent recordings of Saddam Hussein discussing the possibility of a terrorist attack on Washington, D.C., and the use of WMD.

To Tell The Truth
It's now a matter of record that virtually every major Western intelligence service and the U.N. thought Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction. It's also clear that he did in fact have them -- since he used chemical weapons against his own people in a well-documented attack on the city of Halabja in the late '80s.

There's also a growing body of evidence Saddam held on to those weapons, hiding them until he was able to get them out of the country, probably to neighboring Syria.

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.

The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.

Mr. Sada said that the Iraqi official responsible for transferring the weapons was a cousin of Saddam Hussein named Ali Hussein al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali." The Syrian official responsible for receiving them was a cousin of Bashar Assad who is known variously as General Abu Ali, Abu Himma, or Zulhimawe.

5 comments:

Low Flying Angel said...

Saddam may have wanted Nuclear etc weapons.I want a winning Lottery ticket.

I don't have a winning Lottery ticket...........

Moral of the story is;wanting is not having.

Anonymous said...

Except winning the lottery is solely a one in a billion game of chance and states attaining nuclear weaponry capability is a matter of learing what is necessary and attaining the proper materials - not dependent upon chance, and not a long shot. Beyond those massive differences, your comparison is quite....*snicker* apt, Janice.

Dr. Mathews said...

And if we did "find" those elusive WMDs, might we also find out who gave him those capabilities in the first place?

Eagle said...

Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat continued to supply industrial chemicals to Iraq after an export ban in 1984.

Saddam's 'Dutch link'
Frans van Anraat was living openly under his own name when he was arrested in an Amsterdam suburb in late 2004, after an international investigation.

Iraq genocide trial for Dutchman
A Dutch businessman has gone on trial accused of complicity in war crimes and genocide for selling toxic chemicals to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Dutchman in Iraq genocide charges
Prosecutors in the Netherlands have formally charged a Dutch businessman with complicity in genocide for selling chemicals to Iraq's former regime.

Anonymous said...

Russia, Germany and France helped bolster Saddam's regime and arm it, despite U.N. sanctions on Iraq on which they signed off.