It is well known that Saddam's surrounded himself with circles within circles of trusted advisors. There were only a handful of people who he acknowledged WMD with. For an excellent example of this read find and read the following document ISGQ-2003-M0004665 . Saddam begins a frank and honest discussion that moves from geopolitics to WMD and sanctions. Present are Male 1-Saddam, Male 2-Tariq, Male 3-Unknown). Then halfway through the meeting, Males 4,5,6 join and the entire discussion changes. With Male 4,5,6 present, nonone admits that WMD were made. Here are some examples from the WMD admissions in the 'open' part of the discussion.
Male 2 (Comrade Tariq)
The main obstacle is the biological file. How did this issue progress? They themselves closed the biological file. They closed it before they found out about the complete deal for the materials. They said we see the remaining quantity, 14 or 15, Lt Gen ‘Amir knows the numbers, and they didn’t see a problem. I know our comrades worked very hard after 1991, they worked 26 hours in a 24hour period. They erased everything.
So they were concentrating their efforts on the biological issue, and it’s a small program compared to the chemical, missile and nuclear programs. And the Special Committee’s capabilities turned out to be even smaller than our program. Meaning their experts and equipment and capabilities are too small to deal with the Iraqi program in such a short period of time.
So they closed it and weren’t talking about it. But when they found out about the materials that we bought, they opened their eyes and…
Male 1 (saddam)
But they could find out about these materials fasters than the other things that they discovered, because we bought them from the west…
Male 2 (Comrade Tariq)
True Sir, but the information that came to the Special Committee didn’t all come at the same time. They get some information, then a little more, and so on and so forth. So it looks like they got the information in the fall of last year. At the same time as the Kuwait issue and the crisis that happened then, Ekeus came and emphasized it. Right now Sir, this is a meeting of the highest leadership in our country, we did actually produce biological weapons. It’s not a lie to say that we worked in this field. And the materials that came here came for this purpose, not for the medical use like we told the Special Committee. So when there’s proof, you are a man of law, when there’s a case in a court, and there’s proof, it leads to the conclusion. So the conclusion that the Special Committee came to is correct, it’s not a lie. The conclusion said that you imported a large quantity of materials that are used for medical purposes, and at the same time they are raw materials to produce biological weapons. You said it’s for medical purposes, using it for medical purposes only requires kilograms not tons. Meaning that the Ministry of Health can use 200 kilograms the entire year for examinations, but it doesn’t use 37 tons. We tried to tell them about mistakes that could happen, and how Health Ministers…
They see two issues sir, they see some very efficient and accurate actions from us, and they see some mistakes. But when we exaggerate the mistake, they’ll say: you guys are efficient and accurate, know exactly how to work a machine, you were able to establish this big military program with little resources, nobody helped you, but you want us to believe that buying 37 tons was by mistake?
They you have it. Admission in front of Saddam that 'we did actually produce biological weapons'. Also note that before he stated that, he also stated the following, 'this is a meeting of the highest leadership in our country'. Wonder who Male 3 was ?
BTW - Males 4,5,6 may have included the Information Minister and the Foriegn Minister.
Thanks for posting that MAJOR find.