Posted on 02/08/2004 2:15:52 PM PST by eagles
Edited on 02/08/2004 3:04:03 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
If my assumption is correct, Iraq is roughly the size of CA. CA is a pretty damn big state. Right now, as all of us read this and post here, there are tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, speed, exstacy, meth..name it. Tons in that state. And although there are lbs nailed at one time or another, I don't expect the motherloads (that we know exist) to turn up within the next nine months.
If finding illicit chemicals (or drugs for that matter) were such an easy task, drugs would not exist in this country.
Sorry, but I'm coming down on the side of patience with the WMD stuff..Hell, were just now finding more of WWI mustard gas at the bottom of some oceans. Kinda makes ya wonder what's at the bottom of the Gulf huh?
No, probably not. What I am disillusioned about is that the WMD were used as the main show to sell a war that started in 1990. I'm disillusioned that people imagine the war just started in March of last year. I'm disillusioned that as long as the media tells people a war is not taking place, it does not exist. Like it's a tap that gets turned on and off when need be.
Everybody knew this was exactly how the Iraqi war was going to end. Ever since we decided to siege Saddam out of power (siege is warfare too- the war that started in 1990 ended) everybody had to know that this was not going to work. The war would have to take a more decisive phase: i.e. going in to Iraq to take Saddam out.
Yet now when we move to bring the conflict to a close by doing exactly that people like to pretend the war just started and the only reason it did so was WMD. It never stopped. The war never stopped in all those years. It is the loss of that perspective that is really at the root of the current difficulties the administration is having.
I don't think the admin should have ever used the WMD as the main theme to sell the end of the war to people. But they did and this is something they're going to have to sort out. The crucial point to me is that a war that has been ongoing for over a decade is in its final phase now (hopefully) and this can be brought to an end. We all knew the siege of Iraq would end only with Saddam's death or capture and we all knew there are only so many ways to bring that about. We should've simply done it back in 1991 and been done with it a long time ago.
A little bit of info about Scott Ritter before we go on:
Scott's the guy who said :
"Once effective inspection regimes have been terminated," said Ritter, "Iraq will be able to reconstitute the entirety of its former nuclear, chemical, and ballistic missile delivery system capabilities within a period of six months."
This was before his payoff.
Scott Ritter is also the guy who visited a Baathist regime children's prison during the 90s. The regime imprisoned children of ANY age, the children of dissidents and anyone Saddam Hussein needed to blackmail. Did Scott Ritter, who by his own admission much later, said he had visited the prison and referred to it as horrific, inform anyone of it- the UN, the US, or even the regime's lobbyist from whom he took bribe money as soon as possible? No, he did not.
Why not? Well, his reasoning was that it was so horrific that there would be an outcry for war as soon as the news hit the public.
So he continued to let the world think Saddam Hussein was just a misunderstood guy and the regime wasn't bad enough to do anything about.
So should I believe the likes of Scott Ritter, or should I believe, say, my brother, who also spent time in Iraq (and Iran) and whose team and spent it gathering intel, and watching the Iraqis' reactions- often a hasty packing and moving job or a frantic scrubdown of the facilities in question- every time the UN leaked to the regime that an inspection was about to go down. And they did this all without taking a $400,000 bribe from a lobbyist who was getting his dough from illegal Iraqi oil sales, and who didn't have the regime off them gold or kids or whatever things passed for bribery then? It's easy for me to say Iraq has WMD just for that reason... I have no reason to believe my brother is a liar.
You, however, might reasonably have doubts given all of the antiwar agitprop out there, much of it funded by Iraq itself with millions of dollars.
To believe Iraq has no WMD, you have to ignore an awful lot of evidence, including some from Ritter himself, like this:
1995 : (IRAQI WEAPONS TESTS ON HUMAN BEINGS AS RECENTLY AS 1995; IRAQ ALSO CLAIMED IT USED UP MORE CHEMICAL BOMBS THAN IT DID IN ORDER TO HIDE STOCKPILES) According to Ritter's testimony in a September 1998 Senate hearing reported on by Zeev Schiff, military editor of Haaretz, "Unscom inspectors also came up with evidence suggesting that Iraq carried out biological weapons tests on human beings in 1995." No details are available about this claim. It is not known, for instance, if prisoners of war were involved in the alleged test. "Ritter also discovered that Iraq had deliberately reported an exaggerated number of chemical bombs that it had used in the [1991 Gulf] War. The reason: so that Baghdad could hide thousands of such bombs and seven tons of chemical components."- "Ritter: Baghdad 'possesses three nuclear bombs' ," by Christopher Walker, Times of London, 9/10/98
In order to believe Iraq has no WMD, you must believe just about every Iraqi weapons scientist was and is lying.
You have to believe those Iraqi weapons scientists have been unemployed for years.
You have to think Iraq's fedeyeen assassinated one scientist and the son of another, plus attempted an assassination on that boy's dad by hitting him six times, because Iraq had nothing to hide, and not because they were talking to Dr. Kay.
You have to believe that all these misquotes of Dr. Kay by the Washington Post were just coincidental.
You have to believe that Dr. Kelley, who was an inspector who seriously believed Iraq had WMD, committed suicide because the BBC made a mistake and didn't mean to be a pack of biased, regime supporting lliars.
You have to believe that Iraq spent millions of dollars bribing people to support them just for the fun of it.
You have to believe Iraq turned down the Pakistani inventor of the Islamic Bomb when he came calling to sell them a plan for a bomb, because Saddam Hussein was too honest to accept or too tight to pay up.
You have to believe that on the eve of war, Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to go out and find trucks to wash and bleach down and repaint, so that we wouldn't think they were slackers when we captured them in the next day or two... the same sort of reason your mom wants you to wear clean underwear in case you get into an accident.
You have to believe Iraq was buiying all this equipment just for the fun of it, and that it went through the trouble of operating all these front companies right up to the invasion just to secretly buy cowpeas from Niger.
You have to believe Iraq's centrifuge design wasn't like one of Libyas- which featured aluminum- and couldn't possibly use aluminum rotors. What's more, you have to believe Iraq really needed high tolerance aluminum pipes to have mirror-smooth interiors, so that it could make extremely expensive rockets that don't do much damage, rockets which we still haven't found today, though some of the aluminum did turn up - not as rockets, though.
You have to believe Iraq really wanted to use those military planes and drones to spray mosquitos, even though Iraq drained the swamps years ago so the Marsh Arabs couldn't grow rice.
You have to believe France was right and pure as the wind-driven snow and never profited off of the Oil for Food program to look the other way or sell forbidden weapons and goods.
You have to believe former ambassador Wilson really isn't on John effin Kerry's campaign staff, wasn't ever on Gore's, and has no association with moveon.org or any antisanctions organization and never donated money to protect his government job- and you sincerely believe a CIA investigation into uranium sales should consist solely of drnking tea by a hotel pool in Niger asking the locals if they ever broke international law and taking them all face-value. You have to believe former ambassador Wislon was able to be thorough and check all possibilities in Iraq out even when the IAEA admits it can't check on the security uranium shipments between the mines and the port because there is no security to speak of until the stuff gets to the docks.
You have to believe that Kurds and Shiites weren't gassed or subject ot chemical warfare but merely stayed out in the sun too long.
You have to believe Iraq decided to dump hundreds of gallons of pesticide into the Euphrates on the eve of war because it didn't want to be caught violating Monsanto's patent, or because it thought the pesticide might eradicate West Nile fever.
You have to believe Iraqi scientists keep vials of extremely exotic pathogens in the home refridgerators next ot their kids' koolaid because they are just really sloppy and stupid.
You have to believe that those Iraqi nationals caught in Europe didn't get ricin from Iraq or from people trained and supported by Iraq, and others were involved in the toxin letters case in Belgium for no reason at all.
You have to believe Hussein just sent out orders to use chemical weapons against invading coalition forces because he thought it might scare us away at the last minute.
You have to believe Iraq's al Ani never met Atta, because the press reports which the Czechs denied the meeting are really true... even if those same Czechs point out that they never said any such thing and were never even spoken to by those same reporters.
You have to believe the Wash Post's reporter Gelman is more right about what Kay said than is Kay himself, and believe that Gelman's reference to who Meekin is and what Meekin said is true even if Meekin says it's not.
You have to be the type of person who upon walking into your kid's room after recieving countless calls from neighbors and the local press about your kids' activities, find a bong, roach clips, cigarette papers, loose tobacco, candles, burnt spoons, syringes with drug residue, inventory lists of drugs and hocked stolen equipment, documents from his conviction in 1992 of breaking & entering & assualt & rape & murder, stolen property, a little black book with the phone numbers of every thug and dealer from the Canadian border to Columbia in it, the stench of pot, small crystals in vials, rat poison residue, knives, a stolen gun, and large quantities of $1 bills, plus three kids tied up stuffed under his bed, and a bucket of human bones in the closet with one rotting corpse that looks like it had bled out of every orifice - ... immediately go down to the police station to bail your baby out for the TWELVETH time in a row.
Now, for the rest of the story:
We went to war with Iraq because we had an agreement with Iraq in 1992 that in exchange for our not kicking Iraq's leader from office and occupying Iraq for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Iraq agreed to meet certain requirements. UNTIL Iraq met these requirements, the state of war would continue.
Among those requirements was that Iraq would pay reparations to Kuwait for lost property and life.
That Iraq would return immediately all prisoners of war and kidnapped civilians it had taken in the course of the war. (this in addition to promising to return all POWs it had still retained from the Iran-Iraq war years before.)
That Iraq would abide by the inspections agreement on WMD.
That it would provide a thorough and accurate accounting of its WMD programs, including delivery systems. That it would provide a thorough and accurate accounting of missile programs above a specified range.
That it would permit inspectors to confirm the accuracy of its own accounting in all of these areas.
That it would destroy all WMD, dismantle ALL of its laboraties, destroy or render unusable ALL of its related equipment, destroy ALL delivery systems, and permit monitoring of all of thise things and related industries until it had been certified to be in compliance with every one of the items.
Iraq also had to give up further research and development, meaning, it had to find those scientists other lines of work and not train anyone for more such work. To say that the war hinged on WMD alone is a lie. Powell's speech even as recently as spring 2003 listed more than WMD as just cause; he brought up the presence in baghdad of one of al Qaeda's leadership- specifically, an indivual whose specialty was toxins like ricin. That individual assassinated US diplomat Foley in Jordan in the fall of 2002 and is connected to a plot in Jordan to poison US military personnel.
Iraq's diplomats, through its embassy in the Philippines, had already been involved in the recent murder of an American Green Beret.
That's good enough for me.
But Iraq never even complied with the most simple of these requirments, and that was its holding hostage 602 Kuwaiti men, women and children, an unknown number of other nationalities captured in Kuwait, one US Navy pilot, and two US citizens it had captured in Northern Iraq much later.
This ALONE is just cause for war.
Iraq wasn't supposed to get a twelve-year probation to get this done. Iraq didn't get to pick and choose inspectors. This opening up was supposed to be done immediately and the very FIRST instance where an inspector was blocked from inspecting a facility was just cause for war. We had just cause on this almost immediately, because Iraq blocked inspections immediately using various means, up to and including violence. But this went on through 1998 when it peaked and inspections were halted altogether because Iraq refused topermit inspections of its presidential palace complexes. Kofi Annan made a half-arsed deal to permit SOME inspections, not by qualified arms inspectors but by bureaucrats and politicians, most likely a bribe-o-rama.
The UN's failure, and the fact that Iraq's intent to NEVER comply with the agreements it made even if it meant war were made clear in 1998, even after the UN's Kofi Annan had visited Baghdad and assured us all was well, was undeniably clear:
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQ, UNSCOM DISMANTLES GERMAN CENTRIFUGE INSTALLATION) The Times of London interview with Hamza notes another possible clue tog the nature of Brazil-Iraq relations in the early 1980s. Before leaving Iraq in 1998 -- just days before U.S.-led air strikes -- U.N. weapons inspectors had dismantled an illegally imported German centrifuge installation that had been used to refine progressively natural or low-enriched uranium until it became suitable for weapons, the Times reported. - "Brazil uranium sales to Iraq stir debate ," by Carmen Gentile, United Press International 9/25/02
What was this doing there if Iraq had met its requirements? This ALONE is just cause for declaring the already violated ceasefire agreement void and finishing the job against Iraq- Iraq's efforts to enrich uranium were proven to be an ongoing project:
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQ, UNSCOM DISMANTLES GERMAN CENTRIFUGE INSTALLATION) The Times of London interview with Hamza notes another possible clue tog the nature of Brazil-Iraq relations in the early 1980s. Before leaving Iraq in 1998 -- just days before U.S.-led air strikes -- U.N. weapons inspectors had dismantled an illegally imported German centrifuge installation that had been used to refine progressively natural or low-enriched uranium until it became suitable for weapons, the Times reported. - "Brazil uranium sales to Iraq stir debate ," by Carmen Gentile, United Press International 9/25/02
Things were hitting the fan. The US was now made a fool of for the 188th time and was looking the part fo the world's biggest paper tiger. So much so that Abu Nidal- the ANO terror group which had made such a good name in hijacking and in trying to assassinate US officials and their families right in our own country- returned to Iraq and Iraq made no objection. It need not care about appearances. That same month, some of the 911 hijackers entered the US, bin Laden would issue his fatwa against the US, and there would be a terror alert in NY City and DC.
In December's Operation Desert Fox, where we hit precious little, except for one tiny thing which put the lie to Iraq and its apologists over delivery systems. One of the missiles we used knocked the corner from a building's roof. Under that roof, was proof that Iraq had illegally outfitted military aircraft for spraying substances. (The cat was out of the bag- obviously, even after 6 years of UN inspections, the UN had failed to detect this Iraqi weapons program.)
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIAL AL-HIJAZI MEETS WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) Following the December 1998 air strikes on Iraq, Saddam Hussein dispatched Faruq al-Hijazi to Kandahar, Afghanistan in order to meet with bin Laden and plot their revenge. To demonstrate Iraq’s commitment to bin Laden and al Qaeda, Hijazi presented bin Laden with a pack of blank, official Yemeni passports, supplied to Iraqi Intelligence from their Yemeni contacts. Hijazi’s visit to Kandahar was followed by a contingent of Iraqi intelligence officials who provided additional training and instruction to bin Laden and al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. These Iraqi officials included members of “Unit 999,” a group of elite Iraqi intelligence officials who provided advanced sabotage and infiltration training and instruction to al Qaeda operatives. At that meeting, upon information and belief, bin Laden, al Qaeda and Iraq agreed to join efforts in a detailed, coordinated plan for a protracted terrorist war against the United States. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda
DECEMBER 1998 : (IRAQI OFFICIALS MEET WITH BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN) Vince Cannistraro, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief, said Baghdad made an overture to Mr bin Laden in December 1998. Saddam was apparently so impressed by the bombings that year of the two US embassies in East Africa that he sent Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet Mr bin Laden. The CIA believed Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, then being pursued by the Americans, a permanent refuge in Iraq but the offer was refused - "The suicide bomber and the Baghdad conspiracy," By Chris Blackhurst, Independent.co.uk , 14 October 2001
DECEMBER 21, 1998 : (IRAQ'S HIJAZI & BIN LADEN TARGET LIST MADE) "Terrorist cells belonging to the network organized by Osama bin Laden...are ready go into action in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Europe...The list of targets is ready. It was agreed in Kandahar 21 December by Osama himself and Farouk Hijazi... The new recruits, together with the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, form the secret army that is expected to use its weapons against all those who oppose the rais of Baghdad. In order to make them even more dangerous, traditional training has been supplemented with training in the use of chemical weapons, toxins and viruses." [Corriere della Sera, February 1, 1999 (Italia)] see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743697/posts?page=51#51
DECEMBER 25, 1998 : (BIN LADEN COMMENTS ON AMERICAN PEOPLE SUPPORTING IRAQ, SAYING IT JUSTIFIES MUSLIMS KILLING AMERICANS AND BRITS) ". Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi exile accused of masterminding the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, is calling on Muslims to kill Americans and Britons for the airstrikes their countries carried out against Iraq. ``The British and the American people loudly declared their support for their leaders' decision to attack Iraq,'' Bin Laden said in Friday's edition of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al- Awsat. This made it ``the duty of Muslims to confront, fight and kill'' Britons and Americans, he said. ``And anything that can be taken from them by force is the rightful prize of Muslims,'' Bin Laden said..." - AP, 12/25/98
DECEMBER 1998 : (SADDAM HUSSEIN SENT HIJAZI TO MEET WITH BIN LADEN, ACCORDING TO FORMER CIA COUNTER-TERRORISM CHIEF CANNISTRARO) Vince Cannistraro, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief, said Baghdad made an overture to Mr bin Laden in December 1998. Saddam was apparently so impressed by the bombings that year of the two US embassies in East Africa that he sent Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, Farouk Hijazi, to Afghanistan to meet Mr bin Laden. The CIA believed Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, then being pursued by the Americans, a permanent refuge in Iraq but the offer was refused.- "The suicide bomber and the Baghdad conspiracy," By Chris Blackhurst, Independent.co.uk , 14 October 2001
It's interesting that Abu Nidal and ANO came back to Iraq in 1998, interesting that Iraq had its training camp for foreigners complete with aircraft, and interesting that by December 1998 the 911 hijackers were already entering the US, and more interesting that even the PLO whispers upon his recent death in late 2002 in Baghdad where we know he "committed suicide" by shooting himself multriple times in the head- of PLO claims that his presence there was part of Hussein's effort to recruit him to train hijackers, an effort the palestinians mentioned in the Observer tell us he refused, and so was killed. (But they fail to explain why he was killed a year after 911, instead of as soon as he refused.)
Add to this a comment from Cheney:
"We know that Saddam Hussein has, over the years, been one of the top state sponsors of terrorism for nearly 20 years," Cheney said. "We've had this recent weird incident where the head of the Abu Nidal organization, one of the world's most noted terrorists, was killed in Baghdad. The announcement was made by the head of Iraqi intelligence. The initial announcement said he'd shot himself. When they dug into that, though, he'd shot himself four times in the head. And speculation has been, that, in fact, somehow, the Iraqi government or Saddam Hussein had him eliminated to avoid potential embarrassment by virtue of the fact that he was in Baghdad and operated in Baghdad. So it's a very complex picture to try to sort out." - Vice President Dick Cheney on 'Meet the Press,' September 2002
Others claim that he was plotting to overthrow the regime and this is why hussein had him eliminated.
Of course, by this time it was already obvious that it wasn't Abu Nidal, but the US that was pltting to overthrow the regime, and its overthrow was going to be spectacular and involve a lot of troops, so this one seems silly.
So it is interesting that Atta's buddy Jarrah- also a hiijacker and pilot on 911- had a daddy based in Germany with ties to both Abu Nidal's organization and to Libya, for whoom he was an agent and to whom he sold chemicals. This gentleman spent a lot of time visiting strange places in the Libyan desert and also disappeared two months before 911 claiming he was returning to Lebanon.
Add to this another article which says Iraq was training al Qaeda at Nahrawan and Salman Pak on airplane hijacking two months before 9/11.
Add to this the odd mentions of attacks on NY and the White House in Iraqi state-run press around the same time...
JULY 21, 2001 : (IRAQ, FOREWARNING) On July 21, approximately six weeks before the September 11 th attacks, Iraqi columnist Mulhalhal reported that bin Laden was making plans to “demolish the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.” Mulhalhal’s July 21 article further informed that bin Laden would strike America “on the arm that is already hurting.” Upon information and belief, this references a second Iraqi sponsored attack on the World Trade Center. This interpretation is further bolstered by another reference to New York as “[bin Laden] will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra everytime he hears his songs.” (e.g., “New York, New York”) identifying New York, New York as a target. Mulhalhal further indicated, “The wings of a dove and the bullet are all but one and the same in the heart of a believer.” (Emphasis supplied) This appears to be a reference to the use of commercial aircraft as a weapon. The information was reported in an Iraqi newspaper who’s editor-in-chief serves as secretary to Uday Hussein’s Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists. The article expressed Iraqi admiration and support for bin Laden’s plans and its appearance in the newspaper would clearly have to be endorsed by Saddam Hussein himself. All Iraqi news media is strictly controlled and censored by the government of Saddam Hussein and is under the direct oversight of Uday Hussein. Various members of Iraqi intelligence work at and control the content of each and every newspaper published inside Iraq. The information contained in Mulhalhal’s published statements were known prior to the events of September 11 th , and that Mulhalhal has ties to Iraqi intelligence, demonstrates foreknowledge of the planned attacks by bin Laden and indicates support by Iraqi co-conspirators. - Findlaw, Ashton, et al. v. al Qaeda ... see also http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110003069 from the WSJ
JULY 21, 2001 : (IRAQI PAPER AL-NASIRIYA PRAISES BIN LADEN) More recently, and eerily, a July 21, 2001, commentary in the Iraqi publication Al-Nasiriya praised bin Laden: "In this man's heart you'll find an insistence, a strange determination that he will reach one day the tunnels of the White House and will bomb it with everything that is in it."
The article recounts bin Laden's attacks on U.S. targets and U.S. efforts "to pressure the Taliban movement so that it would hand them bin Laden, while he continues to smile and still thinks seriously, with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House."
The commentary is ominously prescient, especially since it could never have appeared without official sanction. "Bin Laden is a healthy phenomenon in the Arab spirit," it continues, speaking about his goal to "drive off the Marines" from Arabia. Most eerily of all, the writer adds that those Marines "will be going away because the revolutionary bin Laden is insisting very convincingly that he will strike America on the arm that is already hurting. That the man . . . will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs." Is that a reference to Sinatra's "New York, New York"? Did Saddam know what would happen two months later? - "Saddam and the Next 9/11 : The Iraqi dictator and his son talk about the uses of biological weapons," REVIEW & OUTLOOK, OpinionJournal, WSJ.com, Friday, February 14, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
And this:
JULY 1, 2001 : (IRAQ : THIS IS THE DATE ON A MEMO FROM CHIEF OF IRAQ'S SECRET POLICE TO SADDAM HUSSEIN CONCERNING ABU NIDAL'S TRAINING OF MOHAMED ATTA IN IRAQ; MEMO WOULD BE FOUND LATE IN 2003) a memo ... from Saddam's secret police chief to the dictator dated July 1, 2001, reporting that the veteran terrorist Abu Nidal had been training one Mohamed Atta in Baghdad. - "Safire: From the 'Spider Hole'," The New York Times, 12/15/03, by William Safire
And this:
2001 summer : (3 IRAQIS SPEND 2 MONTHS IN COLUMBIA'S FARC-CONTROLLED ZONE OF CAGUAN - WOULD LATER BE ARRESTED IN THE US ON SUSPICIONS OF ARMS SMUGGLING) - "Search for Bin Laden links looks SOUTH, " By Martin Arostegui, http://www.autentico.org/oa09505.html , Organización Auténtica . October 2001
And this:
JULY 2001 : (ITALY : IRAQI INTELLIGENCE AGENT AL-MAMOURI DISAPPEARS FROM HIS JOB, SHORTLY AFTER HE MET 9/11 HIJACKER MOHAMMAD ATTA; BOTH HAD BEEN SEEN TOGETHER IN HAMBURG GERMANY & PRAGUE, CZECHOSLAVAKIA BEFORE) One of Saddam’s intelligence agents, Habib Faris Abdullah al-Mamouri, was sent to be the new headmaster of a school for Iraqi diplomats in Italy. The bogus headmaster has not been seen in Rome since July, shortly after he also met Atta. The pair are also said to have been together in Hamburg and Prague. There is no proof the men were in direct contact, but as one intelligence source in Madrid said [later in the year] : “They chose a strange time and place to take a holiday.” The Rome daily Il Messaggero, quoting Western intelligence sources, said of Mr al-Mamouri that “he spent more time pursuing contacts helpful to the Iraqi regime among fundamentalist Islamic groups than he had on his supposed teaching duties”. Italian officials say that Mr al-Mamouri held the rank of general in the Iraqi secret service, and from 1982 to 1990 worked in the Special Operations Branch forging Baghdad’s links with Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Gulf and Sudan. He was transferred to his “teaching duties” in 1998, although all the Iraqi Embassy will say of his sudden departure is that “he had money problems”. - "Hijacker 'given anthrax flask by Iraqi agent'," by DANIEL MCGRORY, The London Times, SATURDAY OCTOBER 27 2001
And that Ramsey was getting involved- remember- he was involved with the defense of the WTC 1 attackers:
JULY 21, 2001 : (THE DOMAIN BEATBACKBUSH.ORG IS REGISTERED; LATER THIS BECAME INTERNATIONAL A.N.S.W.E.R. - IT IS ASSOCIATED WITH RAMSEY CLARK)
And this:
JULY 31, 2001 : (IRAQ STEPS UP EFFORTS TO SHOOT DOWN COALITION PLANES) US defense department reports Iraq’s “considerably more aggressive stance in trying to bring down allied aircraft.”- Iraq - Scotsman says Saddam has weapons to wipe out world's population, nuclear bomb within 3 years "The Scotsman dossier - SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ" by Fraser Nelson, Westminster Editor
And this is not even skimming the top... It's clear that Ritter's an ass.
It took until years after the first Gulf War just to find some of his nuke stuff the first time around- and we kept finding it right up to December 1998. And he wasn't even trying that hard to conceal at first, though he did receive intel on what searches were going to happen from the UN and Russia.
To the others, to the 'children' and press present, you can continue braying "No WMD" ...
From: www.rferl.org/features/2001/06/21062001123116.asp
Iraq: U.S. Researchers Detail Iraqi-East European Arms Smuggling Efforts
By Charles Recknagel
An independent U.S. research organization reported this week that Iraq has developed a sophisticated smuggling system in its efforts to acquire banned weapons-system components. The researchers say unpublished reports by UN arms inspectors in the early and mid-1990s show that Baghdad vigorously courted companies in Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia to break the sanctions in exchange for money from smuggled oil.
Prague, 21 June 2001 (RFE/RL) -- As the UN Security Council debates ways to make sanctions on Iraq more effective, two U.S. researchers have revealed evidence that Baghdad has developed a sophisticated smuggling operation to buy prohibited weapons parts.
The researchers, Gary Milhollin and Kelly Motz of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, say that previously unpublished reports by UN arms inspectors show that Baghdad sought to buy -- and in some cases succeeded in buying -- banned military items in the early and mid-1990s from companies in Romania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The researchers detail their findings in this month's edition of the U.S. magazine "Commentary," which was published on June 20.
Romania's Foreign Ministry responded immediately to the charges, while the other countries mentioned have yet to comment on them officially.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the charges by the two experts concern the period of 1994 to 1995 and were clarified by the Romanian side during discussions with the former UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) for disarming Iraq. The ministry did not say how the matter had been clarified.
Romanian President Ion Iliescu said the researchers' charges should be investigated by the Defense Ministry and called for a complete report.
The researchers' findings have gained wide notice because the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control is a well-known independent institute that since 1986 has kept close watch on the spread of nuclear weapons, chemical/biological weapons, and long-range missiles. It operates under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin and its database helps exporters and governments keep dangerous products from reaching unintended recipients.
RFE/RL this week spoke with one of the researchers, Kelly Motz, about the evidence they had obtained regarding Iraq's smuggling activities and the involvement of Eastern European and Russian companies.
Motz says that she and Milhollin, who heads the Wisconsin Project, reviewed confidential reports compiled by UNSCOM inspectors before they were banned from Iraq in late 1998. UNSCOM has since been replaced by a new UN arms inspections agency for Iraq, UNMOVIC, established in late 1999.
Motz said that the arms-smuggling evidence, which the Wisconsin Project obtained by what she called "private means," is convincing because it comes from unpublished working notes that UNSCOM inspectors used to prepare reports for the UN. Many of the notes detail conversations with companies in Germany and elsewhere about being approached by Iraq. Those conversations were kept confidential by UNSCOM in order not to embarrass the companies and to maintain their cooperation.
Whole article - see link above.
You have to believe former ambassador Wislon was able to be thorough and check all possibilities in NIGER out even when the IAEA admits it can't check on the security uranium shipments between the mines and the port because there is no security to speak of until the stuff gets to the docks.
We didn't need it because of Powell, as some claim.
In order to believe Iraq had no WMD, you have to be the sort of person who thinks that because a plastic shredder is a dual-use item, Iraq bought them to shred plastic and not people.
He is, isn't he?
Exclusive: Scott Ritter in His Own Words. The former weapons inspector explains his switch from getting up Saddam's nose to picking fights with Bush
You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.
Yes, in more ways than one:
To: DogShaker Al-Khafaji, the pro-Saddam chairman of the 17th conference of Iraqi expatriates, received 1 million barrels. - "The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers," http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1067157/posts?page=120#120
You know who he is?
Scott Ritter in Pro-Iraq Movie Deal
EXCERPT:
Saddam's one-time nemesis managed to secure the unprecedented access through the help of Shakir al-Khafaji, an Iraqi-American real estate ...
Ritter confessed that al-Khafaji, who accompanied him to Iraq, is "openly sympathetic with the regime in Baghdad." The well-connected businessman was apparently instrumental in getting him interviews with top Iraqi officials.Yes, I came across a News Max article in my Google, but the name can be found in many articles about Ritter's movie. In the interest of time, I grabbed the first article I found. I recognized the name.
120 posted on 01/28/2004 6:37:14 PM PST by cyncooper
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