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Al Qaim Clings to Its WMD Secrets Day 24 of Iraq War
DEBKA.COM ^ | 4-12-2003

Posted on 04/12/2003 1:00:30 PM PDT by MangoCrazy

Since the Saddam Hussein statues were torn down around Iraq, many Israelis have stopped carrying their gas masks despite almost daily exhortations by defense minister Shaul Mofaz to keep them close and not dismantle their sealed rooms since the danger is not over. His concern has draw sneers from some army veterans and pundits, making him the butt of jokes about “overreaction”. Some information about the sinister tools of death that are believed cached in remote al Qaim up against the Syrian border might lead to a better appreciation of the peril. However, Israeli officials are keeping what is known or suspected strictly to themselves.

Drawing on its intelligence sources, DEBKAfile lifts a few of the veils shrouding this remote corner of Iraq and the difficulties of its exploration.

Aerial photos over al Qaim in northwestern Iraq have revealed a cluster of long, hangar-like structures with large steel doors some 12-14 meters high and 15-20 meters wide, the size of sheds housing heavy fire trucks. In frequent passes overhead, spy satellites and reconnaissance aircraft have picked up surface indications of the hidden presence of nuclear, chemical or biological materials. They have not ruled out al Hussein surface to surface missiles being held ready there to deliver unconventional warheads. Some of the Scuds fired against Israel in 1991 were launched here. Signs of chemical emissions have been detected in the deep canyons riddling the Al Qaim region, most of them concealed from overhead view by overhanging cliffs. More impenetrable hiding places are to be found along the Euphrates river banks, which are densely overgrown thanks to the rapids splashing down from the mountains.

Coalition forces have refrained from going straight in to Al Qaim to establish once and for all what weapons are hidden there for several reasons. Its installations are the most heavily guarded in Iraq – more even than Saddam Hussein’s own bunker fortresses in Tikrit. The brigade of especially trained, crack Special Republican Guards loyalists guarding al Qaim have proved impervious to tempting coalition offers to surrender, preferring to defend the site with their lives. The coalition command has tried limited air and ground assault, including even what is termed “unconventional warfare direct-action missions”, but until this weekend made little progress.

Unlike other parts of Iraq, where resistance quickly melted away, the defenders of al Qaim have put up a professional, tenacious and dedicated fight. Military sources told DEBKAfile that had coalition forces confronted this quality of combat in the rest of Iraq, they would still be pinned down at Nasiriya in the south after three weeks of fighting. The Iraqi defenders are making skilful use of al Qaim’s daunting topographical features which make it impassable for heavy tanks. The attacking force is therefore obliged to fight in this Tora Bora-like redoubt from canyon to canyon, hilltop to hilltop, bush to bush.

In the last 24 hours, US forces have seized the strategic intersection of Highways 11 and 13 leading into Syria, a major step towards cutting off the overland escape route of Iraqi forces and top members of Saddam’s hierarchy. However, it is not impermeable. The Euphrates River and its banks provide alternative routes for slipping across into Syria.

The attached map shows the position of the Syrian town of Abu Kamal on the orange line marking the 500-km long Syrian-Iraqi border, the hometown of the Syrian vice president Khalim Haddam, which made him President Bashar Assad’s natural choice for heading the pro-Iraqi faction of his regime.

The Americans are not using their heavy air and missile power to hit the hangar-like structures until they know for sure what they contain. If what they suspect is true, an American bombardment could serve Saddam’s purpose even better than launching his own missiles. American bombs plus al Qaim’s variable wind currents could release dangerous substances into the air over American troop concentrations in Iraq, as well as Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and even Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, without Iraqi having to send a single missile.

Al Qaim and its horrific secrets look like Saddam’s last card, or the first on the deck of 55 leaders handed out to American troops. There is no knowing if he will play this ace, activating WMD when American forces are within a pace of laying hands on him or his sons, or have managed to penetrate al Qaim’s mysterious structures.

As to the nuclear radiation detected at al Qaim, the Iraqis are known to have extracted uranium for their nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. More recently, satellite photographs suggested Iraq may have rebuilt a uranium extraction facility there, possibly under the big hangars or at the bottom of the canyons. For all these reasons, coalition forces are tackling their task in this region 170 km northwest of Baghdad with extreme caution.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaim; alqayyem; debka; hsishi; iraq; israel; kamishli; sadam; syria; uranium; war; wmd; yellowcake
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1 posted on 04/12/2003 1:00:30 PM PDT by MangoCrazy
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To: MangoCrazy
"Al Qaim and its horrific secrets look like Saddam’s last card"...MOAB?
2 posted on 04/12/2003 1:04:59 PM PDT by jerseygirl
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To: All
Just 17 cents per day


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3 posted on 04/12/2003 1:05:35 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: MangoCrazy
Sounds like a volenteer to me to search for Nukes in the Tunnel of Rads where there is radation pegging the Geiger counters.
4 posted on 04/12/2003 1:15:41 PM PDT by Only1choice____Freedom (Again, protestors have NO RIGHT TO BE HEARD, only a freedom to speak)
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To: MangoCrazy
Looks like Big Trouble to me.
5 posted on 04/12/2003 1:23:14 PM PDT by ex-Texan (primates capitulards toujours en quete de fromage!)
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To: MangoCrazy
And Debka clings to my butt hairs.

6 posted on 04/12/2003 1:43:11 PM PDT by Yankee
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To: Yankee
eewwww
7 posted on 04/12/2003 1:45:05 PM PDT by knak (Leave the wankers outta the U.S.)
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To: jerseygirl
The Americans are not using their heavy air and missile power to hit the hangar-like structures until they know for sure what they contain. If what they suspect is true, an American bombardment could serve Saddam’s purpose even better than launching his own missiles. American bombs plus al Qaim’s variable wind currents could release dangerous substances into the air over American troop concentrations in Iraq,

No MOAB.

8 posted on 04/12/2003 1:56:11 PM PDT by ez (...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.)
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To: MangoCrazy; All
We need some detailed Al Qaim maps and sattelite photos...

Help
9 posted on 04/12/2003 2:01:41 PM PDT by antaresequity (...)
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To: ez
I sure am stupid today!
10 posted on 04/12/2003 2:02:32 PM PDT by jerseygirl
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To: jerseygirl
I think there might even be an underground facility in Al Qaim that allows skinnies to move back and forth between Iraq and Syria without detection.

We shouldn't bomb it unless we want to destroy the evidence.

FReegards...

11 posted on 04/12/2003 2:06:41 PM PDT by ez (...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.)
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To: MangoCrazy
Military sources told DEBKAfile that had coalition forces confronted this quality of combat in the rest of Iraq, they would still be pinned down at Nasiriya in the south after three weeks of fighting.

Who here actually believes that the US military would say such a thing to Debka or anyone else?

12 posted on 04/12/2003 2:13:37 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: antaresequity
Is the Activity at Al Qaim Related to Nuclear Efforts? by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein September 10, 2002 High-resolution commercial satellite imagery shows an apparently operational facility at the site of Iraq's al Qaim phosphate plant and uranium extraction facility (Unit-340), located in northwest Iraq near the Syrian border. This site was where Iraq extracted uranium for its nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. The al Qaim site was thoroughly destroyed by aerial bombing during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Given the absence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Action Team inspectors on the ground since December 1998, however, this image raises questions about whether Iraq has rebuilt a uranium extraction facility at the site, possibly even underground. Iraq could have used parts salvaged from the bombed facility or new equipment bought illegally to reestablish this capability. Unless inspectors go to the site and investigate all activities, the international community cannot exclude the possibility that Iraq is secretly producing a stockpile of uranium in violation of its commitments under Security Council resolutions. The uranium could be used in a clandestine nuclear weapons effort. History of Al Qaim In January 1976, Iraq contracted with a Belgian company for the construction of a chemical fertilizer complex at al Qaim. By the second half of 1982, the unit for ore concentration at al Qaim was processing phosphate ore from the Akashat mine, located southwest of al Qaim. In 1982, Iraq ordered the construction of a uranium extraction facility at the al Qaim site. The Belgian contractor, Mebshem, commissioned the facility at the end of 1984. Additionally, Mebshem trained Iraqi technical personnel to operate the uranium extraction unit. The unit was designed to produce 54 tonnes of uranium peroxide(UO42H2O) per year-assuming continuous production of phosphoric acid at 150 m3/hr, and uranium content in the phosphate of 75 parts per million (ppm). The uranium extraction facility at the al Qaim complex never reached maximum production. Through January 17, 1991, when Coalition forces bombed the facility, total production at the site was 170 tonnes of uranium peroxide, containing 110 tonnes of uranium. The relatively low output was due to: technical problems in the phosphoric acid unit; phosphate ore that yielded 40 ppm uranium as opposed to 75 ppm; technical problems in the piping connecting the phosphoric acid unit and the uranium production unit; technical problems with the rubber lining of the phosphoric acid tanks; and diversion of phosphoric acid directly to the fertilizer production unit rather than via the uranium unit. The uranium that was produced at the unit was transferred directly to the secret nuclear weapons program in 11 separate shipments. Any unused uranium at the time the Action Team inspections started in 1991 was placed in a store at Tuwaitha. (For more information about and images of Tuwaitha, click here)
Institute for Science and International Security's al Qaim Info & Map
13 posted on 04/12/2003 2:19:23 PM PDT by AmericanPhoenix911
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To: AmericanPhoenix911
Thanks....

I would love to see a detailed raster image of the Al Qaim area...down to street level.

I dont think it exists
14 posted on 04/12/2003 2:21:39 PM PDT by antaresequity (...)
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To: antaresequity
Here's a bit more info:


"To further understand the Iraqi and Syrian deception it is important to read a report by “The U.S., Depart of Defense” who on on October 8, 2002 released a detailed report entitled DoD Briefing on Iraqi Denial and Deception that is well worthwhile reading.

An important excerpt to focus on is:

... the Al Qaim phosphate plant and uranium extraction line located in northeast Iraq, near the Syrian border. The coalition bombed this facility in Desert Storm and Iraq promptly rebuilt it. Before Desert Storm, Iraq recovered uranium yellow cake at Al Qaim. The Iraqis planned to use this yellow cake to produce the feed material needed for its multiple uranium enrichment efforts in its secret nuclear weapons program.


Detailed Information:

Our operatives in Lebanon and Syria have discovered that the Al Quaim nuclear post, (Moujamaa Al Kayyem Al Nawawi), has been moved from Iraq to an era adjacent to the Iraqi border inside Syria, called Hsishi, in the Syrian desert Kamishli province. Along with experts and military personnel to set up, manipulate, and fortify the post, the Iraqis have moved large amounts of chemical and biological material that are completely under their control.

** Bashar al Assad, current President of Syria, who was essentially a stranger to the area, has been reported recently as visiting and touring the neighborhood .

** Maher al Assad, brother of current President Bashar, who is a frequent visitor to Baghdad, has been reported in Baghdad in the company of Qusay and Uday Saddam, sons of Saddam Hussein. They were surrounded by special forces of the Republican Guards soldiers in Baghdad.

** Maher al Assad is in charge of a Battalion of Republican Guards in Damascus who are in charge of the protecting the Syrian regime.

** Maher frequently changes the Old Guard senior officers of his father by replacing them with younger loyal officers of their generation.

** Maher is also maintaining close contact with both Saddam Hussein sons, Uday and Qusay.


15 posted on 04/12/2003 3:01:34 PM PDT by jerseygirl
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To: MangoCrazy; All
I wonder how much Hasads army is on the border there?
16 posted on 04/12/2003 3:11:06 PM PDT by antaresequity (...)
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To: antaresequity
FAS
Al Qaim / Al Quaim
34°22'N 41°07'E
Al Qaim, located 380 km WNW of Baghdad, engaged in the production of yellow cake (refined uranium ore) from 1984 to 1990. All of the yellow cake used by nuclear program allegedly came from this site. Ore was supplied to the facility by both Iraqi and foreign sources.
1.TARPS
All photos are of Al Qaim Superphosphate Fertilizer Plant, Iraq

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
FAS Site Link
There are 2 more photos on the reference link which wouldn't load.
17 posted on 04/12/2003 3:11:22 PM PDT by AmericanPhoenix911
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To: AmericanPhoenix911
Here's some more info (2002)from on-line Global Information System (GIS). All material © ISSA. I have no idea if this is reputable or not. The information does seem consistent with other reports.



Analysis. With input from GIS stations and sources in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Highly-authoritative, experienced GIS sources have reported that the Iraqi Government and Armed Forces have moved substantial caches of chemical weapons and related materials to safe-havens across the border into Syria, to avoid any chance of discovery by United Nations (UN) inspectors.

Iraq moved stockpiles of chemical weapons and nuclear matériel as well as key production machinery and key experts to the Hsishi compound near Kamishli, in Syria, along with strategic weapons, ammunition, military fuels and other defense matériel, gold reserves, national archival records and national art treasures. It is believed that the moves took place in late August and early September 2002.

It is also understood that some of the matériel, production machinery and experts moved into Hsishi compound were from the al-Qaim facility, which had been based near the H-3 base area in Western Iraq. The al-Qaim facility had been involved, before 1991, almost exclusively in uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons, but since it was reconstituted after the bombings of the 1991 Gulf War it was engaged in chemical and biological weapons development work, along with some nuclear-related activity. It is believed that some of the warhead materials for the chemical and biological weapons were at the al-Qaim facility, and that this is now in Hsishi.

18 posted on 04/12/2003 3:28:40 PM PDT by jerseygirl
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To: ex-Texan
It's proximity to Syria makes it doubly dicey. Why build the real laboratories on the border with Syria? Let's see, maybe to have the capability to evacuate the evidence immediately?

It's pretty obvious Syria and it's size 6 leader (who reminds some of the son of Cromwell or whoever it was in the movie Braveheart) is the next choke point to be shut.

19 posted on 04/13/2003 5:25:37 AM PDT by kinghorse
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To: Dog Gone
It didn't say "USA" military sources. It said military sources.
20 posted on 04/13/2003 5:32:34 AM PDT by kinghorse
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