Iraq may have been bluffing about weapons to deter invasion: report

AFP ^ | 10-01-03

[Brian S]

WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 01, 2003 Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have been bluffing about having weapons of mass destruction to deter the US-led invasion, The Washington Post said Tuesday.

The possibility Saddam may have deliberately lied is one of the elements of former weapons inspector David Kay's testimony Thursday before the US Congress on his investigation into Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction program, sources familiar with his planned testimony told the newspaper.

Kay, who is leading the US effort to account for Iraq's suspected nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, is expected soon to issue the "first progress report" on the investigation, which so far has turned up no evidence of such weapons.

Shortly before the Iraq war was launched in March, US intelligence said Saddam had authorized his field commanders to use chemical weapons to repel the invasion.

"The idea of deployment and the authority to launch was very solid. But it's now being looked at as possibly misinformation or that they were playing with us," David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who has been in contact with Iraqi scientists, told the Post.

When he appears before the House and Senate intelligence committees, Kay is expected to say that Saddam never abandoned the ability to develop chemical and biological weapons, and planned to make them once UN sanctions were lifted.

After UN inspectors were pulled out of Iraq in 1998, Saddam bought commercial equipment that could also be used to develop weapons of mass destruction, US officials familiar with Kay's upcoming testimony told the daily.

Kay's investigation has also determined that Saddam was extending the range of his missiles and developing fuels to power them, the newspaper said.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The generals let Saddam win one game of Risk, and look what happens...

[isthisnickcool]

Not smart to play poker with George. Especially with no hole cards.

[Texas_Dawg]

Not smart to play poker with George. Especially with no hole cards.

Yep. I don't think anyone will be attacking their neighbors and threatening to attack the Great Satan for awhile. If so, bring 'em on. There are going to be a million great things to come out of this war as well. For one, I bet you there are a few folks in the West Bank that are really disappointed their suicide belt pipeline has been shut off.

[Publius6961]

AFP? Saddam's PR department?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha!

[Choose Ye This Day]

All your base are belong to us, Muhammed.

[Texas_Dawg]

I like your tagline. What's even funnier is that several FReepers have said they are actually going to do that (though like the Hollywooders who say the same, they never do unfortunately). Lazamataz is one FReeper saying he will move soon. He's still here though.

[Lazamataz]

I like your tagline. What's even funnier is that several FReepers have said they are actually going to do that (though like the Hollywooders who say the same, they never do unfortunately). Lazamataz is one FReeper saying he will move soon. He's still here though.

Please quote where I say I am definitely going to expatriate soon.

I have looked at the option as America devolves into a jobless police state, courtesy of Free Traitors like yourself, China_Dawg.

But I have not, as you claim, "said he will move soon".

So as well as Logic, you missed all your Reading Comprehension courses. It's doubtful you've even completed High school, much less college.

[Choose Ye This Day]

I can't even find the original article now--but this came from some article posted here over a month ago that was showing how there was more job creation per capita in these backwater Elbonia-type countries than here in the good ol' US of A. It just cracked me up. Criminy, you'd think these paleo-protectionists have never seen an economic downturn before.

[Texas_Dawg]

It just cracked me up. Criminy, you'd think these paleo-protectionists have never seen an economic downturn before.

Oh, they have. We are constantly in one big economic downturn, spiraling further and further downwards into our impending doom. The Japanese bought Rockefeller Center and Pebble Beach, for God's sake! Wake up, they are taking over us and won't float the yen and we are all going to die! Are you some kind of globalist traitor? Surely you saw how over the 1990s our economy collapsed with free trade and Japan's refusal to float the yen sent its economy and banking system skyrocketing to the top of the economic world, right?

We're all doomed.

[Choose Ye This Day]

I found the source of my tagline. There was a Townhall.com article back at the end of August, called "The hoax of disappearing manufacturing." JohnHuang2 posted it here.

The paragraph I liked:

"Mr. Uchitelle claims "the essence of a great world power is its edge in producing not services but manufactured products." By that standard, the two greatest world powers are Turkmenistan (with 39.8 percent of GDP attributed to manufacturing in 2000) and Cuba (at 37.2 percent). In China, services have risen from 21.4 percent in 1980 to 33.7 percent by 2002. In Hong Kong, manufacturing declined from 22.4 percent of the economy in 1980 to 5.2 percent in 2001."

[camas]

he did with clinton and got away with it.

he thought all americans were cowards like clinton. i bet he is sorry now, just like the bunch that use to run afghanistan are.

[Rockitz]

Saddam didn't count on being called and raised!

[TexasRepublic]

Then it must have been bluffs, not chemicals, that rained down on the Kurds and Iranians with such great effect.