Posted on 02/20/2003 10:29:31 PM PST by PsyOp
"Mr. Ritter is it true that UNSCOM has intelligence that Iraq has three nuclear weapons assemblies and lacks only the fissile material?" - Sen. John McCain Sept 3, 1998.
"Yes it is" - Scott Ritter.
Real Clear Politics ^ | 3-6-06 | Michael Barone
The issue is historical now, but still worth exploring. Why, for two distinct groups of Americans, has it become a matter of conviction held with religious intensity that there cannot have been any relationship between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq?
One group consists of Democratic politicians who oppose the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. The Minnesota Democratic Party recently protested as "un-American" an ad showing military veterans and their families supporting the president's policies for saying, "Our enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida -- the same terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11, the same terrorists from the first World Trade Center bombing, the USS Cole, Madrid, London and many more."
The other group consists of intelligence and other career government professionals, many of them Arabists. Case in point: Paul Pillar, CIA national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, now retired, writing in the most recent Foreign Affairs magazine. The "greatest discrepancy between the administration's public statements and the intelligence community's judgments concerned not WMD (there was indeed a broad consensus that such programs existed), but the relationship between Saddam and al-Qaida. The enormous attention devoted to this subject did not reflect any judgment by intelligence officials that there was or was likely to be anything like the 'alliance' the administration said existed." But the Senate Intelligence Committee report showed that the CIA did obtain evidence of an al-Qaida-Saddam relationship from foreign intelligence and open sources.
The Wall Street Journal | 6/28/1993 | Laurie Mylroie
Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge.
Speculation about the responsibility for last week's bombing plot and the earlier World Trade Center bombing has focused on Iran, Sudan, and the fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Much energy has been spent linking the terror to Islamic fundamentalism. Yet Saddam, a secular tyrant, is also suspect.
Information already in the public domain allows us to make this case. Start with the fact that the most important person in the Trade Center bombing is an Iraqi, Ramzi Ahmad Yusuf. Known in New York as Rashid, Mr. Yusuf has 11 aliases. The U.S. press has reported that he left Iraq in early 1992, transiting Jordan to Pakistan. He entered New York in early September on Pakistan Airways. Mr. Yusuf, traveling on his Iraqi passport, passed through immigration by requesting asylum. The FBI claims the plot began in August, while Mr. Yusuf was abroad...
This information, although sketchy, indicates Iraqi activity. If Mr. Yusuf, the key figure, had worked for Iran, Tehran would not have let him return to Iraq. Given the totalitarian nature of the Iraqi regime, even Abboud Yassin's return to Iraq is significant. An innocent man would, arguably, have chosen to stay in the U.S. - he would have a better chance of a fair hearing in a U.S. court than before an Iraqi intelligence officer. If Abboud Yassin was involved in the bombing - but was not acting under Baghdad's instruction - then it was even more imprudent for him to return to Iraq. Mr. Yusuf and Abboud Yassin could have gone to Afghanistan, where they would not have exposed themselves to the potentially fatal suspicions of Baghdad's intelligence agencies....
By Judy Aita, USIA Staff Writer, 04 November 1998.
New York -- Usama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef were indicted November 4 in Manhattan federal court for the August 7 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and for conspiring to kill Americans outside the United States.
US Attorney Mary Jo White and Assistant director of the FBI office in New York Lewis Schiliro -- accompanied by a group of other federal, state and local officials involved in the investigation -- announced the indictments at a press conference. Ambassador David Carpenter of the US Department of State also announced rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of bin Laden and Atef.
"Usama bin Laden and his military commander Muhammad Atef are charged with plotting and carrying out the most heinous acts of international terrorism and murder," White said.
"Their alleged victims include the hundreds of African and American citizens who tragically lost their lives in the embassy bombings in east Africa on August 7, 1998, and the thousands more who were seriously injured. In a greater sense, all of the citizens of the world are also victims whenever and wherever the cruel and cowardly acts of international terrorism strike," she said. "It is up to the authorities of the world to respond vigorously and relentlessly to such terrorist attacks. This investigation is continuing worldwide and will continue until all of those responsible are brought to justice," White stressed.
Schiliro said that the indictment demonstrates the "resolve and determination of the entire law enforcement team to bring to justice all those who were responsible for the murder of innocent Americans, Kenyans, and Tanzanians on August 7."
"This investigation has been given the highest priority," the FBI official said. "Our investigative strategy is clear: We will identify, locate, and prosecute all those responsible right up the line from those who constructed and delivered the bombs to those who paid for them and ordered it done."
"Though far from complete, in three short months much has been accomplished due to the dedication and determination of the investigators and prosecutors and also because of the professionalism and total cooperation of the governments of Kenya, Tanzania, and the Comoros Islands," he said.
The investigation deployed the largest contingent of FBI agents abroad and included members of the multi-agency joint terrorist task force -- New York City Police Department detectives, US customs agents, US Secret Service, the New York State Police, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"The work they have done in recovering physical evidence at the crime scene and developing other leads that will assist in this investigation cannot be overstated," Schiliro said. "Their resolve and determination to identify all those involved should not be underestimated."
New York City Police Chief Howard Safir said that the indictment "sends a very clear message that terrorists will be held accountable no matter where they commit their acts."
Both White and Schiliro stressed that the investigation will not end with the current indictment and is continuing.
The 238-count indictment charges, among other things, that bin Laden and Atef along with co-defendants Wadih el Hage, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed Sadeek Odeh, and Mohamed Rashed Daoud al'Owhali, acted together with other members of "al Qaeda" -- the worldwide terrorist organization led by bin Laden -- to murder US nationals, including members of the American military stationed in Saudi Arabia following the Gulf War and in Somalia as part of UN Operation Restore Hope, as well as those employed at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They established front companies, provided false identity and travel documents, and provided false information to authorities in various countries.
Bin Laden's "al Qaeda" organization functioned both on its own and through other terrorist organizations, including the Al Jihad group based in Egypt, the Islamic Group also known as el Gamaa Islamia led at one time by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and a number of other jihad groups in countries such as Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.
Bin Laden, White charged, engaged in business transactions on behalf of Al Qaeda, including purchasing warehouses for storage of explosives, transporting weapons, and establishing a series of companies in Sudan to provide income to al Qaeda and as a cover for the procurement of explosives, weapons, and chemicals, and for the travel of operatives.
According to the indictment, bin Laden and al Qaeda forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the Government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah with the goal of working together against their common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.
"In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the Government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq," the indictment said.
Beginning in 1992, bin Laden allegedly issued through his "fatwah" committees a series of escalating "fatwahs" against the United States, certain military personnel, and, eventually in February 1998, a "fatwah" stating that Muslims should kill Americans -- including civilians -- anywhere in the world they can be found.
Bin Laden and Atef, both of whom are fugitives, if convicted, face maximum sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole or death, White said.
Document: Afghani Taliban Consul Spoke of a Relationship Between Iraq and Bin Laden See Translation
Pages 186 and 193 of document BIAP 2003 00090 carry one of the most important information revealed so far regarding Saddam Nuclear Program. In these two pages which document a summary of meetings held by members of The Military Office of the Iraqi Baath Party and dated May/12/2002 and June/9/2002 they have a section that discuss Saddam Hussein meeting with the Chairman of the Atomic Energy and an elite of researchers.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraq tribunal announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six others Tuesday, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity stemming from a 1980s crackdown against Kurds that included the gassing of thousands of civilians....
The new case involves Saddam's role in Operation Anfal, a three-phase move against Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s. Anfal included the March 16 gas attack on the village of Halabja in which 5,000 people, including women and children, died. Human rights groups consider the Halabja attack one of the gravest atrocities allegedly committed by Saddam's regime.
Marking BTTT
March 2001 Document: Saddam Regime Recruits Suicide Terrorists to Hit US Interests (Translation)
March 2002 Document: Saddam Ordered 25,000 Dollars for Each Suicide Terrorist Against Israel.
Iraqi defector tells of terrorist training camp
By VALERI WILLIAMS / WFAA-TV News / 11/21/2001
Saddam Hussein's possible link to the Sept. 11 terrorists remains a mystery, but a News 8 investigation has uncovered evidence that Iraq has been training Muslim extremists for years-- unchecked by U.S. authorities.
In May, Sabah Khodada and his family fled Iraq with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They gained their freedom disguised as Kurdish refugees. With Khodada came one of the darkest secrets of Saddam Hussein's regime.
From memory, Khodada sketched for U.S. authorities a map of one of the best, most elite terrorist training camps in the Arab world. He said he was ordered to work there as an army captain, but never engaged in any terroristic activities.
Located southwest of Baghdad, the camp is called Salman Pak. Khodada said trainees were drilled in sabotage, assassination techniques and hijacking maneuvers using a 707 jet, a bus or a train. They were told their main targets would ultimately be American.
Khodada's most chilling stories tell of the psychological preparation troops undergo for suicide missions, something the Iraqis call "self-confidence training." In one exercise, he said, trainees pull the pin from a grenade, then toss it around in a circle.
"Then, he throws it in the air and it explodes in the air on top of their heads," Khodada said through a translator. "Another type of training they will have hole in the ground, and the trainer will pull the hand grenade pin and throw it in the hole (in the ground) and ask the trainee to stand with the military salute ... and not move until it explodes."
Captain Khodada said Iraqis and the Arab recruits from other countries were under strict orders not to mingle. They were even kept in different barracks separated by a barbed wire fence, but the training was the same for everyone.
Khodada described the procedure for hijacking a jet. "They were trained to jump... literally to jump immediately, at the same time, at the same second, to start screaming and terrorizing the plane." The known facts about the Sept. 11 attacks have convinced Khodada that some of the terrorists received training at Salman Pak. Just last month, however, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations denied the existence of the terrorism camp on PBS's "Frontline"
"I am lucky that I know this area, this Salman Pak," said Amb. Mohammed Aldouri. "This is a very beautiful area with gardens, with trees ... very, very nice place. It is not possible to do such a program there, because there's no place for planes, for airplanes there." However, News 8 has discovered through detailed research of satellite photos over Salman Pak that nestled between the small farms is a large plane located close to the place drawn on Khodada's map.
Khodada pointed out railways and a tent where, he said, Iraq's top assassin -- known only as "The Ghost" -- taught training techniques to other terrorists. "This is a long road along the edge of the camp where, each day, a Mercedes is wrecked while during evasion drills," Khodada explained.
Today, Khodada works as a waiter at a Fort Worth country club. He said he is speaking out to warn Americans that as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power, terrorism will not end.
Khodada recalled the words of a song he said is taught at Salman Pak: "Why do you have to care about your life? Death is the beginning and the end."
Front Page Magazine ^ | 4/6/06 | Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest is Paul (Dave) Gaubatz, a former U.S. Federal Agent (Arabic linguist/counter-terrorist specialist) who was deployed to Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His mission was to search for WMDs. Four sites he identified were not searched by ISG (Iraq Survey Group) and he has waged a three year battle to get them searched. He is currently the Chief Investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner, Dallas, TX....
One must remember that at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the average Iraqi was more open to providing Americans intelligence. They wanted Saddam removed and wanted chemical and biological weapons removed as well. The people of southern Iraq had fully expected WMDs to be used against them as well. Each of their homes had been prepared for a chemical attack. Many had gas masks and had sealed certain rooms in their homes. We were shown this....
Iraqis from backgrounds such as Iraqi Police officers, Doctors, Engineers, Iraqi Govt. officials, farmers, tribesmen, etc. identified sites that contained WMDs. They explained in detail why WMDs were in these areas and asked the U.S. to remove the WMDs. Much of the WMDs had been buried in rivers (within concrete bunkers), and in the sewage pipe system. There were signs of chemical activity in the area (missile imprints, gas masks, decontamination kits, atropine needles, etc..) The Iraqis and my team had no doubt WMDs were hidden in these areas....
Although I believe some of the WMD sites still contain chemical and biological weapons, there are indicators the Russians may have assisted in exploiting some of the WMDs from one or more of these sites. The Iraqi people told us that Russian intelligence had been well organized in Iraq before the war, and also Iranian personnel. We were told if we don't remove the WMDs, others will. The Iraqi sources were constantly asking us when we were going to remove the WMDs. We just shook our heads. ISG would not come to our locations to exploit. Not only had we risked our lives, but many Iraqi people had done so as well by assisting us....
Bump!
Scripps Howard News Service | 06-APR-06 | By DEROY MURDOCK
STANFORD, Calif. -- With conservative congressional majorities at risk in next November's elections, President Bush repeatedly should remind everyone that a key reason coalition troops invaded Iraq was to padlock Saddam Hussein's Wal-Mart for terrorists. The administration finally is releasing intelligence documents captured in Baghdad. Bush should use them to detail how Hussein indeed was entwined with terrorists in general and al Qaeda in particular....
According to a March 23 ABC News analysis of several records, "an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein." Bin Laden requested that Baghdad broadcast into Saudi Arabia sermons by radical Saudi mullah Suleiman al Ouda. He also proposed, as one file says, "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia....
Hussein approved bin Laden's requested broadcasts. As for "joint operations against foreign forces," ABC adds that "eight months after the meeting _ on November 13, 1995 _ terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh, killing five U.S. military advisers. The militants later confessed on Saudi TV to having been trained by Osama bin Laden."....
UK: Chemical suits found in Iraq
Thursday, March 27, 2003 Posted: 3:15 PM EST (2015 GMT)
LONDON, England (CNN) --British military officials said Thursday they found chemical weapons protection suits when Iraqi infantry abandoned a headquarters facility in the oil fields of southern Iraq.
Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, the chief of British Defense Staff, told reporters that Iraqi soldiers assigned to the abandoned building, left their posts in a hurry leaving behind their equipment and paperwork which is currently being examined by coalition intelligence staff.
"There were numerous chemical weapons, protection suits and respirators left behind and this kit was effective, well-cared for and in good working order," Boyce said.
Boyce said that coalition forces would "have to ask themselves why Iraqi commanders felt that infantry in this part of Iraq should be issued with weapons of mass destruction equipment and protection."
Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed said coalition leaders "make up" allegations about chemical protection equipment.
But in an apparently contradictory statement he added: "Every Iraqi soldier carries his own gear, including chemical gear, in order to protect himself."
While British military officials conceded that no weapons of mass destruction were found at the abandoned facility, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon maintains they do exist.
Hoon said the discovery of the protective suits showed "categorically" that Iraqi troops were prepared for the use of such "horrific weapons."
Hoon went on to say that "any Iraqi commander who sanctions the use of weapons of mass destruction is committing a war crime and will be held personally responsible for his actions," he said.
"Ultimately it will be the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime that will guarantee disarmament."
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/27/sprj.irq.iraq.chemical.suits
This document CMPC-2004-000167 talks about a project that started in early 2001 by the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) to use components from the previously destroyed TAMUZ (also known as OZIRAQ) Nuclear Reactor to build a Nuclear Simulator Reactor. The TAMUZ Nuclear Reactor was destroyed by an Israeli air attack in 1981. In September 2002, after almost a year and a half since the start of this Nuclear Project and when it became very clear to the Iraqi Regime that the UN inspectors were coming back to Iraq, a decision was made to stop this Nuclear Activity project. What is interesting in this document that the IAEC was warned by the Monitoring Directory within the IAEC that this Nuclear Project is prohibited by the UN resolutions however the IAEC went on with it until September 2002 only when the UN inspectors were on the verge of coming back to Iraq.
Pentagon/FMSO website for Iraq Pre-war documents | April 24 2006 | jveritas
This document CMPC-2004-004404 contains memos dated from 1999 and 2000 about Saddam regime procurements of 81 mm in Diameter, 900 mm in Lenght HIGH STRENGTH AND HIGH QUALITY ALUMINUM TUBES. As many of you know the issue of 81 mm High Strength, High Quality Aluminum Tubes were subject for an intensive debate since 2002 because this type of tubes can be used in GAS CENTRIFUGES FOR URANIUM ENRICHMENT. Although the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said in its final report in 2004 the following about the procurement of these tubes “ Baghdad’s interest in high-strength, high-specification aluminum tubes—dual-use items controlled under Annex 3 of the Ongoing Monitoring and Verification Plan as possible centrifuge rotors—is best explained by its efforts to produce 81-mm rockets”. However the ISG could not prove definitively that these very special tubes were not used as part of Saddam Regime attempt to build its Nuclear Programs and Projects (see link to ISG report http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/chap4.html#sect6). In fact the ISG in its report says also the following “ The limited information found by ISG that ties Iraqi nuclear entities to the tubes also appears related to the 81-mm rocket program and the ISG report also says ” Purported high-level interest in aluminum tubes by Saddam and Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister—a potential indicator of a program of national importance, such as a centrifuge program.. A 6 March 2003 letter from the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate (NMD) to the IAEA’s Iraq Nuclear Verification Office (INVO) notes that the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) conducted material composition testing on a sample aluminum tube in early 2001 and In another translated memo “http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620262/posts ” that talks about a secret project by the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission to re-instate the “Nuclear Reactor Simulators” using equipments from the “Old TAMUZ (OZIRAQ) Nuclear Reactor”. All this is a clear indication of Saddam intent to restart the Nuclear Programs.
Pentagon/FMSO website Iraqi Pre-War documents ^ | June 2 2006 | jveritas
Posted on 06/02/2006 11:13:28 AM PDT by jveritas
Document ISGQ-2003-00004530 dated September 15 2002 is a memo from a General in Saddam's Feedayeens to the Supervisor of those Feedayeens, who is none other than Uday Saddam Hussein. The memo talks about a hidden large container that contains a Chemical Material, and that it was buried under the ground near Fallujah back when Hussein Kamal Hussein was in charge of the Iraqi Military Industrialization Commission. Hussein Kamal was the brother-in-law of Saddam who fled to Jordan in 1995 and exposed to the world that Saddam still had WMD, and then Saddam tricked him to come back by granting him amnesty. When he returned to Iraq he was killed by the regime. If what is in this document is true, it shows that one of the obvious ways to hide the WMD was to bury it under the ground, and in this case the difficulty of finding it in a country the size of California.
Beginning of the translation of Document ISGQ-2003-00004530
Iraqi Chemical Weapons
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/
In a briefing for journalists reported on October 29, 2003, the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency said satellite images showed a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion in March 2003. Retired Air Force Lieutenant General James Clapper Jr. said he believed "unquestionably" that illicit weapons material was transported into Syria and perhaps other countries. He said "I think people below the Saddam- Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse. ... I think probably in the few months running up to the onset of the conflict, I think there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private hands, to bury it, and to move it outside the country's borders."
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph published on January 25, 2004, Dr. David Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, said there was evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before the start of the war to overthrow Saddam. "We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
Terror Links to Saddam's Inner Circle (newly revealed document)
FoxNews ^ | June 11, 2006 | Ray Robison
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1647586/posts
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199052,00.html
"What was the relationship between Saddam Hussein's inner circle and Islamic terrorists? A newly released document captured in Iraq, but never before seen by the public, offers glimmers of new insight at the Pentagon's Foreign Military Studies Office Web site. The FMSO is a research and analysis center under the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command. This particular document mentions two men with similar names, each with ties to Pakistani religious schools known as madrassas, Jihad training camps, the Taliban and Al Qaeda."
"This original translation by my translator-colleague, who goes by the nom de guerre of "Sammi," comes from a notebook kept by an Iraqi intelligence agent. It provides evidence of a cooperative, operational relationship agreed to at the highest levels of the Iraqi government and the Taliban. The notebook is lengthy and we will present it on the FOX News Web site in a series of postings. It deals extensively with meetings between Maulana Fazlur Rahman, an Al Qaeda/Taliban supporter, and Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former vice president of Iraq, and other unnamed Iraqi officials."
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