Saddam And The Ho-Hum WMD Facts

Powerline and Big Lizards pointed me to an excellent editorial at the Investor’s Business Daily which deals with all the tapes and intelligence that has been retrieved from Saddam’s palaces, and what they tell us:

[…]Inconveniently for critics of the war, Saddam made tapes in his version of the Oval Office. These tapes landed in the hands of American intelligence and were recently aired publicly.

The first 12 hours of the tapes ? there are hundreds more waiting to be translated ? are damning, to say the least. They show conclusively that Bush didn’t lie when he cited Saddam’s WMD plans as one of the big reasons for taking the dictator out.

Nobody disputes the tapes’ authenticity. On them, Saddam talks openly of programs involving biological, chemical and, yes, nuclear weapons.

War foes have long asserted that Saddam halted his WMD programs in the wake of his defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991. Saddam’s abandonment of WMD programs was confirmed by subsequent U.N. inspections.

Again, not true. In a tape dating to April 1995, Saddam and several aides discuss the fact that U.N. inspectors had found traces of Iraq’s biological weapons program. On the tape, Hussein Kamel, Saddam’s son-in-law, is heard gloating about fooling the inspectors.

“We did not reveal all that we have,” he says. “Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use. None of this was correct.”

But wait, I thought the inspectors told us they had done a thorough job?

There’s more. Indeed, as late as 2000, Saddam can be heard in his office talking with Iraqi scientists about his ongoing plans to build a nuclear device. At one point, he discusses Iraq’s plasma uranium program ? something that was missed entirely by U.N. weapons inspectors combing Iraq for WMD.

This is particularly troubling, since it indicates an active, ongoing attempt by Saddam to build an Iraqi nuclear bomb.

“What was most disturbing,” said John Tierney, the ex- FBI agent who translated the tapes, “was the fact that the individuals briefing Saddam were totally unknown to the U.N. Special Commission (or UNSCOM, the group set up to look into Iraq’s WMD programs).”

Perhaps most chillingly, the tapes record Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz talking about how easy it would be to set off a WMD in Washington. The comments come shortly after Saddam muses about using “proxies” in a terror attack.

9-11, anyone?

But still to this day the left believes Saddam would never have been a threat. He was too interested in what was going on in his country to even think about attacking us.

In short, let us repeat: President Bush was right. We had to invade to disarm Saddam ? otherwise, he would have completely reconstituted his chemical, nuclear and bio-weapons programs when inspectors left.

Saddam probably knew better than to use them himself against the U.S. But it’s likely he wouldn’t have hesitated giving one or more to terror groups with which he had routine contact.

Lest you think we’re making the case entirely based on these tapes, let us assure you that other evidence ? mounting by the day ? points to the same conclusion.

We’ve been very impressed by the story told by Georges Sada, the former No. 2 in Iraq’s air force. He has written a book, “Saddam’s Secrets,” that details how the Iraqi dictator used trucks, commercial jets and ships to remove his WMD from the country. At the time, the move went largely undetected, because Iraq pretended the massive movement of materiel was to help Syrian flood victims.

Nor is Sada alone. Ali Ibrahim, another of Saddam’s former commanders, has largely corroborated Sada’s story.

So how was Saddam able to use his “cheat and retreat” tactics without being found out? He had help, according to a former U.S. Defense Department official.

“The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon,” said John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense, in comments made at an intelligence summit Feb. 17-20 in Arlington, Va.

“They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special ops) units out of uniform that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence,” he said.

These are extraordinary developments. They deserve a full airing in the media, since they essentially validate part of Bush’s casus belli for invading Iraq and deposing the murderous Saddam.

But once again, the mainstream media have dropped the ball. They seem more interested in Dick Cheney’s marksmanship and American port management than in setting the record straight about one of the most important developments of our time.

The fact that these tapes reveal Saddam, up to the day we invaded, was hoping to reconstitute that WMD program of his, is big news don’t you think? How about the fact the Russian’s helped him move the WMD’s he did have to Syria? Shouldn’t that be big news?

During a recent hearing in Washington where the tapes were unveiled can you guess how many reporters showed up?

Turnout among journalists for the formal unveiling was low, partly because ABC had already broken the story, partly because many journalists have little interest in information that contradicts the assumption Saddam had no WMD.

The highlights were:

• On a 1992 tape, Saddam made it clear he still considered himself at war with the United States. “The Mother of All Battles is continuing,” he said.
• Saddam’s WMD programs were revived soon after the first Gulf War, and lots of resources were devoted to them. A 1992 tape discusses the diversion of electric power from a massive plant in Basra for a process for enriching uranium like that the U.S. used to create the first atomic bomb. In a later tape, a scientist explains to Saddam how uranium is being enriched through the process of plasma separation.
• Saddam and his aides were not merely confident they could hide their WMD programs from UN inspectors, they were scornful of UNSCOM. “All they will confirm is our cover story,” Saddam said on one of the tapes.
• On one of the later tapes, foreign minister Tariq Aziz seems to indicate Iraq would soon acquire nuclear weapons. The topic is a proxy terror attack on the United States. Aziz argued biological weapons would be best, because they would be the hardest to link to Iraq. If there were “destruction,” he said, it would be harder for Iraq to plausibly deny involvement.
• One of Saddam’s aides hints at what happened to the WMD. “Where was the nuclear material transported to?” he asks rhetorically. Then, answering his own question, he says: “A number of them were transported out of Iraq.”
• On another tape, there is what Mr. Tierney said is a discussion of using proxies to attack the U.S. Here the goof in providing ABC with an advance copy of the tapes is most damaging. The translator ABC hired translated the relevant passages as Saddam telling his aides he warned the U.S. groups like al Qaida were planning to attack us.

Mr. Tierney’s quirks make it easier for those who wish to do so to dismiss his translation. He is a born again Christian who told National Review’s Byron York that G-d had directed him to join the Army. Mr. Tierney resigned from the Army after he was charged with improper behavior because he prayed with an Iraqi Christian defector prior to interrogating him.

But it is what is on the tapes, and not Mr. Tierney’s religious beliefs, on which we should focus. They call into question the tentative conclusion of Iraq Survey Group chief Charles Duelfer that Iraq had ended its nuclear program by 1995.

This just illustrates what I have been saying for some time. The media and the left will cherrypick facts, information, and witnesses to fit the story they want to tell.

In the end people just don’t care about facts. They “just know” that Bush is evvvviiiiiillll. Why? Well just because, you know, Halliburton and all that.

Other’s Blogging:

• Democratic Peace
• Inside Larry’s Head

In the end people just don?t care about facts. They ?just know? that Bush is evvvviiiiiillll. Why? Well just because, you know, Halliburton and all that.

Curt

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