NYT/AP: Documents Reveal Iraqis Dodging Inspectors

[DeepModem Mom]

Documents Reveal Iraqis Dodging Inspectors
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 17, 2006


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraqi officials talked about when and how to deceive international authorities about their weapons programs in the mid-1990s, referring at one point to materials imported from the United States for an apparent chemical program.

A transcript of the conversation is one of several dozen documents made public Friday by the U.S. government as part of a program allowing researchers, the media and Iraqis comb through millions of pages of documents and audio recordings confiscated since the 2003 invasion.

In the U.S. government translation of the transcript, which apparently covered a conversation transcribed by the Iraqis, an official identified as ''Comrade Husayn'' talks to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other officials about when it would be best to lie to weapons inspectors and U.N. Security Council members and when to be open.

He shows particular concern that outsiders will learn about the importation of material, including some from the U.S., apparently for chemical weapons.

''They have a bigger problem with the chemical program than the biological program,'' he says. ''We have not told them that we used it on Iran, nor have we told them abut the size or kind of chemical weapons that we produced, and we have not told them the truth about the imported material.''...


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Iraq-Weapons-Hunters.html

[Mikimouse]

1. The answer to this is obvious...

"In the U.S. government translation of the transcript". 'Nuff said!:puffpiece:

[Rex]

2. Well there is the proof! Now I can sleep better at night.

Thank you Big Brother!

[daleo]

3. Catapulting the propaganda

They never give up - we need a smiley for that.

[remfan]

4. So?

A conversation from the mid 90s! OMG! They were *GASP* dodging inspectors!

Oh my, you just can't trust ANYONE, can you? Good thing we invaded!

:eyes:

I really hate these asshats.

[Kagemusha]

5. What, they thought we didn't know about the chems the US sold 'em?

Duh, the gas used on the Kurds used stuff that came from the west. Saddam was our ally then!

[killbotfactory]

6. "one of several dozen documents made public Friday by the U.S."

Can you say "propaganda"? I knew you could.

[appleannie1]

7. Some documents say they had no weapons

Here is one discussing it.

When an officer saved the Iraqi technicians, at the
last moment, he wanted to make sure that they are
destroyed. He told them “ you guys are 50 Teams,
you guys searched every place, and we are telling
you that these are destroyed. There are Gunnery
ammunitions filled with Chemical, you guys
remember Muthanna and Sultan and Hussein you
guys remember it, I said to them “leave them don’t
use them until you get an order from me?”
Habaniyyah…
Male 2 They weren’t used
Male 1 They were destroyed, now they say you have to
bring me documents to show when they were
destroyed? What day what time? Every single
missile.
How about this? This is what got us into the Cheat
and Treason Page Saddam in 1991 after the gulf war]. He brings with
him an officer with a piece of paper and tells him to
write
So someone wants to find an excuse, he can find an
excuse.
But if they want to end the issue, they will say the
weapons were destroyed.
Or they are assembling a new one. One of the
comrades, member of the Revolutionary Command
Council, it seems even our people don’t believe
that, there is no way that we are not hiding
something small at least. Since they saw this shell.
They told him some missiles needed this? I said are
you better than me?
I told him “ don’t tell me only 16 missiles, if all the
bases had 1000 missiles, we would’ve filled the
streets” but what can you do? It doesn’t exist, if we
had Nuclear and Biological missiles, you think they
would talk like this? Its OK let it go.


I read that as the weapons had all been destroyed but no one would believe them since they could not produce paperwork proving it.

[cantstandbush]

8. Saddam produced a 12,000-page report that stated that the WMDs

had been destroyed after Desert Storm. (BTW remember 8,000 pages of this report were withheld from the public by Bush admn.). I remember the TV interviews with Condi, Cheney, Rummy etc. and all the time they were saying that Saddam needed to show "documentation" that the weapons had been destroyed. This is a fine exampe of the US fascination with "documents" and "documentation" as thouogh a lie can't be written as well as told. Then once they get the "documentation" the US makes it a "secret" so no one can read it. i think this administration likes documents just so they can classify them as top secret.