|
 Where
are the WMD?
New
sources indicate that Saddam probably did have WMD...
[Roger
Aronoff] 3/3/06
The question
of "Where are the WMD?" has been offered by critics of the
Bush Administration in order to mock the rationale for the
invasion of Iraq. The question is presented because of the
failure to find the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam
was said to possess or was pursuing. But it's still a legitimate
question. And some new answers are beginning to emerge—although
generally not in the major media.
Several new
sources have come to light to indicate that Saddam probably
did have WMD, at least chemical and biological weapons, and
that a nuclear program had not been entirely discontinued.
And they also suggest a substantial relationship between Saddam
and al Qaeda.
The Weekly
Standard has had a series of articles by Stephen Hayes, examining
the mystery surrounding some of the previously classified documents
that have been discovered in Iraq. Amazingly, nearly three
years after the fall of Saddam's brutal regime, the U.S. has
only translated about 2.5 percent of all the documents they
have discovered. But Hayes says the
documents reveal, among other things, extensive training
of al Qaeda by Iraqi intelligence.
The New York
Sun has been leading the way in
reporting on a former Iraqi Air Force general, Georges
Sada, who is out with a new book, Saddam's Secrets,
asserting that Saddam sent his WMD to Syria in converted passenger
planes, shortly before the war began. He appeared on the Fox
News show Hannity & Colmes to talk about it, and Sherrie
Gossett of CNS News also did a good
story about his disclosures.
On Capitol
Hill, Rep. Peter Hoekstra is trying to reopen the question
of Saddam's WMD through the House Intelligence Committee. This
was based on 12 hours of audiotapes that came to light revealing
Saddam's discussion of hiding his WMD, and of his prediction
of a terrorist attack on the U.S. This was first
reported by the New York Sun, and then got a minor mention
in a tiny article buried on the inside pages of the New York
Times. Later ABC's Nightline
was the first to air portions of the tapes.
The Sun reported
that Hoekstra "is in touch with other people who have come
forward to the committee—Iraqis and Americans—who claim that
the weapons inspectors may have overlooked other key sites
and evidence. He has asked the director of national intelligence,
John Negroponte, to declassify some 35,000 boxes of Iraqi documents
obtained in the war that have yet to be translated.
Another article in
the Sun by Eli Lake tells the story of David Gaubatz, a former
member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.
Gaubatz said that during the war he found "four sealed underground
bunkers in southern Iraq that he is sure contain stocks of
chemical and biological weapons. But when he asked American
weapons inspectors to check out the sites, he was rebuffed."
Hayes and
Lake deserve credit for continuing to pursue the story.
"If verified," Investors
Business Daily says about Sada's revelations, "his story would
be a smoking gun that blows away the claims of a 'Bush lied,
people died' crowd that insists Saddam never had WMDs and that
his regime was not linked to al-Qaida. You'd think this would
be a matter of great interest to all who seek the truth. But
all we get is tedious replay of theories blaming Bush for doing
nothing other than protecting his country, as he's sworn to
do."
We understand
why the major media want to ignore these new revelations. They
have already found Bush guilty of lying about the WMD.
The mystery
is why the Bush administration has not worked harder to get
out the information that could neutralize these reckless accusations. We
hope it's not because they are afraid of picking a fight with
the liberal press. -one-
copyright
2006 Accuracy in Media
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