NYT Admits Saddam Preserved Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Programs

How many times did we hear it from the antique media that “Saddam had no WMD or programs to make them” which translated into the whole “Bush lied people died” nonsense? I have many articles in my archive (and our friends at Google have them cashed) that tell us over and over again that not only did Saddam not have WMD, but that he did not have the programs for them either. Those of us who actually read the inspection team reports knew better.

The David Kay inspection team and the Charles Duelfer inspection team found labs, equipment, personnel and documents that demonstrated Saddam was preserving some WMD programs in static for the purpose of waiting until the heat was off so he could start producing them again. These were programs that Hans Blix and his team were unable to find using the old inspection regime.

Here are some excerpts from Kay Inspection Team Report:

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN.

With regard to Iraq’s nuclear program, the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons. They have told ISG that Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.

A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.

Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists’ homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).

According to the Duelfer Inspection Team Report while Saddam’s nuclear program was somewhat degraded by the loss of personnel over the years “Saddam preserved the intellectual capital of his old nuclear program” and “was only six months away from producing mustard gas” and had the “capability to produce nerve agents in significant quantities within two years.” The Iraq Survey Group Report also states that development of long-range missiles, banned under the 17 UN resolutions passed between 1991 and 2003, continued unabated.

So this brings us to the New York Times. The Times published an article on November 3, 2006 (just in time for election day but I am sure that is just a total coincidence) that was intended to slam the Bush Administration for releasing Iraqi intelligence documents on the internet that included plans for nuclear and chemical weapons that were so advanced that most any country, including Iran, could have used them.

New York Times:

On Sept. 20, the site posted a much larger document, “Summary of technical achievements of Iraq’s former nuclear program.” It runs to 51 pages, 18 focusing on the development of Iraq’s bomb design. Topics included physical theory, the atomic core and high-explosive experiments. By early October, diplomats and officials said, United Nations arms inspectors in New York and their counterparts in Vienna were alarmed and discussing what to do.

The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.

The documents, he added, could perhaps help Iran or other nations making a serious effort to develop nuclear arms, but probably not terrorists or poorly equipped states. The official, who requested anonymity because of his agency’s rules against public comment, called the papers “a road map that helps you get from point A to point B, but only if you already have a car.”

Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990’s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.

Weren’t we told that the Saddam being a year away from building a nuke was just another lie cooked up by the sinister Bush Administration? Weren’t we told that Saddam had no WMD programs? Weren’t we told that Hans Blix had made sure that there were no more programs and that Clinton had destroyed the last of Saddam’s WMD?

I have article after article that appeared prominently in most of the major newspapers in the country that said that the Kay and Duelfer inspection teams indicated that Saddam not only had no WMD, but no programs as well. USAToday even reported that the inspection teams said that Iraq had no facilities to produce WMD. Those of us that actually read the inspection team reports know that the antique media was not telling us the whole truth, but was actively painting a false picture.

The New York Times had to let the cat out of the bag so that they could take a pre-election shot at the Bush Administration.

Chuck Norton
News Analyst

Be sure to examine the comment’s below to see even more supporting evidence and argument.