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Iraqi Documents Show Attempts at WMD Deception
Documents confiscated by the United States following the invasion of Iraq indicate that Iraqi officials discussed how to deceive U.N. inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction in the 1990s, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 16). An official identified as “Comrade Husayn” talked with deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other officials about the best time to lie to U.N. inspectors, according to U.S. translation of the documents. The official was especially concerned about chemical weapons. “They have a bigger problem with the chemical program than the biological program,” he said. “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.” “We imported a quantity from America and we imported a quantity from Europe. However, we did not come forth with the quantities,” he added. Of the larger WMD issues, he said, “I must say that it is in our best interest not to uncover it, not only in fear of exposing the technology that we have or that we possess or to hide it for future agendas.” Clues within the document indicate that the conversation took place around 1997, according to AP. A second conversation from the mid-1990s shows that Iraqi officials went to Hussein with concerns about weapons inspections. “On the nuclear file, sir, we are saying we disclosed everything? No, we have uncleared problems in the nuclear field, and I believe that they (the inspectors) know some of them,” said a man referred to as al-Sahhaf. “Some teams work, and no one knows some of them.” “Everything is over. But, did they know? No, sir, they did not know, not all the methods, not all the means, not all the scientists and not all the places,” he added. He said that missing equipment that could be used for biological or nuclear weapons would be problematic if the United Nations drafted resolutions against Iraq. “Really, sir, we must be frank so that the resolution will be straightforward,” he said (Katharine Shrader, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, March 17). Other documents show that Hussein ordered plans for a 1987 chemical attack against Kurds in northern Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The documents are memos between Hussein’s office, the army chief of staff and military intelligence. They do not indicate whether the attack ever happened. These are the first publicly released documents linking Hussein to the use of chemical weapons, according to AP. In a letter to military intelligence, Hussein’s office wrote, “The leader Mr. President has ordered that your department study with experts a surprise attack with special ammunition in the areas of Barzani's gangs and the Khomeini Guards.” Special ammunition was the term Hussein’s regime used to refer to chemical weapons, AP reported. In a response, the head of military intelligence wrote that particular areas in the north were “considered suitable because they are in a low-lying area, which helps chemical agent sedimentation” (Bassem Mroue, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, March 19).
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