Global Security Newswire

An Iraqi military officer has come forward as the source of last year’s British claim that Iraq could launch a WMD attack within 45 minutes of receiving an order to do so, the London Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 16).

Lt. Col. al-Dabbagh, who commanded an air-defense unit stationed in western Iraq, said that cases of WMD warheads were delivered to front-line units late last year. The warheads, which were designed to be launched by hand-held rocket-propelled grenades, were intended for use by the elite Special Republican Guard and Fedayeen paramilitary units when the war reached “a critical stage,” al-Dabbagh said.

Al-Dabbagh, who spied for the Iraqi National Accord exile group for several years, said he believed he was the source for the 45-minute claim made in a 2002 British intelligence dossier.

“I am the one responsible for providing this information,” al-Dabbagh said.

“Forget 45 minutes,” he said, “we could have fired these weapons within half-an-hour.”

The WMD warheads were not used, though, because the bulk of the Iraqi army did not want to fight for former President Saddam Hussein, according to al-Dabbagh.

“The West should thank God that the Iraqi army decided not to fight,” he said. “If the army had fought for Saddam Hussein and used these weapons there would have been terrible consequences,” al-Dabbagh added (Con Coughlin, London Sunday Telegraph I, Dec. 7).

After revealing that he was the source of the 45-minute claim, al-Dabbagh received two death threats from Hussein loyalists, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Al-Dabbagh said that such intimidation tactics were frustrating efforts by coalition forces to find evidence of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

“Saddam’s people are doing this all the time,” he said. “That is why it is so difficult to find the weapons of mass destruction. I am sure the weapons are hidden in Iraq just like I see you now. I am concerned that the chemical and biological weapons are there,” al-Dabbagh added (Con Coughlin, London Sunday Telegraph II, Dec. 7).