{"article":{"id":55059,"heading":"The Mirage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction","author":"Imad Khadduri, Former Iraqi Nuclear Scientist","created":"2003-05-02 02:03:40","modified":"2013-11-11 00:22:15","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:22:15","article":"

(YellowTimes.org) -- In late August 2002, I listened with trepidation to President Bush's burgeoning false allegations about Iraq's nuclear military capability. Even then, one could discern that the sustained use of misinformation to support the invasion of Iraq showed that the President's claims were not based on any facts. I, having worked with Iraq's nuclear program for thirty years, reacted with a series of articles expounding on the fact that Iraq had ceased its nuclear weapons program at the start of the 1991 war. I refuted the claims and evidence most famously, or infamously, branded by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Security Council in February 2003 in which Powell argued that Iraq had rejuvenated its nuclear weapons program after the Gulf War.

With heightened apprehension, I listened to Vice President Dick Cheney's claim on MSNBC that the U.S. does not accept the results of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) extensive inspections nor its failure to find any evidence of a rejuvenated Iraqi nuclear weapons program. The IAEA explicitly exposed the fact that a uranium procurement document provided by British and American intelligence as a piece of evidence proving Iraq's nuclear weapon capability was, in fact, a planted forgery. Cheney provocatively claimed, on the day before Bush's 48 hours ultimatum to invade Iraq, that U.S. intelligence had proof otherwise. My last retort to that incredible plain lie was that some bogus evidence might be planted once U.S. forces were on the ground in Iraq.

Bombing to waste, yet again, the main Nuclear Research Center at Tuwaitha, and foolishly allowing American soldiers to break IAEA protective seals and opening Tuwaitha's radioactive burial mound for looters who then contaminated themselves and their families, the Americans have yet to produce their \"evidence\" of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq. Why is Cheney now silent about Iraq's nuclear weapons program? With U.S. troops in control of Iraq, this information cannot be a \"national security\" issue anymore.

In addition to the non-existent nuclear weapons program, two developments in the past two months have convinced me that, since 1991-1992, Iraq did not rejuvenate its chemical or biological weapons programs, either.

The first development was a Newsweek story on March 03, 2003 unveiling, after eight years of suppression, the transcript of Hussain Kamel's debriefing by officials from the IAEA and the U.N. inspection team known as UNSCOM; this debriefing took place after Kamel defected to Jordan in 1995. In it, he affirmed that Iraq had indeed destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and banned missiles after the Gulf War. All that remained were \"hidden blueprints, computer disks, microfiches.\" The weapons were destroyed secretly, in order to hide their existence from inspectors, in the hopes of someday resuming production after inspections had finished. According to John Barry, who broke the story, the CIA and MI6 were told the same account and \"a military aide who defected with Kamel ... backed Kamel's assertions about the destruction of WMD stocks.\" But these statements were \"hushed up by the U.N. inspectors\" in order to \"bluff Saddam into disclosing still more.\"

On February 26, 2003, a complete copy of Hussain Kamel's transcript -- an internal UNSCOM\/IAEA document stamped \"sensitive\" -- was obtained by Glen Rangwala, the Cambridge University analyst who in early February revealed that Tony Blair's \"intelligence dossier\" was plagiarized from a student thesis. This transcript can be seen at http:\/\/www.fair.org\/press-releases\/kamel.pdf<\/a>.

On page 7 of the transcript, an UNSCOM Russian expert, with the name of Smidovich, asked the direct question: \"Were weapons and agents destroyed?\"

\"Nothing remained,\" was Kamel's reply.

Smidovich insisted: \"Was it before or after inspections started?\"

Hussain Kamel replied: \"After visits of inspection teams…\"

Smidovich insisted: \"We could not find any traces of destruction.\"

Hussain Kamel reiterated: \"Yes, it was done before you came in. The place they buried them was found by you.\"

Smidovich recollected: \"Is this the place north of Baghdad where they were buried?\"

Hussain Kamel replied: \"It was in the month you came in. Destruction of warheads started but I could not remember the details.\"

Tellingly, Iraq, in January 2003, collected and provided access to UNSCOM to more than twenty personnel who actually participated in the events of the above revelation. UNSCOM then carried out further extensive excavations at that site.

Hussain Kamel also had a few remarks on the bottom of page 5 on the habitual liar, Khidhir Hamza, who kept claiming throughout the nineties, on CNN and FOX as well as to Congressional Committees, that Iraq was on the verge of producing nuclear bombs. His accusations continued up until March 2003 when he suddenly quieted down and headed for Kuwait to receive his new post in the new \"Iraqi\" government.

The revelation of Hussain Kamel's detailed confession, by itself, did not induce me to endorse his assertion bluntly or publicly, though it was illuminating and historically authentic. Previously we had heard of his confession, but not of its contents.

It was the second event, which took place two weeks ago, which convinced me of the futility of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Amer Al Saadi, the chemical engineer and a senior scientific consultant to the Iraqi government, was the first prominent personality to surrender to the American forces after his German wife interceded with a German TV station to arrange for his surrender. For the past decade, he had been a polished, dignified and assured spokesman. He participated in the biological weapons program since its start in the early eighties. I knew him personally and had great admiration for his scientific integrity. In a ten-minute interview with German TV, Al Saadi asserted that: \"I was always telling the truth. Iraq does not have chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. I have nothing to hide. Time will bear me out.\"

Indeed, time is bearing him out to the chagrin of Bush and Blair. The American and British hopes of finding any WMDs in Iraq, not planted by them, are vanishing mirages.

Bush, Blair and their senior officials lied to their people, knowingly, and waged a criminal invasion in lieu of this reason. Is this the democracy model for a \"liberated\" Iraq?

[Imad Khadduri has a MSc in Physics from the University of Michigan (United States) and a PhD in Nuclear Reactor Technology from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Khadduri worked with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 with his family. He now teaches and works as a network administrator in Toronto, Canada. He has been interviewed by the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, FOX, the Toronto Star, Reuters, and various other news agencies in regards to his knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear program. This article was originally printed in YellowTimes.org.]

Imad Khadduri encourages your comments: imad.khadduri@rogers.com<\/a>

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"www.YellowTimes.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":""I was always telling the truth. Iraq does not have chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Time will bear me out, " says Amer Al Saadi......\r\n","numcomment":19,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/05\/55059.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":55092,"heading":"Criminal Invasion?","article":"Well, if ending the brutal sadistic reppression of 22 million people is a crime then so be it. Turn a blind eye to what doesn't suit your propangda. Nobody will pay any attention to you people unless you stop ignoring the fact the US did a good thing in both Afghanistan and Iraq.","author":"Josef","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 07:05:58","modified":"2003-05-02 07:05:58","fileurl":""},{"id":55094,"heading":"Testimony of other scientists...","article":"...shows that Iraq's WMD programs were stricly comparted.\r\n\r\nSo how would a scientist involved in any one of the three programs know about the other two?\r\n\r\nSorry. I don't buy it.","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 07:18:39","modified":"2003-05-02 07:18:39","fileurl":""},{"id":55135,"heading":"mayday 2003","article":"","author":"systemfailure","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2003-05-02 10:11:35","modified":"2005-08-15 01:28:31","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/05\/may1st.jpg9xgan8.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/05\/may1st.jpg9xgan8.jpg"}},{"id":55141,"heading":"sissiefailure","article":"Way to soak up the bandwidth with graphics files that have absolutley no bearing on the thread topic!","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 10:17:19","modified":"2003-05-02 10:17:19","fileurl":""},{"id":55172,"heading":"The unceasing veil of lies.","article":"\u201cWell, if ending the brutal sadistic repression of 22 million people is a crime then so be it. Turn a blind eye to what doesn't suit your propangda. Nobody will pay any attention to you people unless you stop ignoring the fact the US did a good thing in both Afghanistan and Iraq.\u201d\r\n\r\nJosef I think you spend too much time listening to Rush and watching Faux News.\r\n\r\nFactually the mess in Afghanistan is not resolved.\r\nHamid Karzai, the installed U.S. Puppet President of Afghanistan, is President of Kabul. Beyond Kabul Afghanistan is quagmire of Opium Warlords and bandits. Draconian and repressive Religous Laws are again being imposed on Afghani Women. And Draconian Religous Punishments meted out to offenders of the local bullies. U.S. Forces that venture out in anything less than Armored Convoys are the central participants in a \u201cShooting Gallery\u201d. I saw a report the other day the 7 more Special Forces had been killed. Opium Production, which had almost been eradicated under the Taliban, has returned to full production and then some. (Not that I shall shed any tears for the Taliban) It has gone from almost nothing to hundreds of tons. However, Unocal did get it\u2019s Pipeline, which of course is heavily guarded. Unexploded Cluster Munitions are still taking a toll among curious Afghani Children, and the U.S. has done little to help, as was promised, those who were caught in the cross fire. A good thing? Hardly.\r\nAnd how much did Duhbya put in his budget for, we will not forget this time, Afghanistan? Zero, none, nada, none-whatsoever, Zip, zilch, not any, not one penny, nothing.\r\n\r\nAnd the Iraqi\u2019s:\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s see: We went in there without provocation or threat to America to remove the WMDs\u00ae that Saddam did not have. Oh no, it was to liberate the Iraqi People\u00a9(2001 White house Spin Machine). Of course the Iraqi People have met their glorious liberators in spontaneous demonstrations of their affection - it got so out of hand at one of these love fests that U.S. Forces opened fire killing 13, and wounding at least 75. Cluster Munitions are still taking a toll among curious hungry Iraqi Children to whom the bomblets look very similar to emergency ration packets. Sick. \r\nThousands of years of history in Iraqi museums have been looted or destroyed with at first no action, and now little, taken by Duhbya or his minions.\r\nReporters independent of the \u201cin-bedded\u201d Reporters became targets for U.S. \u201cPrecision Weapons\u201d i.e., the Al-Jazeera Office after they had given their exact coordinates and received assurances from U.S. Forces.\r\n\r\nWar and Conquest are not American values. They are not \u201cFamily Values\u201d.\r\n\r\nThe prime beneficiaries of the Iraqi Invasion are U.S. Corporations in the Bush Camp. As usual the U.S. Taxpayer will cover all the expenses of the conquest and the Oil Companies, and others, will feed heavily at the trough of human misery. But we got the Oil right? Think they\u2019re gonna give it to you for free? No, you\u2019ll pay again. Next time you look at a little child - imagine she just picked up a cluster Bomb and it exploded in her curious little face.\r\n\r\nYour kind make me want to puke. You can justify in the little twisted passageways of your mind any horror as long as someone waves a Flag in your face.\r\n\r\nI am disgusted beyond words.\r\n\r\nYou are either:\r\n\r\nWillingly ignorant - as all that I mentioned has received heavy reporting on the Net.\r\n\r\nOR\r\n\r\nYou are just another paid disinfo agent.\r\n\r\n\r\nSpeaking of Paid Disinfo Agents:\r\n\r\nAs for davemorons little dart about compartmentalization or Iraqi Programs.\r\n\r\nA. So, where are the WMDs\u00ae?\r\n\r\nB. You make an unsubstantiated assertion about a program you never worked in - did you?","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:14:07","modified":"2013-11-11 00:22:16","fileurl":""},{"id":55178,"heading":"Not me....","article":"...Downonhisknees; us generator mechanics don't know nuthin' 'bout no WMD.\r\n\r\nYou make unsubstantiated assertions all the time. Why does it annoy you when someone else does?\r\n\r\n"Free speech for me but not for thee", huh?\r\n\r\nGood old Indymedia double standards!","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:20:40","modified":"2003-05-02 13:20:40","fileurl":""},{"id":55186,"heading":"daveman","article":"Suck my cock, you head queen.","author":"Scottie","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:28:25","modified":"2003-05-02 13:28:25","fileurl":""},{"id":55201,"heading":"Methinks davemoron...","article":"...protesteth too much. He's got his knickers all in a bunch because he got caught with them down about his knees.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:39:56","modified":"2003-05-02 13:39:56","fileurl":""},{"id":55208,"heading":"My knickers...","article":"...are fine. It's my panties that are in a bunch.","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:50:34","modified":"2003-05-02 13:50:34","fileurl":""},{"id":55217,"heading":"Nope, the ol' knickers...","article":"...are right where they're supposed to be.\r\n\r\nBut you don't see it that way; you see any response...of any sort...to your inanities as an admission of your superiority.\r\n\r\nForgive me if I don't buy into your delusion.","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:55:34","modified":"2003-05-02 13:55:34","fileurl":""},{"id":55220,"heading":"Hi, Honey","article":"Dearest Dave, would you like me to start ironing your panties?","author":"daveman's she-male wife","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 13:58:16","modified":"2003-05-02 13:58:16","fileurl":""},{"id":55233,"heading":"Is...","article":"...middle school out already?\r\n\r\nSkipped detention again, didn't you?","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 14:08:46","modified":"2003-05-02 14:08:46","fileurl":""},{"id":55242,"heading":"Honey","article":"Your lack of penis size and wit are your only two negatives.","author":"daveman's she\/male wife","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 14:13:08","modified":"2003-05-02 14:13:08","fileurl":""},{"id":55433,"heading":"YAWWWWWWWWWWWN","article":"........and once again daveman reacts with nothing but 2nd grade profanity & boring ignorance","author":"STOP THE SLAUGHTER","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-02 23:57:30","modified":"2003-05-02 23:57:30","fileurl":""},{"id":55437,"heading":"EMBARRASSED BY THE U.S. GOVT","article":"It is too obvious, and is proven once again in historical fact, that the only reason Bush used the weapons of mass destruction excuse (the same WOMD that Israel and the U.S. own)\r\nis because Rumfeld sold them to him when Suddam and he were buddy-buddy a decade ago........(AFTER Suddam killed the kurds.....which is another main excuse used.)\r\n\r\nBush's war has been BASED on nothing but speculation......all in the name of greed.\r\n\r\nMen (including our soldiers), women and children have died due to this speculation.\r\n\r\nAnd Bush's Carlyle Group buddy Bin Laden, who alledgedly bombed the Twin Towers, runs free.\r\nWhile the ignorant Americans continue to believe it was Bush Senior's enemy Saddam caused 9-11. Impeach Bush, along with his supportive dirty, greedy, fellons.","author":"STOP THE SLAUGHTER","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-03 00:18:14","modified":"2003-05-03 00:18:14","fileurl":""},{"id":55438,"heading":"DID YOU LEARN THAT FROM BUSH?","article":"daveman.....i mean lambchop....I mean traitor......\r\n\r\nI see now you are reverting to kindergarten arguements now.......\r\ngo change your diaper....","author":"STOP THE SLAUGHTER","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-03 00:22:12","modified":"2003-05-03 00:22:12","fileurl":""},{"id":55536,"heading":"Stop the Laughter","article":"I don't use "kindergarten arguements [sic]".\r\n\r\nYou obviously have me confused with the Indymedia Faker.\r\n\r\nSpeaking of Yawns...\r\n\r\nIn your "EMBARRASSED..." post, are merely rehashing the old Leftie party line and are offering nothing new.\r\n\r\nBooooring.\r\n","author":"daveman","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-03 14:16:35","modified":"2003-05-03 14:16:35","fileurl":""},{"id":55558,"heading":"Hi, honey","article":"I ironed your panties today!","author":"daveman's she-male wife","parent_id":55059,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-03 15:19:15","modified":"2003-05-03 15:19:15","fileurl":""}]}