WMD conjecture in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War

A UN weapons inspector in Iraq.

WMD conjecture in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War concern the failure by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG) to locate undeclared stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction both before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[1] The United States effectively terminated the search effort for unconventional weaponry in January 2005, and the Iraq Intelligence Commission concluded that the judgements of the U.S. intelligence community about the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction and an associated military program were wrong.

However, other investigative bodies continue to examine material evidence relating to past programs.^[2][3] Major controversy was generated when prohibited weapons were not found. Some observers reason Saddam Hussein miscalculated by deceiving Intelligence services into believing he had retained active stockpiles while others remain convinced, contrary to the findings of the ISG, that such weapons existed and continue to exist. A number of alternative theories have been put forward to explain their possible whereabouts.

Stockpiles still hidden conjecture

Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball in June 2004, Paul Wolfowitz insisted the weapons picture was without change, since Iraq "had a lot of time to move stuff, a lot of time to hide stuff."^[4] Three weeks later, Lord Butler of Brockwell said upon conclusion of the Butler Review, "Iraq is a very big place, there is a lot of sand. ... It is impractical to dig up the whole of Iraq, but for somebody to say 'we are absolutely certain that there is nothing there' would be a very rash and unfounded thing to say, in our judgment."^[5][6]

Some experts, such as former Pentagon investigator Dave Gaubatz, allege that not all of the potential sites that may contain WMD have been searched. On February 12, 2006, he appeared on Fox News Channel and claimed he and fellow military investigators identified four underground bunkers with 5-foot-thick (1.5 m) concrete walls in southern Iraq said to hold such weapons. Iraqi "informants" had brought these sites to the attention of Gaubatz and his colleagues. Gaubatz claims that, for various reasons, these sites have never been inspected by the Iraq Survey Group or the CIA, and made a plea the sites be inspected.^[7] Gaubatz also reiterated his claims in a telephone interview with The New York Sun^[8] and later FrontPage Magazine.^[9] Tom Ferrick reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer June, 2006 that US Republicans Curt Weldon and Peter Hoekstra had secretly planned to visit Iraq with the intention of locating and inspecting the four suspected sites themselves.^[10] According to Gaubatz, the arrangement was canceled when news of the trip leaked to the press. "I think the jury is still out on WMD," said Weldon the same month.^[11]

Stockpiles transported to another country conjecture

Rumors have abounded of possible transportation of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to foreign countries, namely Syria, Lebanon and Iran, in the weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began. John Bolton told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that these reports give "cause for concern."^[12]

Alleged Russian involvement

Romanian intelligence defector Ion Mihai Pacepa alleged that an operation for the removal of chemical weapons was prepared by the Soviet Union for Libya, and that he was told over thirty years ago by Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu, KGB chairman Yury Andropov, and later, Yevgeny Primakov, about the existence of a similar plan for Iraq. It is "perfectly obvious", wrote Pacepa, that the Russian GRU agency helped Saddam Hussein to destroy, hide, or transfer his chemical weapons prior to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. "After all, Russia helped Saddam get his hands on them in the first place."^[13]

John Loftus, director of The Intelligence Summit, said in the November 16, 2007 issue of FrontPage Magazine that many documents from Iraq point to WMD being transferred to other countries such as Syria: "As stated in more detail in my full report, the British, Ukrainian and American secret services all believed that the Russians had organized a last minute evacuation of CW and BW stockpiles from Baghdad to Syria." His researchers allegedly found a document ordering the concealment of nuclear weapons equipment in storage facilities under the Euphrates River a few weeks before the invasion.^[14]

Syria

Map of Syria, showing its adjacent location west of Iraq

Former Iraqi general Georges Sada claimed that in late summer 2002, Saddam had ordered all of his stockpiles to be moved to Syria. He appeared on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes in January 2006 to discuss his book, Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein. Anticipating the arrival of weapon inspectors on November 1, Sada said Saddam took advantage of the June 4 Zeyzoun Dam disaster in Syria by forming an "air bridge", loading them onto cargo aircraft and piloting them out of the country.

They were moved by air and by ground, 56 sorties by jumbo, 747, and 27 were moved, after they were converted to cargo aircraft, they were moved to Syria.^[15]

In January 2004, Nizar Nayuf, a Syrian journalist who moved to Western Europe, said in a letter to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he knows the three sites where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are kept inside Syria. According to Nayuf's witness, described as a senior source inside Syrian military intelligence he had known for two years,^[16] Iraq's WMD are in tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria, in the village of Tal Snan, north of the town of Salamija, where there is a big Syrian air force camp, and in the city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of Homs city. Nayouf also wrote that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat, Bashar Assad's cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family.^[17] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded to this accusation by saying "I don't think we are at the point that we can make a judgment on this issue. There hasn't been any hard evidence that such a thing happened. But obviously we're going to follow up every lead, and it would be a serious problem if that, in fact, did happen."^[16]

A similar claim was made by Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon, a former Israeli officer who served as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from July 2002 to June 2005. In April 2004, he was quoted as saying that "perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria."^[18] General Ya'alon told the New York Sun more firmly in December 2005 that "He [Saddam] transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."^[19] The Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly also reported Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as having said in a December, 2002 appearance on Israel's Channel 2, "...chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria."^[20]

In February 2006, Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, a former Iraqi general who defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991, gave an interview to Ryan Mauro, author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq and founder of WorldThreats. In the interview, al-Tikriti, who was once known as the "Butcher of Basra", told Mauro:

I know Saddam's weapons are in Syria due to certain military deals that were made going as far back as the late 1980s that dealt with the event that either capitols were threatened with being overrun by an enemy nation. Not to mention I have discussed this in-depth with various contacts of mine who have confirmed what I already knew. At this point Saddam knew that the United States were eventually going to come for his weapons and the United States wasn't going to just let this go like they did in the original Gulf War. He knew that he had lied for this many years and wanted to maintain legitimacy with the pan Arab nationalists. He also has wanted since he took power to embarrass the West and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After Saddam denied he had such weapons why would he use them or leave them readily available to be found? That would only legitimize President Bush, whom he has a personal grudge against. What we are witnessing now is many who opposed the war to begin with are rallying around Saddam saying we overthrew a sovereign leader based on a lie about WMD. This is exactly what Saddam wanted and predicted.^[21]

Al-Tikriti's interview has been featured prominently on conservative web sites such as FrontPageMag and WorldNetDaily, but hasn't received main stream press attention. Salon magazine editor Alex Koppelman doubts both Sada's and al-Tikriti's story, arguing that Syria's decision to side with the coalition against Iraq in 1990 would have nullified any previous military deals. ^[22][23]

The Iraq Survey Group was told that Saddam Hussein periodically removed guards from the Syrian border and replaced them with his intelligence agents who then supervised the movement of banned materials between Syria and Iraq, according to two unnamed defense sources that spoke with The Washington Times. They reported heavy traffic in large trucks on the border before the United States invasion.^[24] Earlier, in a telephone interview with The Daily Telegraph, the former head of the Iraqi Survey Group, David Kay, said: "[W]e know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."^[25] Satellite imagery also picked up activity on the Iraq-Syria border before and during the invasion. James R. Clapper, who headed the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in 2003, has said U.S. intelligence tracked a large number of vehicles, mostly civilian trucks, moving from Iraq into Syria. Clapper suggested the trucks may have contained materiel related to Iraq's WMD programs.^[26]

ISG formed a special working group to investigate and consider these claims. Charles Duelfer, head of inspectorate at time of publication, summarized the group's conclusion: "Based on the evidence available at present, ISG judged that it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place. However, ISG was unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."^[27][28][29]

Jordan

On April 27, 2004, Fox News reported that "operatives" had confessed to planning an attack on "the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Jordan using a combination of conventional and chemical weapons." Acting under the orders of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, self-professed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, officials said the plotters entered Jordan from Syria with trucks filled with 20 tons of toxic chemicals. The attackers allegedly planned to kill some 80,000 civilians.^[30][31] The chemicals, reported as "Iraqi nerve gas" by Hal Lindsey's TBN International Intelligence Briefing, were said to have been part of a much larger cache buried in Syria. Georges Sada claimed these were the same weapons Saddam Hussein transported out of the country before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.^[32] The defendants later denied the charges, saying they were beaten and forced to sign confessions.^[33][34]

Lebanon

A road through the Bekaa Valley

American Internet newspaper World Tribune reported in August 2003 that Iraq's WMD may have been moved to Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley. According to the story, United States intelligence identified "a stream of tractor-trailer trucks" moving from Iraq through Syria to Lebanon in the weeks before invasion.^[35] WorldNetDaily followed up the same story in May 2004 adding affirmatively "much, if not all, of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons assets are being protected by Syria, with Iranian help, in the Bekaa Valley."^[36]

Former United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw also alleged that the Russians played an extensive role in transporting materials into both Syria and Lebanon, "to prevent the United States from discovering them." Shaw claimed trucks were transporting materials to Syria and returning empty. In addition, containers with warnings painted on them were moved to a Beirut hospital basement. "They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence". China is also alleged to have helped remove WMD equipment.^[37][38] Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Lawrence Di Rita called Shaw's charges "absurd and without any foundation." DiRita noted that Shaw "has been directed on several occasions to produce evidence of his wide-ranging and fantastic charges and provide it to the DoD inspector general. To my knowledge, he has not done so."^[39] In reply to official denials, Shaw claimed that the Bush administration had made efforts to cover up the intelligence data that he had revealed. "Larry DiRita made sure that this story would never grow legs," he said, insisting the Russian "clean-up" operation "was a masterpiece of military camouflage and deception."^[40] Former Russian Foreign Intelligence director Evgeny Primakov rejected the story, telling Kommersant that "all of Shaw's sensational revelations are complete nonsense."^[41]

Iran

In addition to Syria and Lebanon, former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command Lt. General Michael DeLong claimed that some weapons of mass destruction were transported to Iran. Speaking to WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, he remarked: "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran. ... We also know that before then, they buried some of the weapons of mass destruction".^[42]

John Loftus also saw information that led him to believe Iran had acquired illicit material. In a story on Dave Gaubatz, The Daily Mail's Melanie Phillips quoted Loftus as saying "Saddam had the last laugh and donated his secret stockpile to benefit Iran's nuclear weapons programme."^[43] Phillips followed up her report by reproducing a letter from John Loftus calling for a congressional investigation of John Negroponte, whom he accused of concealing the information.^[44] Salon magazine columnist Glenn Greenwald accused Philips of promoting a moronic and deranged conspiracy theory.^[45]

Pakistan

Former head of the Indian counter-terrorism division and member of the National Security Advisory Board, B Raman, suggests A.Q. Khan may have assisted in shifting Iraq's WMD to Pakistan. Writing for the South Asia Analysis Group, he cites unnamed Pakistani sources claiming Khan agreed to aid Iraqi intelligence officials "who sought his help" in having some prohibited material airlifted from Syria to Pakistan to prevent it "falling into the hands of the UN inspectors." According to Raman, Pervez Musharraf has been working hard "to see that this is not played up in the Pakistani media."^[46][47]

Indian Ocean

In 2003, the Jerusalem Post reported that Iraq's WMD might be found on cargo ships that were cruising aimlessly around the Indian Ocean.^[48]

Iraqi miscalculation

Saddam lied to retain power

On 14 December Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces. Time Online Edition reports that in his first interrogation he was asked whether Iraq had any WMD. According to an official, his reply was:

"No, of course not, the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us." The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: "if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam’s reply: "We didn’t want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."^[49]

Later, through interrogations in US custody, Saddam revealed that, immediately prior to the start of the 2003 US invasion, he had announced to his generals that there were no WMD. One theory given currency by Charles Duelfer is that Saddam sent out different signals to different people in order to keep them confused and help stay in power.^[50]

Saddam was misled

According to The Guardian in late 2003, British officials in Whitehall began circulating a theory that Saddam Hussein and his senior advisers "may have been hoodwinked" by lower-ranking officers "into believing that Iraq really did possess weapons of mass destruction." And as most of the informers for British intelligence were the same high-level advisers close to Saddam, the British were also fooled. The paper adds that this hypothesis "is open to the interpretation that the government is searching for an excuse, however implausible, for failure to discover any WMD in Iraq."^[51] Commenting on the findings of the Butler intelligence review six months later, USA Today reported that Britain's Secret Intelligence Service had "shockingly few reliable human sources inside Saddam's regime."^[52]

Documents since captured inside Iraq by coalition forces are reported to reveal Saddam's frustration with weapon inspections. Meeting transcripts record him saying to senior aides: "We don't have anything hidden!" In another, he remarks: "When is this going to end?" And another: "Don't think for a minute that we still have WMD. We have nothing."^[53]

References

1. ^ No WMD stockpiles in Iraq CNN. October 7, 2004.
2. ^ U.S. calls off search for Iraqi WMDs CNN. January 12, 2005.
3. ^ Fallout from WMD search failure BBC News. January 12, 2005.
4. ^ 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for June 23 MSNBC. June 24, 2004.
5. ^ Tweedie, Neil. Report holds out the possibility that WMD may still be found...one day The Daily Telegraph. July 14, 2004.
6. ^ "In the period immediately following hostilities ... much potential evidence about prohibited Iraqi weapons programmes may have been destroyed. The systematic destruction of computers and other forms of records at some sites suggested that it was not the work of looters but was part of a scheme of orchestrated destruction." Lord Butler's Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, p. 97-98
7. ^ For Diehards, Search for Iraq's W.M.D. Isn't Over New York Times. June 23, 2006.
8. ^ Ex-Officer Spurned on WMD Claim New York Sun. February 8, 2006
9. ^ The Iraqi WMDs That Slipped Through Our Fingers FrontPage Magazine. April 06, 2006.
10. ^ Indiana Jones? No, it's Weldon The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 28, 2006.
11. ^ "Weldon said he knows of four sites in Basra and Nasiriyah that have yet to be searched for biological or chemical weapons. 'I think the jury is still out on WMD,' said Weldon, who also believes Saddam Hussein may have smuggled the weapons to Syria with Russian assistance prior to the March 2003 invasion." Bender, William. "Weldon, Sestak battle over U.S. withdrawal from Iraq", Delaware County Daily and Sunday Times. June 8, 2006.
12. ^ Syria's WMD and Missile Development Programs September 16, 2003
13. ^ "Operation Sarindar" (meaning "emergency exit") was an operating procedure designed by Soviet military intelligence to get rid of all traces of chemical weapons delivered or produced under Soviet guidance in Third World countries "if the Western imperialists ever got near them", writes Pacepa. Pacepa, Ion. Ex-spy fingers Russians on WMD, The Washington Times, October 2, 2003.
14. ^ Loftus, John (November 16, 2007). "Shattering Conventional Wisdom About Saddam's WMD's". FrontPageMag.com. David Horowitz Freedom Center. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=F715A709-2614-4EA5-967C-F6151F94A364. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
15. ^ Former Top Military Aide to Saddam Reveals Dictator's Secret Plans January 26, 2006
16. ^ ^{a b} Syria Role On Iraqi Arms Is Studied Washington Post January 10, 2004
17. ^ A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq WMD located in three Syrian sites 2LA.org January 2004
18. ^ Israeli military chief says Iraq had chemical weapons The Sydney Morning Herald April 27, 2004
19. ^ Saddam's WMD Moved to Syria, An Israeli Says New York Sun December 15, 2005
20. ^ The Middle East Quarterly Fall 2005
21. ^ Interview with Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti WorldThreats.com February 15, 2006
22. ^ Missing WMDs? Dragonfire.org Issue 14, 2006
23. ^ Lions, Tigers and WMD Conspiracies, Oh My! Dragonfire.org Issue 16, 2006
24. ^ Saddam agents on Syria border helped move banned materials August 16, 2004
25. ^ Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief January 24, 2004
26. ^ WMD Hunt May Be Back-Burnered October 29 kl2003
27. ^ US team concludes Saddam had no WMD Financial Times 27 April 2005
28. ^ No Basis For WMD Smuggling Claims CBS News January 15, 2005
29. ^ Comprehensive Revised Report with Addendums on Iraq's WMD (Duelfer Report)
30. ^ Jordan Airs Confessions of Suspected Terrorists Fox News April 27, 2004
31. ^ The Shocking Story About WMD in Jordan June 2004
32. ^ Syria Gave Al-Qaida Saddam's WMDs NewsMax January 29, 2006
33. ^ Jordan terror trial suspects 'forced to sign confessions' Jordan Times October 6, 2005
34. ^ Jordan terror suspects say they were forced to confess Gulf Times October 6, 2005
35. ^ U.S suspects Iraqi WMD in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley August 26, 2003
36. ^ Saddam's WMD in Lebanon WorldNetDaily May 20, 2004
37. ^ Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms NewsMax October 28, 2004
38. ^ Russia Moved Saddam's WMD NewsMax February 19, 2006
39. ^ Pentagon ousts official who tied Russia, Iraq arms The Washington Times January, 2005
40. ^ Russia Moved Iraqi WMD NewsMax March 3, 2005
41. ^ Evgeny Primakov Named in International Scandal Kommersant March 1, 2006
42. ^ Ex-CENTCOM No. 2: Intel Showed Iraq Smuggled Out WMDs NewsMax September 26, 2004
43. ^ 'I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers' The Spectator April 21, 2007
44. ^ The questions that need to be asked about those WMD April 19, 2007
45. ^ Right-wing blogs discover massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq Salon magazine. April 21, 2007
46. ^ A.Q. Khan Shifted Iraq's WMD To Pakistan? South Asia Analysis Group February 7, 2004
47. ^ Pak cracked under hard US proof The Times of India February 8, 2004
48. ^ Iraqi WMD may be at sea Jerusalem Post February 20, 2003
49. ^ Notes from Saddam in custody Time Online Edition December 14, 2003
50. ^ Facing defeat, Saddam clung to his fantasies The Observer October 10, 2004
51. ^ New theory for Iraq's missing WMD The Guardian December 24, 2003
52. ^ U.S., British probes reach similar findings USA Today July 14, 2004
53. ^ Transcripts Show Saddam Frustrated Over WMD Claims Fox News March 22, 2006

External links

• For Diehards, Search for Iraq's W.M.D. Isn't Over Scott Shane New York Times
• Tom Chatfield examines WMD theories and conspiracies for Prospect magazine