Posted 3/6/2006
Origins Of War: The feeding frenzy over the Katrina tapes stands in stark contrast to the obsessive disinterest of Democrats and the media in the Saddam tapes that show that Iraq had WMD and that Bush didn't lie.
The 12 hours of Saddam tapes made public confirm, in the words of Saddam Hussein himself and his top aides, that Iraq had WMD, was working on WMD and was conspiring to deceive U.N. inspectors about their existence and to hide and disperse them. But Bush critics seemingly are not as interested as they are in videotapes that might indict the president on Katrina.
If the WMD existed, what happened to them? Where did they go? As we have noted, just before Operation Iraqi Freedom both Israeli intelligence and U.S. satellite surveillance detected large amounts of military material moving from Iraq to Syria.
But this was not a panicked move. Rather, it was a well-planned operation conducted with the assistance of Russia, to which Iraq was $8 billion in debt, much of it for weapons. Russia was worried about what coalition forces might find.
According to John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary for international technology security, the WMD were moved out of Iraq by Russian special forces, or Spetsnaz, units. "While in Iraq," Shaw states, "I uncovered detailed information that Spetsnaz units shredded records and moved all WMD and specified advanced munitions out of Iraq to Syria and Lebanon."
Former top Romanian spy chief Ion Mihai Pacepa has written about the existence of "a standard Soviet operating procedure for deep-sixing weapons of mass destruction" in Soviet client states. The plan, which the Romanians called "Sarindar," or "emergency exit," was initially designed for Libya — a Reagan administration target — and implemented in Iraq.
According to an article by David Dastych in the Canada Free Press, the operation in Iraq was carried out by Russia's GRU (Military Intelligence), Spetsnaz (Special Troops) and Russian military and civilian logistic personnel in Iraq under the command of two veteran ex-Soviet generals — Vladislav Achalov and Igor Maltsev, operating under the guise of being civilian consultants.
Photos taken in early 2003 show Achalov and Maltsev receiving awards from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Akhmed in a building destroyed by U.S. cruise missiles.
What were they receiving awards for just days before coalition forces began their rush to Baghdad? Achalov reportedly said he "didn't fly to Baghdad to drink coffee."
Remember the 380 tons of high explosives that were reported missing from the Al-Qaqaa military installation south of Baghdad in the fall of 2004, explosives so powerful they could be used to detonate nuclear weapons? It was charged then that the Bush administration failed to guard the facility, allowing it to be looted and much of its dangerous contents to fall into the hands of insurgents.
U.S. forces liberated the facility around April 2, 2003, finding the gates to the facility wide open. Inspections by the Army's 75th Exploitation Task Force on May 8, May 11 and May 27, 2003, found no high explosives that had been monitored by the IAEA in the past.
So what happened to them? The Pentagon issued a statement saying the "movement of 377 tons of heavy ordnance would have required dozens of heavy trucks," not something ragtag elements of a crumbling resistance could have managed on roads occupied by an onrushing U.S. Army.
Who could have mounted such an effort? Maybe the WMD were on some of those trucks driven out of Iraq into Syria, likely under Russian supervision. The answer may be on the reported 3,000 hours of tape recovered by U.S. forces, only 12 hours of which have been heard.
As results of an IBD/TIPP Poll taken last week show (see chart), few Americans are even aware of the existence of Saddam tapes that prove that prewar intelligence was not wrong and that Bush was right.
We'd like to hear more and have the American people know more, but so far many in Congress and particularly in the media are still waitin' on the levee.
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