Ed Morrisey has posted commentary and quotations from another group of translated documents at Captain's Quarters. This is just a summmary of the great work Ed is doing in bringing all of us the text of these newly translated documents. This particular series of documents deals primarily with Iraq's chemical weapons. Now, to get lawmakers, leftists and the mainstream media to pay attention to the fact that Saddam not only had WMD, but that he also had working ties with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Chemical Consultant on those Trailers
In conclusion, the ISG bioweapons experts and associated CIA oversight personnel “connected the dots” in determining that the Al Kindi unit probably did not make BW but they seriously failed to provide competent intelligence when they swallowed the phony Al Kindi hydrogen generation story. As they say in football, “After further review…”, I conclude that the unit was used for making chemical weapons and the ISG was fooled.
Another document released by the FMSO from the captured files of the Iraqi Intelligence Services shows that Uday Hussein, in 1999, ordered a series of bombings and assassinations in London, Iran, and in the autonomous areas of Iraq. Document ISGZ-2004-018948 shows a response from a Saddam Fedayeen operative to Uday himself outlining the plan, known as Operation Blessed July:
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This clearly shows that the Iraqis intended to use its commandos as terrorists, primarily to attack former regime officials who defected to the West and ex-patriates working towards the overthrow of Saddam's dictatorship. Saddam had a long history of assassination attempts against his political foes; former PM Ayad Allawi almost lost a leg to Saddam's assassins in 1980.
Enough evidence shows that Saddam had plenty of connections to Islamist terrorism. Now we know that Saddam had every intention of using his fanatical commandos to commit terrorist acts abroad, under the direct control of his son Uday.
This shows that the connections to the Saddam regime went much higher than previously thought. Uday himself made the arrangements with the Sudanese government in December 1994. Osama met directly with the General Director of the IIS. Even after he left the Sudan, the Sudanese continued to act as a conduit between Osama and Iraq, at the behest of Saddam Hussein -- and the IIS states that they were actively working to connect to Osama again after he landed in Afghanistan.
During this period of 1996, al-Qaeda bombed the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Osama issued his fatwa against the US. The embassy attacks in Africa followed, and then the bombing of the USS Cole -- and finally, 9/11.
The sense of urgency after the 1998 Bombings
The only other explanation was that the missiles really did hit WMD facilities and that our intelligence had selected good targets for the limited missile strikes. The emphasis on the urgency of checking the presidential sites seems to confirm this. Saddam had attempted to exclude a number of facilities on the premise that they were his personal palaces and not subject to UNSCOM inspections. That, in fact, was what caused Saddam to bar inspectors in late 1998, and what prompted the missile attacks.
Someone very high up worried about nuclear and at least chemical contamination at these presidential sites. That anxiety seems to have come from the knowledge of what those sites actually held.
UPDATE: This isn't the only reference to chemical operations in 1998, either. Document ISGP-2003-00300159-X has a summary of several documents regarding Iraqi Air Force capabilities and training from February 1998, and chemicals come up frequently. Here's a good representative sample:
Saddam’s Subsities to Terrorists
Saddam's subsidy to suicide bombings has been reported in detail, and the fact that this went through his press secretary shows that he wanted to get the word out. Saddam wanted to provide incentives for terrorist recruitment in the Palestinian areas, and so decided to offer a strange sort of death insurance for suicidal jihadis. Not only would they get seventy-two virgins for their own martyrdom, their families would get the equivalent of ten years' revenue for a family of four. The money for this enterprise came from the West, in the helpful Oil-For-Food program that put billions of dollars in hard currency into the pockets of Saddam Hussein and his sons.
However, the file also contains another memo, one that Saddam wanted hidden, that also shows his connections to terrorists in Afghanistan. On page 7, Saddam's office shows that Iraq bankrolled an Islamic group and its leader, and that the Iraqi Intelligence Service had its leadership as their proxies:
Another example of Iraqi co-operation
Why? If the programs had nothing to do with the UN Security Council bans, then Iraq would have nothing to hide. However, Khalid understood that Iraq had plenty to hide -- and in point 3, he tells us exactly what it is. He instructs his staff to clean up "all traces of chemical, biological, or radiation [sic] that were previously used or stored."
This makes it quite clear that Iraq continued to pursue its WMD programs, at least through 1997. Khalid's orders do not contain direction to end those efforts, either, but to hide them better. He thought he could fool the UN weapons inspectors. Khalid had no idea how correct he was.
It looks like Iraq had enough chemical weapons material left at Talib to do some serious training -- and one has to wonder why they would do so much training, unless they intended on deploying WMD during an attack.A Brief
History Of Iraqi Missile Units
Note that the reclassifications that called specifically for chemical units and labs in conjunction with the surface-to-surface missile units came in 2001 and 2002. The nomenclature we have read in other documents did not even exist before 2001 -- and yet we are supposed to believe that the Saddam regime had no chemical or biological weapons?
Saddam's Shopping List (Updated)
The American translations of the captured IIS files sometimes contain summaries rather than direct translations of some of the douments. This usually happens when dealing with forms that contain more tables than text; the translators give the gist of the material, presumably allowing investigators to review the data and request specific translations where necessary.
This gives less specificity to the translations, and as a rule I avoid commenting on them. Many of these summaries contain general references to chemicals, but nothing specific enough to call out for review. Document ISGQ-2003-00000847 appears to be an exception. This summarizes a number of memos calling for purchases of chemicals in 2002 and 2003 that appear on their face to be prohibited (emphases mine):
Loose Lips Generate Paperwork, And Reveal Iraqi Malfeasance
Shortly before Saddam Hussein suspended all cooperation with the UNSCOM inspectors, in 1998 a surprise inspection at the Air Operations Directorate turned up a number of documents relating to "special" weapons -- the designation for WMD used by Iraqi forces. This caused the UN to declare a violation on the Iraqis, and touched off a massive internal investigation in Saddam's armed forces to find out who forgot to cleanse the files. The series of memos and statements in document IZSP-2003-00300856 shows that the Iraqis not only intended on making an example of the men who did such a poor job of purging the files, but that they actively hid materials that implicated Iraq in the hoarding of WMD.
Choosy IIS Agents Choose ... CNN
Why would the mass graves need testing for nuclear radiation? Did Saddam use nuclear weapons in Iraq during or after the first Gulf War? The fact that this is one of the first tasks given by the head of the Counterintelligence directorate sounds rather unusual. Certainly by this time -- ten years after the cessation of military operations against Iraq in that region -- the Iraqis would have thought to test for radiation to ensure that we did not use our nukes against them.
The other points of interest show the deliberate manipulation of the media, including CNN. Why did the IIS trust CNN to deliver on their story line? Their confidence came from Eason Jordan's capitulation to Saddam, complete with allowing the regime to dictate the copy that his reporters read into the cameras. Peter Arnett had swallowed the "baby formula" story hook, line, and sinker during the first Gulf War. Why wouldn't they trust CNN to deliver their propaganda unfiltered to the West?
Foreign Intel Had Identified WMD Sites
In the last of the documents of this release, an undated memorandum from the director of the IIS to the Military Industrialization Commission (MIC) discusses counterintelligence information regarding an informant with knowledge of the locations for Iraqi WMD programs. Document ISGZ-2004-007589-HT-DHM2A directs the MIC to change the locations of their assets (emphases mine):
We were informed by one of our sources working abroad, that foreign intelligence is working to obtain information about some military and scientific targets in the Country. The undercover source provided us with a map of the targets, for which he was assigned to gather information during his visit to the Country. For the purpose of pointing out the enemy’s interest, and to enable you to maneuver by changing the locations of these targets, in order to foil enemy’s plans, we hereby list the following:
Related:
Other released documents can be found at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony_docs.asp
Foreign Military Studies Office
Joint Reserve Intelligence Center
Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents
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At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the US Army Foreign Military Studies Office has created this portal to provide the general public with access to unclassified documents and media captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available. The ODNI press release and public affairs contact information is available at http://www.odni.gov/ |
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