This is getting seriously weird here

If you were trying to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons that were banned by the US - and knew that he would need to have missles and rockets capable of carrying and deploying the biological, chemical and/or nuclear weapons you've repeatedly sworn you know he has, wouldn't you want to get a look at all of the documentation about every aspect of his missile programs? I know I would, but apparently, the Bush administration doesn't think it's terribly important.

The al-Fatah company, located in Baghdad, is the place where all of Saddam Hussein's rockets were designed, and according to the guy who runs the place, there's a lot of documentation available - including many documents the UN Inspectors wanted to see before the war - but not only has no one from the US weapons search teams come by, yet, there aren't any plans to check the place out, either.

Among the few things left behind, though, are what U.N. inspectors long believed existed but never obtained: design plans and test results for every missile system and warhead the Iraqis developed.

Plans for rocket engines, guidance systems and even missile warheads are strewn across the dusty office floors and swirl in the parking lot outside. Some have been blown into nearby bushes. "They're scattered everywhere," al-Chalabi said, marveling at the mess.

American missile experts who have accompanied U.S. weapons teams in Iraq expressed astonishment this week when told that the design plans and engineers behind the Iraqi Scuds and other missile projects were available.

The experts, who couldn't be identified for security reasons, said the al-Fatah company wasn't on any target list they had seen.

If Bush is now going to claim that evidence of a WMD program is the same thing as finding WMDs, I would think he'd want us to get our hands on those documents, which should verify if Saddam had any missles or warheads capable of delivering chemical, nuclear or biological weapons to a target. I'd also think he'd want us to be able to see if the documents provided any evidence of missles that would exceed the limits established by the UN following the first Gulf War, or which otherwise violate any of the restrictions placed on him.

U.N. inspectors were always suspicious of Iraq's aims in the missile field, so much so that they visited al-Fatah — located among large homes in Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood — four times during the 3 1/2 months they were in Iraq before the war.

The facility also was inspected in the 1990s, and the visits paid off. Buchanan said U.N. inspectors repeatedly caught the Iraqis violating sanctions over the years when it came to rocket development.

"There were several projects which the Iraqis did ultimately disclose in the 90s, which had been aimed at producing missiles with ranges up to 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles). Iraq always said those were only paper plans, but we had our doubts," Buchanan told The Associated Press.

Whatever plans the Iraqis did have could be found today scattered inside — and outside — the al-Fatah offices.

In a way, I find myself wondering if the Bush administration doesn't want to look at these papers, because then they might have to admit that there's nothing there that would support their claims about Saddam's capabilities. As bad as it looks right now having to admit they can't find anything and don't know where it is - being able to say that they have no idea what happened to all of the stuff they "knew" Saddam had leaves open the possiblity that the weapons have been moved elsewhere, or transferred to the leaders of another country - such as Syria or Iran. If, however, they had to acknowledge that they had evidence showing that the Saddam's capability was less than what they claimed, it would actually be worse for them. The uncertainty - and the ability it gives them to "wonder" about who might have the weapons now - lets them keep their trump card, the one thing they were able to use to justify the Iraq war, and which they may think they could use again (if anyone is willing to believe them a 2nd time).

This same thinking might also explain why they didn't secure the suspected WMD sites immediatelly after taking control of Iraq, why they allowed the various nuclear sites to be looted and why they don't seem to be showing any signs of embarassment or shame at all the questions they are now facing. It would also explain the apparent contradiction between their need to rush into war - something so necessary that we couldn't give the UN inspections more time to work - and their claims now that Iraq is a large country and they need more time to try and find the weapons. It could even help eplain why they don't want any help from the UN inspectors, IAEA or anyone else.

The idea that the Bush administration may know that there aren't any WMD to be found and are now doing whatever they can to keep anyone else from being able to prove it (in order to maintain the "uncertainty" principle and milk it to their advantage) is something I don't want to think is true. It sounds far too 'conspiracy-theory'-ish to me, and I too 'out there' - but it does seem to be at least one possible explaination as to why the Bush administration is acting the way they are. The only other explaination I can come up with is sheer incompetence - which is a pretty strong contender, really. Does anyone else have any ideas to explain all of this? I'd seriously be interested in hearing them.

Posted by thorswitch at June 17, 2003 02:55 AM | TrackBack