Summary: A high level defector in 1995 revealed to UN inspectors, the CIA, Britains M16, and a UN team that included the head weapons inspector of the time that Iraq had destroyed its stocks of chemical and biological weapons as well as the delivery missiles for the weapons.

The motive that Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, who was the director of the country's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs for ten years, gave was to hide them from UN inspectors. Mr. Kamel proved extremely valuable and knowledgeable on managerial matters, but a scientist who defected with him was more competent in purely scientific matters.

It should have been obvious that Mr. Kamel was not a plant when, despairing of being installed as Saddam's replacement by the UN he returned to Iraq and was killed. And in fact the UN inspectors of the UNMOVIC team (the new team that earned the respect of the world for fairness) have said that the real problem with the reported stockpiles was confirmation of their destruction not the possibility that the stockpiles still existed. As history recalls the UNSCOM team which managed all inspections until 1998 was known for containing members of the CIA.

Analysis: So it's telling that the Bush administration as it has built its case against Iraq has had to rely on an assessment by the UNSCOM team in 1999 saying that those stockpiles are likely to continue to exist. UNSCOM was not in Iraq at the time and therefore have no greater authority than the UNMOVIC inspectors that follow. All were assessing from the same data. The Bush people like to say UN Inspectors determined, but there is great difference in the UNSCOM team which could not command respect of multinationals and the UNMOVIC team that does. The UNMOVIC team's position, examining the same data, is that the weapon stockpiles of the 1980s were destroyed and only substantiating proof is needed.

Yet since last summer (when allegations of the president's and vice president's own corporate malfeasance started to surface and a sudden renewed interest was voiced from the White House on invading Iraq) administration members have been showcasing the already proven destroyed weapons stockpiles often speaking directly of them and their supposed value to Saddam's imagined attempts to kill Americans and ties to terrorists (though ties to terrorists are described by intelligence and knowledgeable analysts as being extremely unlikely). All these suppositions are like the imaginary nuclear bombs Condoleeza Rice and the president see as smoking guns. The administraiton might think they are a cute speech gimic, but they are not proof.

From the transcript of the interview by UN team and H. Kamel

"I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed"
(p. 13)

Kamel specifically discussed the significance of anthrax, which he portrayed as the "main focus" of the biological programme (pp.7-8). Smidovich asked Kamel: "were weapons and agents destroyed?"

Kamel replied: "nothing remained".

He confirmed that destruction took place "after visits of inspection teams. You have important role in Iraq with this. You should not underestimate yourself. You are very effective in Iraq." (p.7)

Report on that interview by respected ME expert Glen Rangwala

Bush administration members used the 'stockpiles' that everyone at their level in the government knew were destroyed since 1995 to work on American fears.

The point is not whether they actually lied, or if more weapons could be made. The point is that the Bush administration was in the habit of misleading the American people to win approval for their decision to kill up to 55,000 Iraqis. (5-10 thousand combatants, and 15-45 thousand combatants) (Now estimated to be 15,000 Iraqis more than half of whom were civilians).

Here are some examples gleaned from Whitehouse.gov of how the Bush people have focused on the fallacy that there might be the stockpiles left over from the eighties when they knew there weren't any.

From: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/disarmament/03_iraqi_noncooperation.html

• VX
• • In 1999, UN Special Commission and international experts concluded that Iraq needed to provide additional, credible information about VX production. UNSCOM concluded that Iraq had not accounted for 1.5 tons of VX, a powerful nerve agent. Former UNSCOM head Richard Butler wrote that "a missile warhead of the type Iraq has made and used can hold some 140 liters of VX . . . A single such warhead would contain enough of the chemical to kill up to 1 million people."

In January 1999, the UN Special Commission reported that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that 550 mustard gas-filled artillery shells and 400 biological weapon-capable aerial bombs had been lost or destroyed

• Anthrax and Other Undeclared Biological Agents
• • The UN Special Commission concluded that Iraq did not verifiably account for, at a minimum, 2160kg of growth media. This is enough to produce 26,000 liters of anthrax -- 3 times the amount Iraq declared; 1200 liters of botulinum toxin; and, 2200 liters of aflatoxin, a carcinogen.

From: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030214-16.html

…to the Security Council as the member states take time to study them, to absorb them, to think about what it means that now we have three categories of missiles that are proscribed; that Iraq has not accounted for the VX, the nerve agents;

This morning, if you can believe it, Iraq has said, in an act that sounds like a democracy, that they would pass a law banning possession of weapons of mass destruction. This comes 12 years late and 26,000 liters of anthrax short; 12 years late and 38,000 liters of botulin short; 12 years late and 30,000 unfilled chemical munitions short

From--http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/18307.htm

Colin Powell Mar 5 2003:

"In 1995 or thereabouts, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, who knew a lot, defected, and he spilled the beans. He let it be known that the Iraqi regime had VX. And as a result of what he told the international community, what he told the inspectors, the Iraqi regime was forced to admit it.

From: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html

Colin Powell February 5, 2003

Saddam Hussein has never accounted for vast amounts of chemical weaponry: 550 artillery shells with mustard, 30,000 empty munitions and enough precursors to increase his stockpile to as much as 500 tons of chemical agents.

From: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030123-1.html

Why We Know Iraq is Lying" A Column by Dr. Condoleezza Rice
By Condoleezza Rice
Originally appeared in the New York Times on January 23, 2003

Iraq has also failed to provide United Nations inspectors with documentation of its claim to have destroyed its VX stockpiles.

From: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/reasons.html

United Nations' inspections revealed that Iraq likely maintains stockpiles of VX, mustard and other chemical agents, and that the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons.

Iraq has admitted to producing tens of thousands of liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents

U.N. inspectors believe Iraq has produced two to four times the amount of biological agents it declared, and has failed to account for more than three metric tons of material that could be used to produce biological weapons.

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