Weapons of Mass Destruction
Conclusions
UNSCOM, by any standards, was a total failure. There where twelve resolutions from 1991-1998 declaring Iraq in violation of the cease fire, demanding compliance, and threatening "serious consequences." During this seven year period Iraq made made five full, final and complete disclosures of its prohibited biological weapons program - the last in September 1997. Three full, final and complete disclosures of its prohibited missile program - the last in July 1996. And three full, final and complete disclosures of its prohibited chemical weapons program - the last in June 1996. All found to be incomplete, inadequate and unacceptable by the UN.
Those "serious consequences" were President Clinton's 1998 A chronology of UNMOVIC activities (United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) is worthless. It can be summed up with -- appointing officials, holding meetings, and writing reports. The full chronology is here
Hans Blix sums up UNMOVIC's activities in his 2003 report to the UN. The full report is here
"It required this cooperation to be immediate, unconditional and active. The unanimity by which it was adopted sent a powerful signal that the Council was of one mind in creating a last opportunity for peaceful disarmament in Iraq through inspection a path to attain, within a reasonable time, verifiable disarmament of Iraq." Mr. Blix also expressed his belief that Saddam still, in 2003, harbored WMD.
"The discovery of a number of 122 mm chemical rocket warheads in a bunker at a storage depot 170 km southwest of Baghdad. This was a relatively new bunker and therefore the rockets must have been moved there in the past few years, at a time when Iraq should not have had such munitions. The investigation of these rockets is still proceeding. Iraq states that they were overlooked from 1991 from a batch of some 2,000 that were stored there during the Gulf War. This could be the case. They could also be the tip of a submerged iceberg. The discovery of a few rockets does not resolve but rather points to the issue of several thousands of chemical rockets that are unaccounted for."
"Iraq has declared that it produced about 8,500 litres of (anthrax), which it states it unilaterally destroyed in the summer of 1991. Iraq has provided no convincing evidence for its destruction. There are strong indications that Iraq produced more anthrax than it declared, and that at least some of this was retained after the declared destruction date." The UN had, by 2003, been warning Iraq of "serious consequences" in relation to its use of WMD for over TWENTY YEARS. Saddam Hussein had sent his own "powerful signal" that he would not comply; and, a "reasonable time" had long since passed. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission had been operating for almost four years and never set foot inside Iraq.
The absolutely obvious ineffectiveness of the UN in its dealings with Saddam Hussein is overwhelming. it makes me wonder why so many insisted that President Bush return to the UN. This Jimmy Carter style of paper shuffling bureaucratic diplomacy did not work with North Korea and it would not work with Saddam Hussein. It's interesting to note that President Bush did not actually need senate joint resolution 46 or any further authorization from the Congress or the United Nations before resuming the Persian Gulf War. By 2002 it was clear that Saddam Hussein had not, and would not comply with the conditions of the 1991 cease-fire.
The question is not did Saddam have weapons of mass destruction, he did. Everyone stating this unequivocal fact is not lying or even wrong. The question is where are they? Were they destroyed without proper documentation and UN supervision? Are they hidden somewhere in Iraq? Were they moved to another country?
William Gertz of The Washington Times reports that they were moved to Syria.
John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.
"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."
Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.
Most of Saddam's most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said." The full story is here This claim seems to be backed up by, and again under reported, events in Syria.
"For nearly three years, Iraq refused to accept any inspections by UNMOVIC. It was only after appeals by the Secretary-General and Arab States and pressure by the United States and other Member States, that Iraq declared on 16 September last year that it would again accept inspections without conditions."
"13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi Air Force between 1983 and 1988, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tonnes. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that these quantities are now unaccounted for."
"Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
Jane's Magazine reports dozens of Syrian military officers and Iranian engineers were killed two months ago in a chemical weapons accident. According to the report by the British magazine, an explosion occurred on July 26, 2007 while the officers were attempting to mount a chemical warhead with mustard gas on a Scud-C missile. The blast spread lethal chemical agents from a nearby storage facility that included mustard gas, VX gas and sarin nerve gas, which are banned according to international treaties. More here
