Risk of US to use weapons of mass distraction
Norbert Mai | 21.03.2003 19:22
While there is a lot of concern that the Iraq may use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in the current conflict there might be a much higher risk that US troops may do so.
Risk of US to use chemical weapons
One of the official arguments of the US for the invasion in Iraq was that they posses weapons of mass destruction. It is well established that the chemical, biological and nuclear capacity of the Iraq has been destroyed after the Gulf War. According to UNSCOM weapon inspectors 100% of the necessary infrastructure for the production of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons had been destroyed at the time when they left Iraq in 1998. The problem was that the destruction of the weapons themselves has only be properly documented for 90-95%. If one assumes as worst case scenario in which the remaining 5-10% have been secretly hidden they will not form a significant risk now anymore. The main reason is the limited halve-life period (the time period until due to aging 50% of the original material rendered useless) of the chemical and biological components (while anthrax spores can last ages the limiting factor here is the form in which it can be spread in an efficient way).
The US always insisted that the Iraq (still) posses weapons on mass destruction. One of the reasons is the formulation of the original UN resolution legitimizing the Gulf War. The disarmament of the Iraqi government was one of the mandates of this resolution. Only after successful disarmament the mission of the resolution would be finalized. Meaning if the disarmament has not been finalized the US army could theoretically still use the UN Gulf War resolution as justification for military action.
As a result the UN agreed on a new resolution ordering a new weapons inspection to clarify if the Iraq has been disarmed and if not to finalize the disarmament procedure.
Ironically just at the time when the Iraq handed over the missing documentation (one does not know if these have been complete) the US forced Kofi Anan to ask the weapons inspectors to leave the country.
The importance for the US of the claim that Iraq has biological, chemical or nuclear weapons also gets illustrated by the attempt to defend this claims by right out lies.
For example the Blix report after the multimedia presentation of the US at the United Nations, which was meant to create support for their war plans, stated that the made claims missed any foundation.
The most striking example how desperate the US administration apparently is shows the affair around a report in Newsweek magazine.
Newsweek (Newsweek, 3/3/03) reported that Hussein Kamel (Saddam Hussein's son-in-law), who headed Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programs for 10 years, told CIA and British intelligence officers and U.N. inspectors in the summer of 1995 that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stockpiles after the 1991 Gulf War.
On 24 Feb. Reuters News Service reported that CIA spokesman Bill Harlow reacted on this report with "It is incorrect, bogus, wrong, untrue," and that a British government source told Reuters that "We've checked back and he didn't say this," "He said just the opposite, that the WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] program was alive and kicking."
How ever on Wednesday (26 February 2003), a complete copy of the Kamel transcript (unscom950822.pdf see e.g.
http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf) an internal UNSCOM/IAEA document stamped "sensitive" -- be came public. ( http://www.middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html).
In the transcript of the interview, Kamel states categorically: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed" (p. 13). It further contains strong statements and details about the termination of the Chemical, Biological and Nuclear program in Iraq.( pp 7-8 , 12-13)
This behavior of the US and UK goes far beyond common war related propaganda, were straight out lies are a means usually omitted.
It indicates a degree of desperation which should raise major alarm.
The US already announced (link) that they do not exclude the use of nuclear weapons. Most analysts belief that the US may consider to use so called Nuclear Bunker Bursters. Nuclear weapons to crack deep laying bunkers which would destroy possible freed biological or chemical agents by nuclear fire.
There are also concerns that the US might use similar chemical weapons the Russians used during the hostage taking of 23 October in a Russian theater by Tschetschenien terrorists
Nevertheless the biggest concern is that the US might be so desperately looking for a way to get legitimization for their invasion that they might dare to orchestrate an apparent chemical attack by Iraqi troops. (While a biological attack would in theory also a possibility, but this is less likely since the genetic strain of the used anthrax might too easily point to the country of origin).
Most people would have rejected such an idea as a pulp fiction conspiracy theory, but such a tactic wouldn't be something falling out of the blue.
Recently a memorandum of the US secretary of defense from 13 March 1962 got declassified. The subject of this memorandum is given as "Justification for US military Intervention in Cuba"
(it can be read online at http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/11_20_01_northwoods.pdf)
It contains the plans of the secret project with code name "Northwoods". General Lyman L. Lemnitzer explored in this document the possibility to use some dirty tricks to give legitimacy to an US intervention in Cuba. The list includes blowing up an US ship, the orchestration of Cuban Terror attacks in the Miami area, Florida and Washington or the use MIG type aircraft by an US pilot to attack ships and to destroy an unmanned (remote controlled) US plane. Thanks to John F. Kennedy these plans never got implemented.
His successor Lyndon B. Johnson had less scruple. In 1964 US-President Johnson used an invented report that the US destroyer Maddox had been attacked by Northern Vietnam boats, in order to get approval from the US congress for air rides against North Vietnam, which formed the kick off for the long lasting massacres of the Vietnam war.
But also the last Gulf war has his example of a publicly known staged event. US TV programs showed a crying nurse in Kuwait claiming that Iraqi soldiers had taken young babies from the incubators and killed them. It later turned out that the "nurse" was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassadors and the whole thing set up by an US PR-company.
So we just can hope that someone keeps an eye on the US troops in Iraq. Maybe the Polish? They are in Kuwait and support the troops with detection equipment for biological and chemical warfare. Maybe they remember the start of the invasion of Nazi Germany in their home country. In 1939 Adolf Hitler staged a Polish attack on the Radio Station Gleiwitz and used this as the justification for the invasion in Polen ("Seit 5.45 Uhr wird zurückgeschossen."; Since 5:45 we answer their fire)
But to be perfectly honest the author is so naive to hope that writing and spreading this article might help to prevent that the US administration again gets carried away to take action its people don't want to bare on their conscience.
Norbert Mai
Some Reverences:
1) War on Iraq, Scott Ritter and William Rivers Pitt, 2002 Profile Books, London, ISBN 1 86197 636 4
2) Kamel transcript:
URL: http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf
3) The leak of the UNSCOM/IAEA document
URL: http://www.middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html
4) The Northwood report
URL: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/11_20_01_northwoods.pdf
5) The Reuters Report on the Newsweek article
URL: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030224_550.html
6) related to "nuclear bunker busters"
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_12/bunkerbuster_dec02.asp?print
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030131-27320419.htm
One of the official arguments of the US for the invasion in Iraq was that they posses weapons of mass destruction. It is well established that the chemical, biological and nuclear capacity of the Iraq has been destroyed after the Gulf War. According to UNSCOM weapon inspectors 100% of the necessary infrastructure for the production of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons had been destroyed at the time when they left Iraq in 1998. The problem was that the destruction of the weapons themselves has only be properly documented for 90-95%. If one assumes as worst case scenario in which the remaining 5-10% have been secretly hidden they will not form a significant risk now anymore. The main reason is the limited halve-life period (the time period until due to aging 50% of the original material rendered useless) of the chemical and biological components (while anthrax spores can last ages the limiting factor here is the form in which it can be spread in an efficient way).
The US always insisted that the Iraq (still) posses weapons on mass destruction. One of the reasons is the formulation of the original UN resolution legitimizing the Gulf War. The disarmament of the Iraqi government was one of the mandates of this resolution. Only after successful disarmament the mission of the resolution would be finalized. Meaning if the disarmament has not been finalized the US army could theoretically still use the UN Gulf War resolution as justification for military action.
As a result the UN agreed on a new resolution ordering a new weapons inspection to clarify if the Iraq has been disarmed and if not to finalize the disarmament procedure.
Ironically just at the time when the Iraq handed over the missing documentation (one does not know if these have been complete) the US forced Kofi Anan to ask the weapons inspectors to leave the country.
The importance for the US of the claim that Iraq has biological, chemical or nuclear weapons also gets illustrated by the attempt to defend this claims by right out lies.
For example the Blix report after the multimedia presentation of the US at the United Nations, which was meant to create support for their war plans, stated that the made claims missed any foundation.
The most striking example how desperate the US administration apparently is shows the affair around a report in Newsweek magazine.
Newsweek (Newsweek, 3/3/03) reported that Hussein Kamel (Saddam Hussein's son-in-law), who headed Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programs for 10 years, told CIA and British intelligence officers and U.N. inspectors in the summer of 1995 that Iraq had destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stockpiles after the 1991 Gulf War.
On 24 Feb. Reuters News Service reported that CIA spokesman Bill Harlow reacted on this report with "It is incorrect, bogus, wrong, untrue," and that a British government source told Reuters that "We've checked back and he didn't say this," "He said just the opposite, that the WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] program was alive and kicking."
How ever on Wednesday (26 February 2003), a complete copy of the Kamel transcript (unscom950822.pdf see e.g.
http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf) an internal UNSCOM/IAEA document stamped "sensitive" -- be came public. ( http://www.middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html). In the transcript of the interview, Kamel states categorically: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed" (p. 13). It further contains strong statements and details about the termination of the Chemical, Biological and Nuclear program in Iraq.( pp 7-8 , 12-13)
This behavior of the US and UK goes far beyond common war related propaganda, were straight out lies are a means usually omitted.
It indicates a degree of desperation which should raise major alarm.
The US already announced (link) that they do not exclude the use of nuclear weapons. Most analysts belief that the US may consider to use so called Nuclear Bunker Bursters. Nuclear weapons to crack deep laying bunkers which would destroy possible freed biological or chemical agents by nuclear fire.
There are also concerns that the US might use similar chemical weapons the Russians used during the hostage taking of 23 October in a Russian theater by Tschetschenien terrorists
Nevertheless the biggest concern is that the US might be so desperately looking for a way to get legitimization for their invasion that they might dare to orchestrate an apparent chemical attack by Iraqi troops. (While a biological attack would in theory also a possibility, but this is less likely since the genetic strain of the used anthrax might too easily point to the country of origin).
Most people would have rejected such an idea as a pulp fiction conspiracy theory, but such a tactic wouldn't be something falling out of the blue.
Recently a memorandum of the US secretary of defense from 13 March 1962 got declassified. The subject of this memorandum is given as "Justification for US military Intervention in Cuba"
(it can be read online at
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/11_20_01_northwoods.pdf) It contains the plans of the secret project with code name "Northwoods". General Lyman L. Lemnitzer explored in this document the possibility to use some dirty tricks to give legitimacy to an US intervention in Cuba. The list includes blowing up an US ship, the orchestration of Cuban Terror attacks in the Miami area, Florida and Washington or the use MIG type aircraft by an US pilot to attack ships and to destroy an unmanned (remote controlled) US plane. Thanks to John F. Kennedy these plans never got implemented.
His successor Lyndon B. Johnson had less scruple. In 1964 US-President Johnson used an invented report that the US destroyer Maddox had been attacked by Northern Vietnam boats, in order to get approval from the US congress for air rides against North Vietnam, which formed the kick off for the long lasting massacres of the Vietnam war.
But also the last Gulf war has his example of a publicly known staged event. US TV programs showed a crying nurse in Kuwait claiming that Iraqi soldiers had taken young babies from the incubators and killed them. It later turned out that the "nurse" was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassadors and the whole thing set up by an US PR-company.
So we just can hope that someone keeps an eye on the US troops in Iraq. Maybe the Polish? They are in Kuwait and support the troops with detection equipment for biological and chemical warfare. Maybe they remember the start of the invasion of Nazi Germany in their home country. In 1939 Adolf Hitler staged a Polish attack on the Radio Station Gleiwitz and used this as the justification for the invasion in Polen ("Seit 5.45 Uhr wird zurückgeschossen."; Since 5:45 we answer their fire)
But to be perfectly honest the author is so naive to hope that writing and spreading this article might help to prevent that the US administration again gets carried away to take action its people don't want to bare on their conscience.
Norbert Mai
Some Reverences:
1) War on Iraq, Scott Ritter and William Rivers Pitt, 2002 Profile Books, London, ISBN 1 86197 636 4
2) Kamel transcript:
URL:
http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf 3) The leak of the UNSCOM/IAEA document
URL:
http://www.middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html 4) The Northwood report
URL:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/11_20_01_northwoods.pdf 5) The Reuters Report on the Newsweek article
URL:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030224_550.html 6) related to "nuclear bunker busters"
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_12/bunkerbuster_dec02.asp?print http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030131-27320419.htm
Norbert Mai