[Reader-list] Star Witness on Iraq Said Weapons Were Destroyed

Sat Mar 1 09:30:33 IST 2003

FAIR-L
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>
>MEDIA ADVISORY:
>Star Witness on Iraq Said Weapons Were Destroyed:
>Bombshell revelation from a defector cited by White
House and press
>
>February 27, 2003
>
>On February 24, Newsweek broke what may be the
biggest story of the Iraq
>crisis. In a revelation that "raises questions about
whether the WMD
>[weapons of mass destruction] stockpiles attributed
to Iraq still exist,"
>the magazine's issue dated March 3 reported that the
Iraqi weapons chief
>who defected from the regime in 1995 told U.N.
inspectors that Iraq had
>destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and
biological weapons and
>banned missiles, as Iraq claims.
>
>Until now, Gen. Hussein Kamel, who was killed shortly
after returning to
>Iraq in 1996, was best known for his role in exposing
Iraq's deceptions
>about how far its pre-Gulf War biological weapons
programs had advanced.
>But Newsweek's John Barry-- who has covered Iraqi
weapons inspections for
>more than a decade-- obtained the transcript of
Kamel's 1995 debriefing by
>officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and the U.N.
>inspections team known as UNSCOM.
>
>Inspectors were told "that after the Gulf War, Iraq
destroyed all its
>chemical and biological weapons stocks and the
missiles to deliver them,"
>Barry wrote. All that remained were "hidden
blueprints, computer disks,
>microfiches" and production molds. The weapons were
destroyed secretly, in
>order to hide their existence from inspectors, in the
hopes of someday
>resuming production after inspections had finished.
The CIA and MI6 were
>told the same story, Barry reported, and "a military
aide who defected
>with Kamel... backed Kamel's assertions about the
destruction of WMD
>stocks."
>
>But these statements were "hushed up by the U.N.
inspectors" in order to
>"bluff Saddam into disclosing still more."
>
>CIA spokesman Bill Harlow angrily denied the Newsweek
report. "It is
>incorrect, bogus, wrong, untrue," Harlow told Reuters
the day the report
>appeared (2/24/03).
>
>But on Wednesday (2/26/03), a complete copy of the
Kamel transcript-- an
>internal UNSCOM/IAEA document stamped "sensitive"--
was obtained by Glen
>Rangwala, the Cambridge University analyst who in
early February revealed
>that Tony Blair's "intelligence dossier" was
plagiarized from a student
>thesis. Rangwala has posted the Kamel transcript on
the Web:
>http://casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf.
>
>In the transcript (p. 13), Kamel says bluntly: "All
weapons-- biological,
>chemical, missile, nuclear, were destroyed."
>
>Who is Hussein Kamel?
>
>Kamel is no obscure defector. A son-in-law of Saddam
Hussein, his
>departure from Iraq carrying crates of secret
documents on Iraq's past
>weapons programs was a major turning point in the
inspections saga. In
>1999, in a letter to the U.N. Security Council
(1/25/99), UNSCOM reported
>that its entire eight years of disarmament work "must
be divided into two
>parts, separated by the events following the
departure from Iraq, in
>August 1995, of Lt. General Hussein Kamel."
>
>Kamel's defection has been cited repeatedly by George
W. Bush and leading
>administration officials as evidence that 1) Iraq has
not disarmed; 2)
>inspections cannot disarm it; and 3) defectors such
as Kamel are the most
>reliable source of information on Iraq's weapons.
>
>* Bush declared in an October 7, 2002 speech: "In
1995, after several
>years of deceit by the Iraqi regime, the head of
Iraq's military
>industries defected. It was then that the regime was
forced to admit that
>it had produced more than 30,000 liters of anthrax
and other deadly
>biological agents. The inspectors, however, concluded
that Iraq had likely
>produced two to four times that amount. This is a
massive stockpile of
>biological weapons that has never been accounted for,
and capable of
>killing millions."
>
>* Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 5
presentation to the U.N.
>Security Council claimed: "It took years for Iraq to
finally admit that it
>had produced four tons of the deadly nerve agent, VX.
A single drop of VX
>on the skin will kill in minutes. Four tons. The
admission only came out
>after inspectors collected documentation as a result
of the defection of
>Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein's late son-in-law."
>
>* In a speech last August (8/27/02), Vice President
Dick Cheney said
>Kamel's story "should serve as a reminder to all that
we often learned
>more as the result of defections than we learned from
the inspection
>regime itself."
>
>* Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley
recently wrote in the
>Chicago Tribune (2/16/03) that "because of
information provided by Iraqi
>defector and former head of Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction programs,
>Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel, the regime had to admit in
detail how it cheated
>on its nuclear non-proliferation commitments."
>
>The quotes from Bush and Powell cited above refer to
anthrax and VX
>produced by Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War. The
administration has cited
>various quantities of chemical and biological weapons
on many other
>occasions-- weapons that Iraq produced but which
remain unaccounted for.
>All of these claims refer to weapons produced before
1991.
>
>But according to Kamel's transcript, Iraq destroyed
all of these weapons
>in 1991.
>
>According to Newsweek, Kamel told the same story to
CIA analysts in August
>1995. If that is true, all of these U.S. officials
have had access to
>Kamel's statements that the weapons were destroyed.
Their repeated
>citations of his testimony-- without revealing that
he also said the
>weapons no longer exist-- suggests that the
administration might be
>withholding critical evidence. In particular, it
casts doubt on the
>credibility of Powell's February 5 presentation to
the U.N., which was
>widely hailed at the time for its persuasiveness. To
clear up the issue,
>journalists might ask that the CIA release the
transcripts of its own
>conversations with Kamel.
>
>Kamel's disclosures have also been crucial to the
arguments made by
>hawkish commentators on Iraq. The defector has been
cited four times on
>the New York Times op-ed page in the last four months
in support of claims
>about Iraq's weapons programs--never noting his
assertions about the
>elimination of these weapons. In a major Times op-ed
calling for war with
>Iraq (2/21/03), Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings
Institution wrote that
>Kamel and other defectors "reported that outside
pressure had not only
>failed to eradicate the nuclear program, it was
bigger and more cleverly
>spread out and concealed than anyone had imagined it
to be." The release
>of Kamel's transcript makes this claim appear grossly
at odds with the
>defector's actual testimony.
>
>The Kamel story is a bombshell that necessitates a
thorough reevaluation
>of U.S. media reporting on Iraq, much of which has
taken for granted that
>the nation retains supplies of prohibited weapons.
(See FAIR Media
>Advisory, "Iraq's Hidden Weapons: From Allegation to
Fact,"
>http://www.fair.org/press-releases/iraq-weapons.html
.) Kamel's testimony
>is not, of course, proof that Iraq does not have
hidden stocks of chemical
>or biological weapons, but it does suggest a need for
much more media
>skepticism about U.S. allegations than has previously
been shown.
>
>Unfortunately, Newsweek chose a curious way to handle
its scoop: The
>magazine placed the story in the miscellaneous
"Periscope" section with a
>generic headline, "The Defector's Secrets." Worse,
Newsweek's online
>version added a subhead that seemed almost designed
to undercut the
>importance of the story: "Before his death, a
high-ranking defector said
>Iraq had not abandoned its WMD ambitions." So far,
according to a February
>27 search of the Nexis database, no major U.S.
newspapers or national
>television news shows have picked up the Newsweek
story.
>
>
>***
>Read the Newsweek story:
>http://www.msnbc.com/news/876128.asp
>
>***
>Read Glen Rangwala's analysis of the Kamel
transcript:
>http://middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html
>
>***
>If you'd like to encourage media outlets to
investigate this story,
>contact information is available on FAIR's website:
>http://www.fair.org/media-contact-list.html
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