Breeze Perspectives: Examining Iraq leaves questions unanswered
By Anthony Riedel, contributing writer
Posted on April 13, 2006

We are now three years into Operation Iraqi Freedom. The consensus is Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction and had nothing to do with the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001; thus making President George W. Bush a liar. We all know that U.S., British, French, Italian, German, Egyptian, Jordanian and Russian intellegence agencies thought Hussein possessed WMDs. We also know that the mainsteam media has proven Hussein’s WMD program as a myth.

For example, two weeks ago The New York Times printed a story saying how Saddam had fooled everyone about possessing WMDs. According to The New York Times, Hussein informed his top generals three months before the start of the occupation that he did not have WMDs. The New York Times offers this as proof that there were no WMDs. Last week, MSNBC started a story: “In the period before the Iraq war, the CIA and the Bush administration erroneously believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding major programs for weapons of mass destruction.” MSNBC introduced an Iraqi diplomat, Naji Sabri, who was close to Hussein. Sabri informed French intelligence and the CIA before the war that Hussein did not possess WMDs. While comparing U.S. intelligence to Sabri’s statements, MSNBC usually comes to the conclusion that the United States was wrong and “Sabri was right” and “Sabri was more accurate.” Was he?

In an interview with Larry Elder, General Georges Sada, the “number two” ranking officer with the Iraqi Air Force, is quoted saying Hussein had “… weapons of mass destruction and then he was with very evil intentions towards all the West, especially America.” Sada continued, “Iraq possessed WMD and they were there, and they were chemical and biological, and nuclear weapons.” Sada then described in detail how Hussein managed to cover it up.

According to Sada, Hussein struck a deal with the Chinese to build him nuclear weapons, giving a whole new meaning to “Made in China.” As part of the deal, China was going to harbor the weapons for Hussein. Sada stated that the biological and chemical weapons did exist and were shipped to Syria “when a dam was collapsed and many villages were flooded.” Under the cover of a humanitarian effort, Hussein had his entire chemical and biological arsenal shipped to Damascus in 56 flights. A truck convoy helped move the remaining chemical and biological weapons related material into Syria. Sada noted that Hussein’s plan was not foolproof because Saddam thought he was going to maintain his power (as in 1991) and then proceed to complete his quest for WMDs.

Then ABC News reported on tape recordings of an Iraqi cabinet meeting held in the mid-1990s. These tapes were recorded right after U.N. inspectors uncovered evidence of Iraq’s illegal biological weapons program. At one point, Hussein Kamel, Hussein’s son-in-law, assured Hussein: “We did not reveal all that we have. Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production … none of this was correct.” Also on the tapes, Hussein declared “terrorism is coming” to the United States and Great Britain. Hussein was even recorded discussing using proxies like al-Qaeda to commit attacks on Americans with WMDs.

Finally, documents were released last week confirming that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were in contact with the Iraq government concerning sanctuary and terrorist training. According to Human Events, some members of Congress are demanding President Bush release even more documents on the lead up to Operation Iraqi Freedom that could change the minds of the American public. Unfortunately, these documents are classified because of national security. 

So after three years, we are still asking the same questions; as for the answers, I am not sure what to believe. On one hand, it is hard to believe in WMDs that are not there. On the other hand, just because WMDs are not there now, does not mean that there were not there before. Nor does it eliminate the possibility that Hussein was planning secretly with other countries to produce them. On the bright side, we removed and captured the “Butcher of Baghdad,” a true terrorist who killed his own citizens and probably had the intentions of killing Americans. Who could forget the images of American soldiers rolling into Baghdad and helping hundreds of cheering Iraqis tear down the large statue of Hussein? At that moment on April 9, 2003, Hussein’s terrorist regime was over. Any chance of him completing any WMD program was eliminated. Good thing we have a president who follows through when fighting terrorism.

Anthony Riedel is a junior communications major.