UN Inspectors: How's this for getting @#&%ed and asking for more?

[redman]

In light of what I've posted in the "smoking gun" thread, if this didn't relate to something with such serious consequences, the absolutely and shamelessly blind and feckless approach of the UN inspectors would be hilarious. From Yahoo! News:

Iraq Grades Well at U.N. Nuclear Agency

2 hours, 21 minutes ago

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria - The head of the U.N. nuclear agency will tell the Security Council next week that his inspectors need more time in Iraq, but that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) gets "quite satisfactory" grades for his cooperation, an agency spokesman said Friday.

AP Photo

AP Photo

Slideshow: Iraq and Saddam Hussein

"Their report card will be a `B,'" International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told The Associated Press.

His comments came as a senior U.S. official said the Bush administration is weighing the option of extending U.N. weapons inspections in an effort to placate European allies and Russia. A decision will be based on whether the inspections are productive, the official said Friday.

France, Germany and Russia all have been urging the inspectors be given more time and have been arguing that any attack on Iraq be deferred.

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, due to brief the council in New York on Monday along with chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix, will give Iraq "quite satisfactory" grades despite the need for improvement, Gwozdecky said.

Gwozdecky said ElBaradei will tell the Security Council that Saddam's government has provided good access to inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction.

"Access and cooperation are good," he said. "We've been getting where and when we want to get, and we've been generally successful in getting what we need."

But ElBaradei also will say that the Iraqis "need to help themselves by coming forward" with evidence rather than waiting for the inspectors to sniff it out.

He said the IAEA chief also would make a case for additional pressure on Baghdad to encourage Iraqi scientists to consent to private interviews with the U.N. inspectors. So far, the scientists have refused.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday that "we know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientists who cooperate during interviews will be killed, as well as their families."

Monday's report by ElBaradei, whose agency is in charge of the hunt for nuclear weaponry, and Blix, who is leading the search for chemical and biological agents, could play a pivotal role in supporting or eroding Washington's rationale for possible military action.

ElBaradei's main message to the council will be that the inspectors need more time, Gwozdecky told AP.

"He'll say we need several more months to come to conclusions," Gwozdecky said. "He'll say our team is not yet at capacity, and that some tools are not yet on the ground," such as high-tech equipment capable of detecting airborne gamma radiation.

"But the inspections have worked well. We've learned a tremendous amount since we've been there," he added.

Earlier Friday, the IAEA said analyses of samples taken by nuclear inspectors in Iraq have so far not revealed any evidence of prohibited nuclear activity.

The results will be included in the agency's report to the Security Council, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

"The results so far ... have revealed no indication of prohibited nuclear activities at the locations where the samples were taken," she said. "This is not the end. The inspectors take these samples continuously."

David Donohue, head of the agency's laboratory in Seibersdorf, about 40 miles east of Vienna, said 11 samples delivered before Christmas had been analyzed. Those samples were considered "high-priority," he said, adding that eight samples delivered since were not considered as crucial.

"We will just do those in the next weeks or so," he said. "We expect that there will be a steady flow of samples for the next months."

The high-priority samples were cotton cloths that had been swiped at suspect sites. Using sophisticated technology, laboratory workers analyze the cloths to determine if there has been any nuclear activity at the swipe site, Fleming said.

The samples also were sent to a few other laboratories to ensure accuracy, she said. The other labs also found no evidence of illegal nuclear activity.

After a four-year break, U.N. experts returned to Iraq in November to search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction under a Security Council resolution that created a tough new inspections regime.

[NavyDave]

Hmm this had to have been the grade before they discovered that the so called scientists they were interviewing were part of Sadam's brother's security force.

[fansince62]

Saddam is history one way or another........

[Sarge]

In the very near future. Watch as the USAF makes Bagdad go dark in the first 10-15 minutes of the war.:asta:

[tex]

The Blix-ElBaradei Act breaks up US Iraq strategy

Two senior UN officials, chief arms inspector Hans Blix and nuclear controller Mohamed ElBaradei, handed Saddam Hussein an epic diplomatic victory Monday, January 20 – no doubt acting on a nod from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They gained the Iraqi ruler yet a further stay of military action until March 27 before he risks facing war for failing to give up his weapons of mass destruction.

At the United Nations, US Secretary of State, smarting at the blind man’s bluff played out at Washington’s expense in Baghdad, appealed to members “not to be shocked into impotence” by difficult choices. He stressed that Saddam has had ample time to solve the problem. “They know what they have,” he said, “…we cannot let them dribble out this information” to thwart the will of the international community. If Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from our responsibilities, Powell declared.

Separately Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions that UN weapons inspectors would need months of additional time to determine whether Iraq is meeting its obligation to disarm.

The inspectors wound up their two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad – cynically billed as tough demands for more cooperation – by signing onto a feeble 10-point accord that, point by point, blunted the teeth US and British diplomacy had inserted in UN Security Council resolution 1441.

Iraq undertakes to provide the inspectors with more documents: This is an admission that Iraq has to this day held back documents.

Iraqi officers will join inspection flights on Iraqi helicopters. Iraqi officers will be given the chance to keep an eye and report on the inspectors’ actions and conversations to their superiors. DEBKAfile’s intelligence experts add that the Iraqi officers will no doubt be equipped with miniature bugs for jamming the inspectors’ electronic surveillance systems.

Iraq refuses to allow UN U-2 surveillance craft to carry out inspections. Unlike the helicopter flights, the Iraqis have no access to the U-2s.

Iraq will provide supplementary data to the 12,000-page arms declaration presented to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7. Baghdad candidly admits by this point that it flouted Resolution 1441demanding a full and truthful account of its forbidden weapons. That declaration was termed at the time Saddam’s last chance to comply with the resolution and avoid military action. On Monday, the UN inspectors rewarded Saddam with one more last chance in the lengthening series of last chances.

Iraq will enact laws prohibiting proscribed weaponry. Blix and ElBaradei must be congratulating themselves. Obviously, the Saddam regime was able to develop – and deploy - weapons of mass destruction for 22 years, only because it had no time to enact appropriate legislation! Fortunately, the UN inspectors have arranged for this lacuna to be corrected.

All these points cover a variety of commitments by Baghdad, barring one: to disclose and hand over its arsenal of unconventional weapons.

The document produced in Baghdad Monday enables the UN to inform the Bush administration that everything possible has been done to make Iraq provide information on its weapons of mass destruction by March 27. Therefore, even if US intelligence were to produce conclusive proof prior to that date that Iraq is concealing proscribed weapons and their precise whereabouts, Annan, Blix and ElBaradei, have made Saddam Hussein safe from US attack for another two months. During that period, the Iraqi dictator has been assured of immunity by the UN weapons inspectors.

[tex]

Saddam’s Sacked Bodyguard: I know where the weapons are…

DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive Interview – Contd.

January 21, 2003, 9:14 PM (GMT+02:00)

Conference hall at main Tikrit presidential palace

First part of interview appeared on January 20

Fired four months ago from Saddam Hussein’s inner bodyguard detail, Jassem Abdullah – not his real name, but one of several aliases - lives in Amman in fear of his life. He moves from place to place taking his secrets with him. As a member of the elite trusted group of five to six men sworn to defend the Iraqi ruler with their lives, he claims to know where Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction are hidden – and points to three sites.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly located and interviewed Jassem through intermediaries in a suite we rented at one of Amman’s most luxurious hotels. He was pale and tense

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence experts who went over the transcript of the interview portrayed Jassem as a typical Middle East VIP bodyguard, essentially a simple man who, for the most part, told the truth. Content that our experts found to be inaccurate has been expunged. In brief, he claimed that Saddam had concealed his prohibited weapons in a tunnel complex under the main streets of Baghdad, the sand dunes in Ouja, near Tikrit – where they are stored in mobile bunkers that can be buried deeper by the flick of a remote control - and in the Hawala district of Tikrit.

In the first part of the interview, Jassem described two of Saddam’s main palaces and his incredibly elaborate personal security.

Part Two:

Did you ever have an opportunity to speak with him?

I spoke to him only once in three years. I had a personal interview with him that took three quarters of an hour. I asked for the meeting. He asked for my file. He examined it and saw that I was a good soldier – I’m sure of that. I shook his hand, and there was a space of about a meter between us. He asked me where I lived in Baghdad and about my family. I wanted my family to have a home, because they did not have an apartment. He signed a paper and within three days I received an apartment. He told me: “You are young – how did you achieve such a position?” I reminded him of our first encounter. He was a generous man. Everyone in the Special Guard received an apartment after a year’s service. But my family’s situation was pressing. I had an apartment, but the problem was my family. He also asked about my own apartment and what brought me to the Special Guard.

Did he joke?

He was always serious and punctual. When he told jokes, it was a sign that he was angry – and then it was best to keep your distance.

What jokes did he tell?

If he was watching television and someone approached him and said, “I saw you in Basra yesterday while you were swimming,” Saddam would reply: “How was I? Frightening? Were people scared of me?” He wanted to get a message across by telling the joke. He wanted to say through his jokes that he was a no-nonsense president and he liked people to think of him in that way.

Do you have the document that Saddam signed?

It’s in Baghdad. I can bring it in a week along with pictures that show how close I was to him. Those are pictures I got from him. I’ll give them to you. Because of my position, I could go anywhere in Iraq and no one would ask any questions. I used cars marked with his seal. I could get into any palace; few people could. I was very proud that my president treated me that way.

Why did you leave?

There was a rule that anyone who gave false information would be punished. People I knew were indeed punished. They were Mukhabarat. My whole family was in the security services. One relative was in military intelligence, but they took me to be interrogated and beat me severely nonetheless – although my whole family served in the security services. And I was put in jail. I was beaten with a metal club. They accused me of passing information and told me that because I signed a document, I had to be executed. They showed me the paper I signed. I told them I had not passed any information. Someone betrayed me. They were very violent.

Does Saddam have doubles?

I’ve never heard of it, nor have I met any. No one in Iraq resembles Saddam. He has his own special look. There are people who wear Saddam masks – those who make speeches about the Palestinian problem. That’s not normal. Do you really believe that Saddam would stand on his feet from eight in the morning until eight at night and fire shots in the air during a pro-Palestinian demonstration? It’s clear that’s not Saddam.

They took my house away from me. Forty-four days after my service ended, they threw me out of the house. I was left with nothing. A friend of mine advised me to leave the country. He told me there was nothing more for me here. “They will kill you,” he said. Friends provided me with a passport and a new name.

Saddam meant everything to me. I loved him and would have protected him at any cost. Now things have completely changed. I hate him. I want to kill him. I want to return to the palaces in Baghdad and Tikrit because I know all the entrances. I don’t care.

I am still confused. I am very ashamed. One night, between two and three in the morning, I heard something move. I am left-handed and I fired my Kalashnikov. It was a deer near one of Saddam’s bedrooms. Afterwards, they activated four camera systems in four palaces. Can you imagine? There is a four-way backup, with each palace backing up the next. They found the deer had not been killed, and they told me, “You failed. What if the deer had been an assassin? You must die.” All of the computer systems showed shots were fired in the first security layer, and I was in the inner one. They couldn’t understand it. But according to the cameras, they found the wounded deer in the first layer, and they didn’t trust me. It was as if I had left my post. As a result, they interrogated me again and searched my house. But it worked out in the end, and Saddam sent me an autographed rifle.

When did you come to Amman?

Three months ago.

Are you working?

I am strung out, in a panic. They can kill me, even here. I do not know what’s happening with my family. I cannot hold down a job; I have to be on the move constantly.

You said you want to help the Americans? Have you met with them?

That’s what was on my mind from the moment I arrived in Amman. But I am scared of their Mukhabarat. I know everything: where the weapons are; and I know where he’s brought the weapons he seized in Kuwait. I know where the depots are, in the north, south and center.

Where are the weapons of mass destruction?

In the desert. It is a vast expanse, and they have cameras…the minute someone approaches, such as UN personnel, they move to another place. Tikrit is closest to the site. Weapons are also located in Baghdad.

There’s a place called Ouja, near Tikrit. It’s a peninsula of sand dunes. I saw with my own eyes bunkers that move from place to place inside the dunes, underground. It is simply unbelievable. It is done by remote control.

Twenty-five people went there in 1994. We were told they were Americans, but the truth is we really didn’t know who they were. They were there for four years, until 1998. In early 1991, they worked there and build weapons of mass destruction. But I don’t know what’s exactly there now. No one saw them. They came by car, with maps. It was strange, because we thought sanctions were in place, but they came and built the complex. Immediately afterwards, they brought the bombs and weapons systems. They built a ceiling and put chemical and biological weapons inside. The Russians followed, and there were Chinese inside. The Russians tested the strength of the structure. They fired at it and set off explosions. But nothing happened to the Chinese inside. They did not die. I saw the Chinese leave the complex one by one and in one piece.

There’s another site in Baghdad; someone very close to Saddam told me. He was drunk at the time. I brought my father along – we were invited to a function – and he told me that there is nothing inside the palaces; they do not contain weapons of mass destruction. There is a more important place, he said – Baghdad, not the palaces. Saddam built an entire area under the city’s main streets, and that’s where the weapons are. If they show me satellite photos, I can tell them what their first and second priorities should be. I know there’s a third site, at Hawala, in Tikrit. I can steer them toward possible hiding places. They move from place to place. They should look in the Hawala area in Tikrit. If they show me pictures, I’ll show them where to go.

[redman]

Interesting post, tex. Where did you get it?

[PCS]

Well...seems from right here. Part One

Part 2 story already posted.

[Sarge]

Debka is a good site that reports things that our media has decided we don't need to know. They piss me off sometimes though, because they publish things that don't need to be published...military-wise.

[redman]

DEBKA looks like it has some interesting stuff. But tell me, who are they and what is their mission with their website?