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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (149037)	10/26/2004 6:43:15 AM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Saddam would still be running his shell game. Second, this "1994" date dismisses the programs that Hussein Kamel revealed in 1995, for bio and chem weapons if I recall correctly, as not signficant. You are passing what you "remember" off as fact. Why bother when the actual facts are easy to find: You can read the transcript of his interview yourself. casi.org.uk A summary of the interview: middleeastreference.org.uk When you read the actual transcript of the interview it becomes quite clear that much of what Kamel describes to his interviewers was already known by UNSCOM. In dozens of questions, Kamel is shown to reconfirm what UNSCOM knew. A telling comment by Kamel on Page 13 "... there was no decision to use chemical weapons for fear of retaliation. They realised that if chemical weapons were used, retaliation would be nuclear. ... All chemical weapons were destroyed. I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. I wouldn't call the information they got from Kamel a stinging indictment of UNSCOM at all; some new information was learned; but what the transcript of the Kamal interview really underscores is this: International oversight and inspections were having the desired effect... keeping Saddam Husayn contained. --- Other excerpts: Kamel states categorically: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed" (p. 13). Kamel specifically discussed the significance of anthrax, which he portrayed as the "main focus" of the biological programme (pp.7-8). Smidovich asked Kamel: "were weapons and agents destroyed?" Kamel replied: "nothing remained". He confirmed that destruction took place "after visits of inspection teams. You have important role in Iraq with this. You should not underestimate yourself. You are very effective in Iraq." (p.7) Kamel added: "I made the decision to disclose everything so that Iraq could return to normal." (p.8) Furthermore, Kamel describes the elimination of prohibited missiles: "not a single missile left but they had blueprints and molds for production. All missiles were destroyed." (p.8)