Iraqi Colonel: WMD Could've Been Launched in 45 Minutes

[stormchazer]

Iraqi Colonel: WMD Could've Been Launched in 45 Minutes

Sunday, December 07, 2003



Saddam Hussein (search) had weapons of mass destruction and his army was capable of firing them off in less than 45 minutes, according to statements from an Iraqi colonel.

Lt. Col. al-Dabbagh told the London Telegraph that cases of WMD warheads were shipped under cover of darkness to front-line units, including his own, near the end of 2002, in a report published in Sunday editions.

In September of 2002 the British government published a controversial intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, claiming WMD could be launched within 45 minutes. Al-Dabbagh said he believed he was the source of the claim, which was widely criticized as being a ploy by British Prime Minister Tony Blair (search) to gain support for military action in Iraq (search).

"I am the one responsible for providing this information," al-Dabbagh, 40, told the Telegraph when shown the dossier. "It is 100 percent accurate."

"Forget 45 minutes, we could have fired these within half-an-hour," he was quoted as saying.

Al-Dabbagh told the paper that the weapons were Iraqi-manufactured and were designed to be launched from hand-held rocket-propelled grenades. Whether the weapons contained biological or chemical agents was not made clear by al-Dabbagh, the report said.

Iraqi military commanders could use the weapons only on the personal orders of Saddam, al-Dabbagh told the paper, adding: "We were told that when the war came we would only have a short time to use everything we had to defend ourselves, including the secret weapon."

So why weren't the weapons launched against the allied forces encroaching on Iraq? Al-Dabbagh said the majority of the Iraqi army did not want to fight for Saddam.

"The West should thank God that the Iraqi army decided not to fight," he told the paper. "If the army had fought for Saddam Hussein and used these weapons there would have been terrible consequences."




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[Stephanie]

Can he give us an idea then where we may find them???

[streetsoldier]

I heard some interesting comments on why they weren't used...

(1) Saddam was hurt/incapacitated by at least one of the strikes

(2) No Iraqi radio/satellite communication commands were intercepted by the coalition after 20 MAR 2003, indicating that we were more than successful in knocking out their C-A-C capability

(3) a combination of (1) and (2).

As to "where are they now"? Best guess is stored around the 25-mile "red zone" circling Baghdad, still to be found once the Iraqis are SURE we captured/killed Saddam. Second best is that they were dispatched outside the country for future use HERE or in Europe.

This heard in discussion on Fox & Friends this morning.

[Stephanie]

Could be Bill.

[streetsoldier]

Which also explains the presence of all those Russian-made NBC suits, German-manufactured NBC masks and the French-made atropine injection kits, each found in the thousands along the way to Baghdad and afterwards...remember???

[PTrackerLA]

There's no doubt in my mind that Iraq had WMD and I support Bush's decisions to go to war. As to where they are now, I would guess buried or hidden very well somewhere in Iraq but most likely they have left the country which is even more scary.