CNS: Saddam had absoulutley *no* WMD program

Well, maybe a tiny little WMD program

Excerpts:

A senior government official who is not a political appointee
provided CNSNews.com with copies of the 42 pages of Iraqi Intelligence
Service documents. The originals, some of which were hand-written and
others typed, are in Arabic. CNSNews.com had the papers translated into
English by two individuals separately and independent of each other.

There are no hand-writing samples to which the documents can be
compared for forensic analysis and authentication. However, three other
experts - a former weapons inspector with the United Nations Special
Commission (UNSCOM), a retired CIA counter-terrorism official with vast
experience dealing with Iraq, and a former advisor to then-presidential
candidate Bill Clinton on Iraq - were asked to analyze the documents.
All said they comport with the format, style and content of other Iraqi
documents from that era known to be genuine...

They detail the Iraqi regime's purchase of five kilograms of mustard
gas on Aug. 21, 2000 and three vials of malignant pustule, another term
for anthrax, on Sept. 6, 2000. The purchase order for the mustard gas
includes gas masks, filters and rubber gloves. The order for the anthrax
includes sterilization and decontamination equipment.

The documents show that Iraqi intelligence received the mustard gas and
anthrax from "Saddam's company," which Tefft said was probably a
reference to Saddam General Establishment, "a complex of factories
involved with, amongst other things, precision optics, missile, and
artillery fabrication."

"Sa'ad's general company" is listed on the Iraqi documents as the
supplier of the sterilization and decontamination equipment that
accompanied the anthrax vials. Tefft believes this is a reference to the
Salah Al-Din State Establishment, also involved in missile construction.

The Jaber Ibn Hayan General Company is listed as the supplier of the
safety equipment that accompanied the mustard gas order. Tefft described
the company as "a 'turn-key' project built by Romania, designed to
produce protective CW (conventional warfare) and BW (biological warfare)
equipment (gas masks and protective clothing)."

"Iraq had an ongoing biological warfare project continuing through the
period when the UNSCOM inspections ended," the senior government
official and source of the documents said. "This should cause us to
redouble our efforts to find the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
programs."

I say:

First the Duelfer report, now this. Real? Time will tell.

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