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[casi] Iraq's free Fall



''Iraq's free fall''
Printed on Friday, May 23, 2003 @ 00:00:12 CDT
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1370

By Imad Khadduri
Former Iraqi nuclear scientist
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (Canada)

(YellowTimes.org) -- There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This apparently became the 
case a few months after the end of the 1991 war when Hussain Kamel, the man in charge of the 
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, ordered the destruction of the chemical and 
biological materials and their warheads. The nuclear weapons program had already come to a halt on 
the first night of bombing in January 1991. The weapons were destroyed secretly, in order to hide 
their existence from inspectors, in the hopes of someday resuming production after inspections had 
finished. Hussain Kamel even disclosed the location of the hidden documents relating to the 
remnants of the chemical and biological programs during his futile escape to Jordan in 1995.

Yet Bush, Blair and their senior cohorts kept brandishing their "intelligence sources" in order to 
whip up a fervor over the danger of Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction up until the last 
day before the invasion of Iraq. Once they were in Iraq, with their hundreds of "specialists," they 
promised to uncover the hidden weapons of mass destruction.

One such idiotic attempt was the intrusion of American soldiers in the often-bombed Nuclear 
Research Center. The soldiers broke the protective seals originally placed by the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and opened Tuwaitha's radioactive burial mound; instead, they could 
have easily contacted the IAEA for an inventory of the tons of natural "yellow cake" and 
radioactive liquid and solid waste found.

The U.S. Central Command finally allowed the Pentagon's Direct Support Team to survey the nuclear 
sites a week after the capture of Baghdad. When they finally reached the sites, the Pentagon's team 
unfortunately found them looted, raising the specter that materials for a nuclear "dirty bomb" 
could now fall into the hands of terrorists. The IAEA has been desperate to visit the sites and has 
warned the U.S. since April 11 of the possibility of radioactive contamination, but Washington has 
consistently refused to allow the IAEA inspectors in. Even recently, Rumsfeld had the criminal gall 
to suggest that the IAEA may return only if the U.N. agrees to the American conditions of carrying 
out its occupation of Iraq. This while tens of women and children are already exhibiting cases of 
radiation sickness.

In addition to the non-existent nuclear weapons program, the 1995 interview with Hussain Kamel, 
which was suppressed for eight years, and the final declarations of Amer al-Saadi, the senior Iraqi 
scientific advisor, before surrendering to the American forces in mid-April 2003, have both alleged 
the destruction of all chemical and biological weapons and their warheads soon after the end of the 
1991 war. These claims are holding true due to recent non-findings.

America's threadbare credibility on Iraq's WMD is stretched to the limit. Ari Fleischer declared on 
April 10, in the heat of the invasion, "That is what this war was about." Now Donald Rumsfeld is 
saying something to the effect that they are invading another country to eliminate its weapons of 
mass destruction, but he doubts whether they will find them unless people there tell the invaders 
where they are. Whatever happened to America's "intelligence" that was constantly touted as 
justification to attack Iraq?

To further underscore their utter intelligence failure, the Americans are now offering a $200,000 
reward to any "noble Iraqi," as broadcasted on the radio, for providing information that may lead 
to the discovery of Iraqi WMD, their locations and even the Iraqi scientists who participated in 
WMD programs. Were not these the same Iraqi scientists who were being chastised by the Americans, 
for cowering in fear from their government, for not coming forth when UNMOVIC and the IAEA 
inspectors were on the ground in Iraq last winter? What is stopping these scientists now from 
coming out to collect this reward, perhaps to be hand delivered by the same Iraqi defectors who 
were already paid similar amounts for spreading these lies during the past few years and who 
marched behind the American tanks during the invasion of Iraq?

What other reasons may there be but the simple stark fact that no scientists had worked on such 
programs for the past 12 years, after all material evidence had been destroyed either during the 
1991 war or a few months afterwards. What prevents these lying defectors, some of whom are now in 
Iraq to take up their new job "posts," from pointing out where these weapons are? Did not Khidhir 
Hamza claim, throughout the late nineties and up to March 2003, that Iraq was within a few years of 
producing several nuclear weapons? His silence should speak volumes, especially to CNN, FOX and the 
Congressional Committees in Washington who trumpeted or were swayed by his deceit.

A most damning report by James Risen in the New York Times on May 22, 2003 titled "Prewar views of 
Iraq threat are under review by C.I.A." blithely reported that "'Rumsfeld and Tenet regularly have 
lunch,' one senior administration official said. 'And last fall, they were having a conversation, 
and Rumsfeld said: 'If we go to war with Iraq, what are the things we should look at?' They agreed 
that we would have an opportunity to learn a lot about our intelligence, and how it stacks up 
against reality,' he continued."

A more daunting, callous explanation was offered in the same article by "A senior intelligence 
official [who] cautioned that the review was not designed as a formal investigation or a 'witch 
hunt,' but rather as an intellectual exercise to find ways to improve the way the intelligence 
community works." This was, indeed, a criminal exercise.

Bush, Blair and their senior officials have, in essence, lied to their people and waged a war 
criminal invasion in lieu of this unintelligent "intelligence." Is this the democracy model for a 
"liberated" Iraq?

Tragically, the invasion of Iraq has thrust the Iraqi people into a state of free fall. The 
despotic lid of Saddam was uncovered but the hole is deep and unpredictable.

The centers of power in central and southern Iraq, the ministries, banks, courts, hospitals, 
schools, import/export structures, and decision centers are mostly demolished. Daily living 
conditions, on top of a very serious lack of law and order, are the lack of electricity, water, 
medicine, petrol, and salaries. Inflation is galloping at an exponential rate. With no salaries 
being paid to millions of civil servants for over a month now, thousands of families have been 
reduced to destitute levels in masse, fuelling further lawlessness.

The Americans have only proved that they excel in mobilizing armed forces and in dropping missiles 
and bombs, but not how to prevent a society from disintegrating. American intelligence is so flawed 
that it is pathetic. In addition to their delusions about weapons of mass destruction, Bush and his 
neo-conservatives are nothing but war robots and see the world only through U.S. goggles. 
Preventing a society from disintegrating is not in the agenda or the thinking of these 
neo-conservatives. The Americans and the British have, in a sense, raped Iraq and left it bleeding. 
There they stand, with their pants down, licking their lips, just waiting to manipulate the oil 
industry.

A month and a half after the end of hostilities, the invaders have finally submitted a U.N. 
resolution admitting that they are occupiers. They should only expect what occupiers deserve.

[Imad Khadduri has a MSc in Physics from the University of Michigan (United States) and a PhD in 
Nuclear Reactor Technology from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Khadduri worked with 
the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 
with his family. He now teaches and works as a network administrator in Toronto, Canada. He has 
been interviewed by the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, FOX, the Toronto 
Star, Reuters, and various other news agencies in regards to his knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear 
program. This article was originally printed in YellowTimes.org.]

Imad Khadduri encourages your comments: imad.khadduri@rogers.com

YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication. YellowTimes.org encourages its 
material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction identifies 
the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to http://www.YellowTimes.org 
are appreciated.

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