Saddam Captured

Another comment that I'd like to add that is war is terrorism, which I have said before. Still, in the past century there has been higher mortality rates due to conflicts involving in the US than any other mass murder or war not involving the US. I believe that a country should defend for itself IF (a big IF) the country is really threatened by another country or opponent. Still this doesn't justify this War in Iraq or this Operation Freedom. I believe that if a country has a real conflict with a neighbouring country, outsiders shouldnt inflitrate themselves in it. Let the people fend for themselves.

About the rapes, listen, I live in Puerto Rico, and from the late 40's till last year the US military has occupied the little island of Vieques in order to train there. Now since the US occupied that island they were forced to live with the citizens there, and unfortunatetly, mostly during the 40's towards 70's, a lot of civilian women and young ladies were raped by US soldiers. That is very sickening, and degrading. So mass rape doesn't happen in tyranical countries only.

Reading back in your post FairyQ I have to agree with Holly here, there is a HUGE difference between Iraq and Kuwait.

Just one point who made me crazy. I hate this Saddam, his capture is a good thing, sure, but when I heard Rumsfeld said "Hussein tried to pass himself for a courageous man, in fact he is just a weak parasite, I wanted to say to him, ok my courageous Donald, go into a 3m2 hole under ground for six months, we'll see if you are still so courageous after that !"

The other point which make me crazy is : US has attacked Irak because Saddam "owned" mass destruction weapons. Now they got Saddam, but after one year, they still don't have find one only weapon in the country, and the capture of Saddam will legitimate their action, although their only goal was the oil, as they knew they were absolutely no weapons !

Just wait a while and we'll soon find the WOMD, its only a matter of time before Saddam starts squealing like the stuffed pig he is. Also had to laugh yesterday, Jacqes Chirac, and Gerhard Schroeder sent telegrams to George Bush congratulating American on the capture, saying " Saddam Hussein caused horrible suffering to the region, and we hope the capture will help the international community's effort to rebuild Iraq" what a bloody cheek, if France and Germany had got their way, Saddam would still be in power causing untold atrocities.

Revelations from an Iraqi scientist
RAY SUAREZ: The task of finding that definitive proof falls in part to specialized teams within the US Military. New York times" correspondent Judith Miller is reporting on the search conducted by units of the 75th exploitation task force. And she joins us now by phone south of Baghdad. Judith Miller, welcome back to the program. Has the unit you've been traveling with found any proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

JUDITH MILLER: Well, I think they found something more than a "smoking gun." What they've found is what is being called here by the members of MET Alpha-- that's Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha-- what they found is a silver bullet in the form of a person, an Iraqi individual, a scientist, as we've called him, who really worked on the programs, who knows them firsthand, and who has led MET Team Alpha people to some pretty startling conclusions that have kind of challenged the American intelligence community's under... previous understanding of, you know, what we thought the Iraqis were doing.

RAY SUAREZ: Does this confirm in a way the insistence coming from the U.S. government that after the war, various Iraqi tongues would loosen, and there might be people who would be willing to help?

JUDITH MILLER: Yes, it clearly does. I mean, it's become pretty clear to those of us on the ground that the international inspectors, without actually controlling the territory and changing the political environment, would never have been able to get these people to step forward. I mean, you can only do that when you know there is not going to be a secret policeman at your door the next day, and that your family isn't going to suffer because you're talking. And that's what the Bush administration has finally done. They have changed the political environment, and they've enabled people like the scientists that MET Alpha has found to come forth.

Now, what initially the weapons hunters thought they were going to find were stockpiles of kind of chemical and biological agents. That's what they anticipated finding. We now know from the scientist that, in fact, that probably isn't what we're going to find. What they will find, and what they have found so far, are kind of precursors; that is, building blocks of what you would need to put together a chemical or a biological weapon.

But those stockpiles that we've heard about, well, those have either been destroyed by Saddam Hussein, according to the scientists, or they have been shipped to Syria for safekeeping. And what I think the interpretation of the MET Alpha people is, is why he did this. They believe that Saddam Hussein wanted to destroy the evidence of his unconventional weapons programs, and that's what he has done-- not only since 1995, but also in the weeks and months that led up to the war itself. There was mass destruction.

And the scientist who has been cooperating with MET Alpha has actually said that he participated in... he kind of watched, you know, a warehouse being burned that contained potentially incriminating biological equipment. So clearly what Saddam Hussein wanted to do was cover his weapons of mass destruction tracks. And that means that the whole shape of the hunt here on the ground for unconventional weapons is changing.

Uncovering the tracks of Iraq's WMD program
RAY SUAREZ: When you develop a site through U.S. intelligence or from a source like the scientist you've been telling us about, how long does it take the unit you're traveling with to give it a good going over, figure out whether there's anything there that needs further inspection?

JUDITH MILLER: Well, let me give you an example. MET Alpha and I spent nearly a week at a place called the Karbala Ammunitions Production and Filling Station. This was a vast facility: Over 50 buildings, five square miles worth of ammunition, mortars, shells, and buried containers that were then ripped open by MET Alpha people.

And what they

"Reassessing [Judith] Miller: U.S. intelligence on Iraq's WMD deserves a second look. So does the reporting of the New York Times' Judith Miller."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2083736/

"Lay all Judith Miller's New York Times stories end to end, from late 2001 to June 2003 and you get a desolate picture of a reporter with an agenda, both manipulating and being manipulated by US government officials, Iraqi exiles and defectors"

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08182003.html

United States forces and Central Intelligence Agency experts have found no proof of banned weapons in Iraq and have determined that that country's nuclear weapons programme was in the
"very most rudimentary state", the US Congress was told on Thursday.

"It clearly does not look like a massive resurgent programme based on what we've discovered now," David Kay, head of the 1,400-person Iraq Survey Group, which is searching for banned weapons in Iraq, told House and Senate intelligence committees.

Before invading Iraq, the Bush administration had said the Saddam Hussein regime had a well-developed nuclear programme.

He said the group had found evidence of "an intent of senior level Iraqi officials, including Saddam, to continue production at some future point in time of weapons of mass destruction".

Kay said the group also found missiles and other equipment not declared to the United Nations weapons inspectors.

"This includes substantial equipment and activity in the chemical and biological area, a much more substantial activity in the missile area; the Iraqis were engaged in a very full-scale programme that would have extended their delivery systems out beyond 1,000 kilometres," he said.

"That is enough to reach Ankara, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh; these were both ballistic missiles and land attack cruise missiles that would fit a Chinese Silkworm (missile)," the former UN weapons inspector said.

He said there was a lot of work to be done "before we can declare we're at the end of this road rather than at the beginning. We have found a great deal, much of which was not declared to the United Nations".

The search by Kay's team is expected to continue for another six to nine months.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/17/iraq.evidence/