The Saddam Tapes

[Aught Six]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_tapes

That's right, eat up....

[mr-pirk]

Aught 6, it will be intresting to watch this play out and see what spin might be offered one way or the other.

Thanks
Mr-Pirk

[johnnyBgood]

Yes it's time to catapult the propoganda. Bush poll numbes back to 39. Cheney acting like a pissed psyco with a loaded weapon , not to mention being fingered by libby as the source of the plame leak , illegal spying, The optics are realdirty. What a crock of !@#T .Sticks and stones wil hurt my bones and so will actual wmds but words will never harm me, So lets see those WMDs. Till then, nothing changes and lets not forget, Because there were no WMDs, Bush Wanted ToPAINT APLANE in UN colors and fly it over iraq to FORCE A WAR...Show us the money andshow us the wmds..

[AlaskaMagnum]

This is not new. The inspectors have said along that while no weapons existed, plans, facilities, etc. still existed for potential future re-use.

[johnnyBgood]

NewsTrack
Saddam tapes show no Iraqi terror

BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Secret tapes obtained by ABC News show Saddam Hussein predicting in the 1990s that the United States would be the target of a major terror attack.

But the tapes also have Saddam saying Iraq would not participate in terrorism.

ABC News said the tapes were made in Baghdad's equivalent of the Oval Office, and recorded Saddam talking with aides.

The tapes were provided by Bill Tierney, a former member of a U.N. inspection team who was translating them for the FBI, ABC said. Tierney contended the U.S. government was wrong to keep them from the public.

On one tape, Saddam says, "Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans a long time before Aug. 2nd and told the British as well ... that in the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction."

Saddam says such attacks would be difficult to stop, ABC reported. "In the future, what would prevent a booby trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington or a germ or a chemical one?"

But he adds that Iraq would not engage in terror: "This is coming, this story is coming but not from Iraq."

The tapes also reveal Iraq's persistent efforts to hide information about weapons of mass destruction programs from U.N. inspectors well into the 1990s, ABC said.

So,well not into the 2000,2001,2002 or 2003????
So my right wing friendzzzzzz... Seams as the only smoking gun you have is that of the one cheney used to blow his friends face off while being tanked up on hops and barley along with legal candy from the drug store.

[Alsatian]

It is too early to make anything of the "Saddam tapes" I feel. There may be very interesting information in these tapes, I don't dispute that, just I think they need to be digested. I also think there are a lot of untranslated Iraqi records and documents that need to be translated and digested.

While I admit this is speculative and of the nature of fantasy at this point rather than conditioned on reality, I think it is interesting to contemplate the possiblities that (1) the WMDs may in fact be discovered (moved to Syria or ultimately the 'treasure map' pointing to the hidden WMDs be discovered) and (2) a link between Iraq and Al Quedda may in fact be established. The Democrats and liberals have so painted themselves into a corner on this that if changed facts emerged . . . the Democrats and liberals would be horribly discredited and marginalized. In a new reality of changed facts, Democrats and media would be wide open to charges of providing aid and comfort to our enemies; of willful distortion of information to try to falsely discredit their political opponents, at the expense of the general welfare of all Americans. They have painted themselves into a corner -- God help them if they have to backtrack out of that corner. I think it would be the end of their party, in all honesty.

But alas, back to the bright, cold light of reality!!! At present, the facts have not taken this turn and there is no basis for hoping for that reversal of fortune.

[etothepii]

ORIGINAL: johnnyBgood


But he adds that Iraq would not engage in terror: "This is coming, this story is coming but not from Iraq."

From the tapes:

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told Saddam on the tape that "the biological (attack) is very easy to make. It's so simple that any biologist can make a bottle of germs and drop it into a water tower and kill 100,000."
"This is not done by a state. No need to accuse a state. An individual can do it," he said.

Saddam didn'twant Iraq to be accused of committing terrorism -- not thatIraq wasn't going to be behind it.

[ranwin33]

So we're now using tapes recorded in the mid-9o's to justify a war begun nearly 10 years later. That's just toooo much of a stretch.

Maybe you missed this part.

Charles Duelfer, who led the official U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction, told ABC News the tapes show extensive deception but don't prove that weapons were still hidden in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led war in 2003.

[Aught Six]

First of all, there are 35 boxes of tapes from this batch left to be translated. More information is yet to come.

Second of all, these news articles don't go into the depth of content found on the tapes. For instance, some of the tapes were recorded as late as2002, and refer to Saddam's nuclear program.

You're going to have to wait until tomorrow morning when the full content is released to the public. You guys are regurgitating the same anti-war talking points the Democrats have thrown around since 2003.

Believe what you want though--I know facts won't deter you.

[DougMD]

Great post, Alsatian. I agree 100%.