WMD's/BNC's abundant in Saddam's Iraq

Much has been written during the past few weeks about the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  The Anchoress wrote a good post last Friday, which included references to this post by Jason Smith at Generation Why?

Via this article, The Anchoress reminds us of a 2004 report delivered to the United Nations Security Council that contained voluminous evidence of missile components, chemical laboratory equipment, and nuclear research equipment being crated up and shipped out of Iraq en masse during the months leading up to the US invasion in March 2003.

If you don't remember the events leading up to this report, perhaps these headlines, obtained in just a few seconds by searching Google, will refresh your memory:

IAEA confirms yellowcake found in Rotterdam likely from Iraq
IAEA says Iraq likely source of material
United Nations Inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

Tie these facts in with Sen. Jay Rockefeller's confession last week that he traveled to Saudi Arabia, Syria (a Baathist ally to Saddam and a US-recognized state sponsor of terror since 1979), and Jordan in 2002 in order to speak to their leaders and convince them that President Bush was really, really going to invade Iraq -- and you have a plausible scenario that explains why no huge stockpiles of nuclear material, nerve gas, or anthrax were found in Iraq after the US invasion.

Saddam was a maniacal and paranoid madman, but he wasn't stupid.  He played the UN and the Western press like a fiddle.  And he knew that if he launched nerve gas rockets at US troops, he would confirm every one of President Bush's reasons for invasion.  If he was captured alive, he would be a war criminal.  And he would incur the wrath of Americans as they watched their boys come back blinded, paralyzed, or otherwise horribly and permanently wounded by Saddam's chemical weapons.

The smartest thing for Saddam to do would be to dismantle the weapons, military hardware, laboratories, and research facilities.  The pieces could be shipped outside of the country or well-hidden in storage bunkers.  Key personnel would be kept on call in the event that Saddam would prevail over the US (or the UN) and the weapons programs could be re-instated at an appropriate time.  The Duelfer Report explicitly stated that Saddam planned on restarting his nuclear research program as soon as he could strong-arm the UN into dropping its 1991 sanctions.

Despite the lies peddled by the Left about the US "rushing" into war, Saddam had 18 months between 9/11 and the US invasion to dismantle, hide, or relocate his chemical, biological, and nuclear materials.  And thanks to Jay Rockefeller's treasonous meeting with Syria's Bashar Assad in January 2002, Saddam probably had reason to start dismantling his illegal weapons program very early.

Add into the mix the fact that US spy satellites documented Russian-made heavy trucks convoying materials between Iraq's Al-Qaqaa arms dump and the Syrian border, and the whereabouts of Saddam's WMD materials is pretty clear -- Saddam dismantled his nuclear research facilities and chemical and biological weapons and smuggled most of the raw materials, chemical reagents, delivery systems, manufacturing and research equipment, and storage containers out of the country.  The rest is still well-hidden in bunkers that have either yet to be discovered, or have been discovered but made top secret and off-limits to press and unauthorized personnel.

Actually some of this banned ordnance has been discovered already.  Remember this story? 
Polish Troops Find Sarin Warheads In Iraq (Fox) (USA Today) (NewsMax)

Or this one?  Jordan Says Major Al Qaeda Plot Disrupted  The plot, of you don't recall, involved the use of "tons of chemicals" to create a "toxic cloud" and kill tens of thousands.  Just where did the terrorists get this stuff?  Was K-Mart having a blue-light special on VX?

Apparently it is too difficult for mainstream news organizations to do these simple Google searches and produce evidence to rebut the Democrat's "Bush Lied Us Into War" charges.  Instead, they seem to be more interested in refusing to use unpleasant terms like "chemical weapons" and "nuclear material," which undeniably (and illegally) existed in Saddam's Iraq, and instead they accuse the US of failing to find "weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION."  The goalposts have now been moved so far down field that only the discovery of a 100,000 square foot warehouse of sarin shells, or an assembled nuclear bomb, will satisfy the press.

I am neither a conspiracy nut nor a rabid war hawk.  But I can spot a lie when I hear one, especially a lie that is so easily disproved by just a few minutes at a free Internet search engine.  And I can look at a map, read news stories, and put two and two together.  Pretending that Saddam's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs never existed is not going to help us recover the materials that were lost or shipped out of the country.  I don't believe we should invade Syria over these materials, but we had better be darn sure that we keep Syria, Iran, and the radical elements in Saudi Arabia and Jordan under close watch.  They are our foes, remember?  Not President Bush.

UPDATE:

An essential read: USNews.com - Michael Barone - "The (Very) Big Lie"

GOP Video (you might have to select "Latest Video" in the video player at the top of the screen):
"Democrats - Dishonest On Iraq"

And be sure to check out Greyhawk's exhaustive 1990's history of the conflict in Iraq at the Mudville Gazette.  Note how many time the US, the UN, and other foreign powers list "weapons of mass destruction" as a continuing threat from Saddam Hussein.  How liberals can pretend that none of this ever happened, when Google is so easy to use, is just beyond me.  Thank God we live in a free society that allows unfettered public access to Google and other information searches.

MORE ADDED 11/28/05

JayTea at WizBang seems to think that eliminating the Baathist Assad regime in Syria is the Bush Administration's next step in stamping out Middle Eastern terrorism.  With the questionable nature of US intelligence from the region, invasion probably won't be their method of choice.  But I agree that we can be pretty sure the Bush administration won't shed any tears when the Baathists are gone.

What do Jay Rockefeller and David Duke have in common?  They both travelled to Syria.  David Duke's latest "anti-Zionist" junkett is chronicled at Gateway Pundit.

Comments

[apb]

This is a good compilation of the knowns regarding ol' Sad's WMD programs. The level of denial on the part of the media and Congress is beyond belief - and WHY aren't there inquiries into the behavior of the treasonous Jay Rockefeller?