Saddam minister granted imunity

[Donut]

Give me immunity from the heinious crimes that I have been party to and I will show you where the WoMD which you have accepted don't exist are er... aren't. Were er.... weren't!

Here
Saddam minister granted immunity

Former Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed has been granted immunity from prosecution following his surrender to US forces.
Mr Ahmed - number 27 on the Americans' list of most wanted former Iraqi officials - gave himself up in the northern city of Mosul last Friday.

White House officials say they have high hopes he will provide significant information on Iraq's alleged weapons programmes.

The news came as US officials indicated that an interim report by the Iraqi Survey Group - charged with locating weapons of mass destruction in the country - would contain no evidence of illegal weapons.

But neither would it close the door on the possibility that such weapons might still be found, they said.

Pentagon officials said the survey group - headed by David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector and now a special adviser to the CIA - had found what they regarded as evidence of Iraqi preparations to produce chemical and biological weapons.
They say there will be enough suspicious evidence uncovered to convince reasonable people that something was afoot.

At present, President George W Bush has more pressing concerns, specifically the cost of the operation in Iraq - a source of ongoing controversy - and the difficulties in getting UN support.

But the BBC's Justin Webb says the issue of weapons of mass destruction may well come back to haunt him.

On Wednesday, a Bush administration source who spoke to the BBC said the interim report - which is likely to be published next month - concludes it is highly unlikely that weapons of mass destruction were shipped out of the country to places like Syria before the US-led war on Iraq.

The Bush administration source told the presenter of BBC television's Daily Politics show, Andrew Neil, that Saddam Hussein had mounted a huge programme to deceive and hinder the work of UN weapons inspectors.

Mr Neil said that, according to the source, the report will say that the inspectors have not even unearthed "minute amounts of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons material".

Neither have they uncovered any laboratories involved in deploying weapons of mass destruction, not any delivery systems for the weapons.

But, Mr Neil added, the report would publish computer programmes, files, pictures and paperwork which it says shows that Saddam Hussein's regime was attempting to develop a weapons of mass destruction programme.

Mr Neil, a former editor of the British Sunday Times newspaper, stressed he had not seen the draft report, and was reporting what a single source had said its findings were likely to be.

Both the UK Government and the US administration have dismissed the claims as speculation.


Story from BBC NEWS:

[Skunk]

I wasn't very happy with this - this guy was responsible for the helicopters which dropped mustard gas on the Shia's during the uprising. He bargained with the US to allow them access to those areas by telling them that they would be used only as 'air-ambulances'.

A nasty piece of work.

I know that the deal was cut because he can apparently shed new light on the WMD program - but I think that I'd rather have the US WMD investigaters roaming the country for another ten years then let this rat off the hook.

The Shi'ite population deserves justice and he should answer the charges in court.

[skywalker]

I like the way the Bush Administration has lowered the bar and is accepting evidence of "Weapons Programs" rather than the actual "WoMD" as one of BIG reasons for toppling the Saddam Regime. Before you know it vast amounts of "Fertilizer" will be considered evidence of components of WoMD (conviently hidden on farms across Iraq). [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Mark

[Stratos]

Why don't they just interrogate him? A couple of days of sleep deprivation would make him talk.

[Chewbacca]

Originally posted by skywalker: I like the way the Bush Administration has lowered the bar and is accepting evidence of "Weapons Programs" rather than the actual "WoMD" as one of BIG reasons for toppling the Saddam Regime. Before you know it vast amounts of "Fertilizer" will be considered evidence of components of WoMD (conviently hidden on farms across Iraq). [img]tongue.gif[/img] Mark

Pffft. Nowadays the line I've been hearing is it doesnt matter, the wars over so why should we dwell on the reasons we started it. That's basically what Rummy said yesterday at the Senate hearings on the 78 billion dollars and that was repeated by Senator Shelby this morning when pressed on CNN.

They think they can get away with, if not deception, then negligence, and rub it our face like it's a non-issue.

[Azred]

This is the same kind of situation as when prosecutors will grant immunity to someone who turns State's Evidence. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] Whose back did he scratch?