October Surprise?
Bush May Be Planting WMDs in Iraq
by Tamara Baker
April 20, 2004 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (apj.us) -- Remember how Bush, in his press conference a week ago today, seemed to hint, smiling smugly as he did so, that WMDs would soon be found in Iraq?
I sure did, and so did a lot of folks, including the commentators on PBS' Washington Week in Review.
This despite the fact that no one, after years of searching -- not UNSCOM or UNMOVIC, not IAEA, not Valerie Plame and her network of operatives in Iraq (question: If Bush's people really wanted to find WMD, why did they burn the one person in the government who had the best chance of finding them?) -- has been able to find anything besides balsa wood and wishful thinking.
Part of me half-wondered if Bush was arranging for "throw-downs" -- the police term for planted and/or otherwise phony evidence -- to be found. And, if so, when would they be found? September? October?
Yes, I know this sounds silly. But then I found I wasn't the only person with such thoughts. Check out this story, from Iran's Mehr News Agency. (and yes, the sources are all unnamed, but since when have unnamed sources stopped most US papers from running with a story nowadays -- especially if it involves attacking Bush's percieved enemies?)
TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) - Over the past few days, in the wake of the bombings in Karbala and the ideological disputes that delayed the signing of Iraq's interim constitution, there have been reports that U.S. forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the southern ports of Iraq. A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions. He added that the cargo was unloaded during the night as attention was still focused on the aftermath of the deadly bombings in Karbala and the signing of Iraq's interim constitution. The source said that in order to avoid suspicion, ordinary cargo ships were used to download the cargo, which consisted of weapons produced in the 1980s and 1990s. He mentioned the fact that the United States had facilitated Iraq's WMD program during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq and said that some of the weapons being downloaded are similar to those weapons, although international inspectors had announced Saddam Hussein's Baath regime had destroyed all its WMD. The source went on to say that the rest of the weapons were probably transferred in vans to an unknown location somewhere in the vicinity of Basra overnight. "Most of these weapons are of Eastern European origin and some parts are from the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. The U.S. obtained them through confiscations during sales of banned arms over the past two decades," he said.
Again, this may well be (and probably is) bogus. But I think it should be discussed and investigated. As Peggy Noonan said, talking about a previous President, "It is irresponsible not to speculate."
And here's another story, this one from last year:
CIA and DoD Attempted To Plant WMDs in Iraq -- and Failed
July 2, 2003
Pentagon Whistleblower Reveals CIA/DoD Fiascos According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt. Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department, the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a CIA plan to "plant" WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by "friendly fire." http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/06/266752.shtml A DoD whistleblower details an attempt by a covert US team to plant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The team was later killed by friendly fire due to CIA incompetence. In a world exclusive, Al Martin Raw.com (http://www.almartinraw.com/)has published a news story about a Department of Defense whistleblower who has revealed that a US covert-operations team had planted "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMDs) in Iraq, then "lost" them when the team was killed by so-called "friendly fire." The Pentagon whistleblower, Nelda Rogers, is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the Defense Department. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, "Ms. Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense." The information that is being leaked out is information "obtained while she was in Germany heading up the debriefing of returning service personnel, involved in intelligence work in Iraq for the Department of Defense and/or the Central Intelligence Agency. "According to Ms. Rogers, there was a covert military operation that took place both preceding and during the hostilities in Iraq," reports Al Martin Raw.com, an online subscriber-based news/analysis service which provides "Political, Economic and Financial Intelligence."
Now, in the quick Google search I just did, I haven't been able to find any evidence of a Nelda Rogers working for DoD, and I'm too lazy to call up the Pentagon's personnel office. I'm guessing that she probably doesn't exist.
But it's interesting that these stories have been swirling around for some time. (And the really paranoid part of me is wondering if the wackier ones are being promoted and discredited in the hopes that the discrediting will 'discredit' the true stories, if any.)
Anyway: As I've said, all of these pieces, by themselves, mean nothing. But taken together, they make me wonder if somebody shouldn't ask why Bush is so sure that WMDs will be found, when they haven't been found to date.
One thing we can be sure about: The more these stories get spread in America, the less likely it will be that BushCo will try this. So, as Madame Noonan might say, speculate away!
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