Sleeper Bomb - Where are

Sleeper Bomb - Where are the WMDs?

They're there. In spirit.

No, I'm serious, and it makes perfect sense.

There are two great stories today - from Stanley Kurtz and the LATimes Bob Drogin - claiming that Iraq's WMD program essentially went dormant while the heat was on:

Saddam Hussein's intelligence services set up a network of clandestine cells and small laboratories after 1996 with the goal of someday rebuilding illicit chemical and biological weapons, according to a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer.

The officer, who held the rank of brigadier general, said each closely guarded weapons team had three or four scientists and other experts who were unknown to U.N. inspectors. He said they worked on computers and conducted crude experiments in bunkers and back rooms in safe houses around Baghdad.

He insisted they did not produce any illegal arms and that none now exist in Iraq. But he said the teams met regularly and put plans on paper to quickly develop weapons of mass destruction if U.N. sanctions against Iraq were lifted.

This makes sense on two levels:

• The hardest part about building WMDs isn't the actual, technical work on the hardware; it's knowing how to do the job. According to both stories, the Iraqis knew the how, and had the material stockpiled to build what they needed the moment the sanctions and inspections were lifted.
• The Iraqis were taught the art of strategic deception by the Soviets, who were the masters of the art. And the easiest way to hide something is if it can't be seen at all - if it's all just information on computers and relatively innocent raw materials.

The left's current snit about the lack of WMDs is going to fall flat.

Because of this, I think you can watch for the biggest accusations of all, coming soon to a major media outlet near you.

Posted by Mitch at June 9, 2003 08:09 AM