Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program. We know because it was found in an Iraqi nuclear scientist’s backyard in late June, according to the Washington Post. The find, buried about 12 years ago by Mahdi Shukur Ubaydi, consisted of centrifuges and other equipment as well as a sizable cache of documents. Ubaydi headed Iraq¹s nuclear program in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dr Khidir Hamza, Saddam¹s former chief nuclear engineer, has testified before congress regarding the progress of Iraq¹s nuclear program. So, it is now clear that Saddam was simply waiting until the coast was clear to relaunch another effort to develop nuclear weapons. Fortunately, he didn’t get that opportunity. Because of our president’s prompt and fortuitous action, and the sacrifice of our brave service members, Saddam’s plans were thwarted. The buried document cache and mountains of papers taken from Iraqi intelligence and security files are being evaluated and acted upon by David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector who is familiar with Saddam¹s attempts to evade and obfuscate.

Correspondingly, it was reported in the Nashville Tennessean of June 25th that Judge Gilbert Merritt, who was in Iraq to help set up a free judiciary, had seen a document reportedly written by Uday, Saddam’s son. It discussed setting up liaison with elements of the Osama bin Laden (OBL) organization in Pakistan. Dr. Amatzin Baran, Mideast expert, says that Saddam has been Islamicizing himself for the last 10 years, embracing Jihad and extremist causes-even giving cash awards to suicide bombers. So why do some liberals still say Iraq was a secular state that would avoid the terrorists? The London Telegraph also reported an eyewitness account of OBL’s representative visiting Baghdad a few years ago. According to the State Department publication “Global Terrorism,” Iraq has provided bases to several terrorist groups, including the Mujahedin-e-Khaiq (MEK), the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), and the Abu Nidal organization (ANO). The terrorist Abu Abbas was captured in Iraq near Sammarah. The international students from the terror schools at Sammarrah and Salman Pak provided brief but vigorous opposition to our forces. Saddam also allowed the Ansar al Islam terrorists to conduct bioweapons research, and possibly produce the bioweapon ricin, in northern Iraq. Enough ricin to kill thousands was found in one terrorist-occupied London apartment.

One of the training aids at Salman Pak is a commercial aircraft fuselage. It could be used to train anti-hijacking teams, but most like was used for the opposite purpose-to train hijackers. Former CIA director James Woolsey supports this view. Woolsey testified that... “there was training of terrorists, Islamist terrorists, from countries other than Iraq, religious fundamentalists, in how to hijack aircraft.” Woolsey continues, “When I look at that pattern, what it strongly suggests... is...a common purpose here of the Iraqi government training terrorists and those who conducted the September 11th attack.” President Clinton failed to meet with Woolsey in 1993 and 1994, and probably disregarded all of his intelligence reports during the same period (including one that would have told him North Korea had already developed rudimentary nuclear weapons). In addition to the above, there is evidence of Iraqi involvement in the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. When the Terry Nichols civil trial begins, we should learn much more about Iraqi agents in the U.S., and the Clinton administration’s destruction of incriminating FBI interviews, so that Clinton would not be forced to deal with Saddam. Lastly, the JCS chairman, General Myers said during a visit to Iraq on July 30th, that Iraq operations are providing significant information on al Qaeda, rather than draining resources from the task. We have just scratched the surface with regards to Saddam¹s secret weapons and terror support.

Fielder is a retired army officer with 40-years experience in U.S. intelligence. He can be reached at hoostwo@earthlink.net.