AN Iraqi politician says President Saddam Hussein will soon use weapons of mass destruction.

Opposition Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi warned: "Saddam has advanced chemical weapons, he has advanced biological weapons, and he has produced and engineered biological weapons which contain a combination of viruses such as smallpox and ebola.

"Those are very, very dangerous weapons and I think, in his hands, he is bound to use them in terrorist action very soon."

He told Fox television the Iraqi president is "working very hard ... to position people and to move with biological and chemical terrorism across the important centers of the world".

"I think Saddam now is still uncertain the United States is going to move against him and he has strategies to deal with this.

"He has of course invited the weapons inspectors ... back to Iraq, but of course all of this is a delaying tactic."

Pressed on the source of his information, Chalabi said: "We have people who have worked in the (alleged Iraqi) program who have come out recently and have contacted us, and now they are in the United States and they are talking to the US government and they have demonstrated with unquestioned authority that Saddam does have biological weapons.

"They have described sites, ... described in detail the kind of material that is being introduced and also weaponising processes."

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix ruled out a visit to Baghdad for talks on renewed arms inspections, as the war of words stepped up between Iraq and the administration of US President George W. Bush.

"Psychologically, I think it would be better that an official of my political standing does not go to Baghdad before they (the Iraqis) accept inspections," Blix told the Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper.

Holding talks in Baghdad with Iraqi authorities at this stage "will raise expectations without foundation," said the Swede who heads the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which has never set foot in Iraq.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan late on Thursday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri extended an invitation to Blix and members of his team to discuss the possible resumption of weapons inspections, halted in December 1998.

But Blix said the chances of a possible war against Baghdad would go up if he were to visit but talks were unsuccessful. "The situation will be much worse if I visit Baghdad and the talks fail. We do not want hopes raised."

State-run Baghdad media has slammed the United States for rejecting Iraq's invitation to the chief UN weapons inspector.

SADDAM HUSSEIN is suspected of planning to arm a Palestinian terrorist group with biological weapons to attack either American or Israeli targets.
A Whitehall dossier containing a detailed assessment of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme, which has been circulated to the Prime Minister and other senior Cabinet ministers, is understood to focus on Iraq’s biological weapons capability.

Details of the dossier came to light as the United Nations rejected a new offer from the Iraqi leader. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, said that an Iraqi letter calling for a further round of technical talks with Hans Blix, the head weapons inspector, set conditions “at variance” with the demands of the United Nations Security Council.

Using mobile laboratories for their research, the team of scientists working for Saddam are believed to be developing a range of biological agents that can be “delivered” by an aerosol system.

The latest assessment in Washington and London is that Saddam’s plan is to produce a basic weapon that can be used by a terrorist group to attack the Iraqi leader’s enemies, the United States and Israel. In the same way that Iran has funded and trained terrorist groups to carry out attacks from Lebanon against Israel, Saddam, according to the assessment, could be banking on recruiting a Palestinian terrorist group to act on his behalf.

Analysis of US satellite imagery over the past four years has provided sufficient evidence to show what Saddam has been doing since the expulsion of the United Nations weapons inspectors in December 1998. While the Iraqi leader has pursued all elements of his weapons of mass destruction programme, he has made greatest progress in trying to “weaponise” his biological systems, using the mobile research laboratories to try to deceive America’s spy satellites.

The Iraqi leader knows from experience that it is far more difficult to hide work on nuclear weapons because of the substantial infrastructure required. Saddam’s attempts to develop long-range ballistic missiles, capable of reaching America, have also been carefully monitored from space and there is no sign that he has succeeded beyond trying to modify old Russian Scud missiles.

In assessing the threat posed by Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction programme, the emphasis has, therefore, been on his biological warfare projects, which pose as great a threat as nuclear devices and can be developed relatively easily away from the sensors of America’s spy satellites.

The Palestinian connection is now at the heart of intelligence thinking. Despite the belief in some quarters in America that a senior officer in Saddam’s intelligence service met an al-Qaeda terrorist in Prague last year, before September 11, this is given no credence by the CIA, the FBI or by British Intelligence.

Saddam has funded Palestinian extremist groups for many years, and the assessment now is that, with the Middle East in turmoil, the Iraqi leader may see that the best way of taking revenge against the US and Israel is by using a Palestinian organisation as his proxy terrorists.

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this country doesn't have the resolve or the testicles to use nukes. We would much rather throw soldiers into harms way than look bad to the UN.

I am all for it. In fact i don't understand why we haven't done it long before now. That whole area is populated by regimes that don't deserve to be labled Human biengs.

mike

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i don't think isreal does either. They already have "IMAGE" problems.

Nukes are a weapon of the past that will only be used by terrorist if they can get them.

JERUSALEM — Israel's military has projected that Iraq could launch nonconventional missiles strikes should President Saddam Hussein feel his regime is endangered by the United States.

The threat of an Iraqi attack has led to a revision of Israeli combat doctrine, the sources said. They said Israel has upgraded its early-warning alert of any Iraqi attack despite U.S. pledges to supply such a warning.

In all, the sources said, Israel cannot expect advance warning of more than eight hours of any U.S. attack on Iraq, Middle East Newsline reported. They said this will demand increase satellite reconnaissance and intelligence operations to determine Iraqi military movements.

Military sources said the Israeli intelligence estimate is that Iraq could use medium-range missiles with biological or chemical warheads against Israel amid any U.S.-led war against Baghdad. The sources said the intelligence estimate has concluded that Iraq has several dozen extended-range Scud B missiles capable of reaching the Jewish state.

The prospect of an Iraqi WMD strike against Israel is not certain, the sources said. They said the prospect depends on whether he feels any chance of surviving a U.S. attack and Iraqi capability.

"Iraq has apparently production capability of biological weapons and chemical," Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said. "We can't allow these weapons to be left in the hands of one man."

In that case, the sources said, Saddam could try to fire missiles or place weapons with biological weapons meant to destroy wide areas of Israel.

This could include the use of anthrax, VX or lethal strains of virus. Already, the sources said, Israeli authorities have been stockpiling vaccinations against smallpox.

The Israeli estimate asserts that Iraq could use Palestinian insurgents to launch a nonconventional weapons attack on Israeli facilities.

Military intelligence believes that Iraq has been training Palestinians to assemble such weapons and designate targets in Israel should the United States strike the Saddam regime.

[In London, the Times daily reported that the British government has assessed that Saddam plans to provide biological weapons for attacks against American or Israeli targets. The newspaper said Saddam is trying to develop a range of biological agents that can be launched via an aerosol system.]

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Ain't nobody gonna be worrying about no stinking image problem when the bugs get loose!

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Couple of things, first, check out who is saying Saddam is going to use these weapons, his main rival.

If I thought I could get some superpowers to remove teh person in the way of my power, I would say or do anything I needed to to get them to act,

secondly, as to the US using nukes on a country that instigated a war with WMD's, what do we call jetliners plowing into skyscrapers?  3000 dead seems to be pretty massive to me, yet we did squat.

Nope, we wil lnot use the nuclear card, it is simply window dressing.