Congress Member McDermott: Saddam Capture staged "for political ends"

posted by ewing2001 on Tuesday December 16, @06:32PM

Update: How did the US confirm Saddam's identity so quickly? (Guardian 12/18)
Update: Former Secretary of State Albright: Bin Laden October Surprise orchestrated by Bush was "a possibility." (12/17)
Update: Austria's Haider: Saddam Capture was "slapstick" and a "real scam" (12/17)
Update: More Iraq-lies revealed -75 Senators were told Iraqi weapons could hit U.S (12/16)

Saddam capture staged, McDermott charges

Washington Times - Wed Dec 17, 2003

Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, the Democratic congressman who went to Baghdad last year to say that President Bush would lie to the American people in order to justify war, has now accused the president of timing Saddam Hussein's capture for political ends.

He told a Seattle radio interviewer Monday that American forces could have captured Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted."

Asked by interviewer Dave Ross on KIRO-FM whether the capture was timed to help the president, he replied: "Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."

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Pressed by Mr. Ross about whether he meant that the timing of the capture was driven by politics, Mr. McDermott said: "I don't know that it was definitely planned on this weekend, but I know they've been in contact with people all along who knew basically where he was. It was just a matter of time till they'd find him.

"It's funny, when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."

Florida Today -Dec 15

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities. Nelson, D-Tallahassee, said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October's congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Nelson said he couldn't reveal who in the administration gave the briefing.

The White House directed questions about the matter to the Department of Defense. Defense officials had no comment on Nelson's claim.

Nelson said the senators were told Iraq had both biological and chemical weapons, notably anthrax, and it could deliver them to cities along the Eastern seaboard via unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones.

"They have not found anything that resembles an UAV that has that capability," Nelson said.

Nelson delivered the news during a half-hour conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. The senator, who is on a seven-nation trade mission to South America, was calling from an airport in Santiago, Chile.

"That's news," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C.-area military and intelligence think tank. "I had not heard that that was the assessment of the intelligence community. I had not heard that the Congress had been briefed on this."

Madeleine Albright: Bush Planning Bin Laden October Surprise

Newsmax -Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2003 1:22 a.m. EST

It was bad enough on Monday when Washington state Congressman "Baghdad" Jim McDermott suggested that President Bush could have captured Saddam Hussein long ago, but moved only when the news would have had maximum political effect.

But now, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is telling reporters that the Bush administration may already have captured Osama bin Laden and will release the news just before next year's presidential election.

On Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Brit Hume," Roll Call reporter Morton Kondracke recounted Albright's comments to him during an encounter before Tuesday night's broadcast, while she was waiting in the green room to appear on another show.

Kondracke said the former Clinton official approached him and asked, "Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?"

Kondracke said that Albright didn't seem to be joking, explaining, "She was not smiling."

He shot back, "You can't seriously believe that."

Albright replied that she thought a bin Laden October Surprise orchestrated by Bush was "a possibility."

Is he the real Saddam?

Middle East Online -December 17

Austria's Haider says US may have arrested Saddam double, DNA tests do not prove conclusively they captured him.

VIENNA - US troops may have arrested a double of Saddam Hussein and DNA testing does not prove conclusively that they have captured the Iraqi dictator, Austrian far-right firebrand Joerg Haider said late Tuesday.

Calling the capture "slapstick" and a "real scam", Haider told national ORF television: "This may be one of his many doubles."

"The saliva tests they did mean nothing if they did not have earlier specimens to which they could compare it," the controversial former leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party added.

Haider visited Saddam in Baghdad in February 2002 and caused a stir on eve of the Iraq war when he said he was prepared to offer the Iraqi leader shelter.

On Tuesday he said he felt that morally there was little difference between Saddam and US President George W. Bush.

"I would be hard-pressed to choose between the two. Both have acted at odds with international law, committed human rights abuses. The one has the good luck to lead a superpower ... while the other was just a poor dictator.

Haider spricht von "Schmierenkomödie der Amerikaner"

DER SPIEGEL -December 17

Die Festnahme des gestürzten irakischen Diktators Saddam Hussein ist beim österreichischen Rechtspolitiker Jörg Haider auf Empörung gestoßen. Er bezeichnete die US-Aktion als "ziemliches Betrugsmanöver". Er zweifelte zudem die Echtheit Saddams an und verglich den irakischen Diktator mit US-Präsident Bush.

Wien - Der Landeshauptmann von Kärnten nannte die Gefangennahme Saddams eine "Schmierenkomödie der Amerikaner" und ein "ziemliches Betrugsmanöver". In einem Fernsehinterview bezweifelte der sich mitten im Wahlkampf für die im März stattfindende Landtagswahl befindliche frühere FPÖ-Vorsitzende, dass die US-Truppen den echten Saddam gefasst haben: "Es kann sich genauso um einen seiner vielen Doppelgänger handeln."

Damit hat Haider Erfahrung. Bei einem Besuch im Februar 2002 in Bagdad wurde Haider, der bei zwei Besuchen beim damals bereits international isolierten irakischen Staatschef "die Grüße des österreichischen Volkes" überbringen wollte, dem österreichischen Magazin "Format" zufolge von einem Doppelgänger Saddams empfangen. Laut "Format" ließ eine eingehende Analyse der Fotos des Treffens in Bagdad den Schluss zu, Haider habe einem von Saddam Husseins Doppelgängern die Hand geschüttelt.

How did the US confirm Saddam's identity so quickly?

Guardian -Thursday December 18, 2003

Although DNA profiling usually takes anything from a couple of days to several weeks, if the pressure is really on the analysis can be whizzed through in a matter of hours. It could certainly be done within the 15 hours or so the Americans had between finding Saddam in his hole and telling the world that they had "got him".

"That's pretty fast but not inconceivable," says Alec Jeffreys, the geneticist at the University of Leicester who invented the DNA fingerprinting technique. "In very, very rough terms you could probably do it in five to six hours from start to end."

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