First, the credentia…

First, the credentials:

Lieutenant-Colonel al-Dabbagh is not a man who is easily frightened. Having spied on Saddam’s regime for British and American intelligence for more than seven years, the 40-year-old former Iraqi air defence commander lived with the constant fear that he might be caught, tortured and executed.

And now the claim:

When I asked him whether the information in the document relating to the 45-minute issue was 100 per cent accurate, he responded with characteristic Iraqi enthusiasm: “It is 200 per cent accurate!” he exclaimed. “And forget 45 minutes. We could have fired them within half an hour.”

When I asked him whether he was the original source of the intelligence, he replied simply: “I am the one responsible for providing this information.”

The confirmations keep coming in that Saddam did, in fact, have WMDs he intended to use. But why weren’t they used?

He believes that the only reason these weapons were not used during Operation Iraqi Freedom last spring is that the bulk of the Iraqi army refused to fight for Saddam.

“The West should thank God that the Iraqi army decided not to fight,” he said. “If the army had fought for Saddam, and used these weapons, there would have been terrible consequences.”

And where are they now?

Lt Col al-Dabbagh has no idea what became of the weapons because shortly before hostilities commenced he was recalled to Iraq’s air defence headquarters in Baghdad, although he believes that most of them were taken away by Saddam’s Fedayeen and hidden away.

He did, however, see a group of Fedayeen attempt to use one of the warheads against an American position on the outskirts of Baghdad on April 6. “They were going to use this weapon, but then they realised that they would kill lots of Iraqis who did not have masks, so they put them in their cars and drove off.”

Convinced that the weapons are still hidden in Iraq, Lt Col al-Dabbagh doesn’t believe any of them will be found until Saddam is caught or killed. “All the people who worked on these weapons have either escaped or disappeared. Only when Saddam is captured will these people talk openly about these weapons. Then they will reveal where they are.”

These and other very interesting revelations can be found on the London Telegraph site. Reader beware, lest your preconceived notions and media bias be challenged.

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