The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

First read through of material in the Bill Tierney slide show translation for the Saddam Hussein secret tapes at intelligencesummit.org yields dynamic and confounding material.

Saddam and his aides discuss the Iraq nuclear weapon program; they discuss "plasma" (which is part of hydrogen bomb science); they discuss "fission" bombs. These discussions appear to be after the year 2000. The translations are choppy, require much explanation and correlation, which Tierney does with bullet points and cross referencing with inspector material (he was an inspector before the 2003 invasion.)

Saddam and his aides also discuss asking the Russian, Brazilians and French for help with biologicals. They also discuss hidden missiles, hidden warheads. They discuss at length how to deceive the UN inspectors.

Much work to be done. Much to understand.

Remember, these are tapes that Saddam ordered made: they have been in the Coalition hands since April 2003. There may be thousands more hours of tapes.

See the intelligencesummit.org website now for the slide shows, the downloads of the Arabic.

topics:
Iraq, Russia