It was Saddam Husseinâs last weapons deal â and it did not go exactly as he and his generals had imagined. For two years before the American invasion of Iraq, Mr. Husseinâs sons, generals and front companies were engaged in lengthy negotiations with North Korea, according to computer files discovered by international inspectors and the accounts of Bush administration officials.
I was wondering when those files would start to show up.The officials now say they believe that those negotiations â mostly conducted in neighboring Syria, apparently with the knowledge of the Syrian government â were not merely to buy a few North Korean missiles. Instead, the goal was to obtain a full production line to manufacture, under an Iraqi flag, the North Korean missile system, which would be capable of hitting American allies and bases around the region, according to the Bush administration officials. As war with the United States approached, though, the Iraqi files show that Mr. Hussein discovered what American officials say they have known for nearly a decade now: that Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is less than a fully reliable negotiating partner.
Really, could have fooled me
In return for a $10 million down payment, Mr. Hussein appears to have gotten nothing.
Bwahahaha!
The trail that investigators have uncovered, partly from reading computer hard drives found in Baghdad and partly from interviews with captured members of Mr. Husseinâs inner circle, shows that a month before the American invasion, Iraqi officials traveled to Syria to demand that North Korea refund $1.9 million because it had failed to meet deadlines for delivering its first shipment of goods. North Korea deflected the request, telling Mr. Husseinâs representatives, in the words of one investigator, that "things were too hot" to begin delivering missile technology through Syria.
"Just wait until things cool off, weâll get back to you"
The transaction provides an interesting glimpse into the last days of the Hussein government, and what administration officials say were Iraqâs desires for a long-term business deal for missiles and a missile production plant. Bush administration officials have seized on the attempted purchase of the missiles, known as the Rodong, and a missile assembly line to buttress their case that Mr. Hussein was violating United Nations resolutions, which clearly prohibited missiles of the range of the Rodong.
It also establishes that Syria was a major arms-trading bazaar for the Hussein government, in this case hiding an Iraqi effort to obtain missiles, they say. Investigators say Syria had probably offered its ports and territory as the surreptitious transit route for the North Korea-Iraq missile deal, although it remains unclear what demands the government in Damascus might have made in return.
Cash and a few missiles, Iâll wager.
Further, according to United States government officials and international investigators, the Iraqi official who brokered the deal, Munir Awad, is now in Syria, apparently living under government protection.
Middle men are very expendable.
If it served as a middleman in this deal, as the documents suggest, Syria was acting in violation of Security Council resolutions even as it served on the Council and voted with the United States on the most important resolution before the war.
Playing both sides against the middle.
In an interview in Damascus on Sunday with The New York Times, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, was asked about the deal described in the Iraqi computer files and said, "This is the first time I have heard this story."
"Lies, all lies!"
He said Mr. Hussein "was never able to trust Syria, and he never tried and we never tried to make any relation between him and any other country because he did not trust us in the first place." For all its complaints about arms smuggling across the Syrian-Iraq border, Mr. Assad said, the United States had never cited specific cases, adding, "I told the Americans if you have any evidence that there is smuggling of weapons into Iraq, please let us know."
Ok, we have. Now what?
International inspectors note that the missile deal gone bad appears to be the most serious violation that has been found so far. American officials said the failed missile deal was brokered by an Iraqi firm called Al Bashair Trading Company, also spelled Al Bashir in some documents, which has been identified by American investigators as having had past involvement in arms trade for Iraq conducted with Yugoslavia.
The company reported directly to the Iraqi military command, investigators said, and had close ties to one of Mr. Husseinâs sons, Qusay, who was killed in a battle with American troops in July. The negotiations with the North Koreans were conducted by Munir Awad, the senior officer of Al Bashair, American and international investigators said. "Munir Awad is one of three men who personally oversaw the most sensitive transfers of money from Al Bashair to other front companies and governments and worked directly for Qusay Hussein," said one American official. "Awad is believed to be in Syria under the protection of the Syrian government."
If heâs not already dead, he soon will be. He knows too much. |
[Dawn] Four men went on trial in Denmark on Friday accused of plotting a "Mumbai-style" attack on the offices of a Danish newspaper whose publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad ((PTUI!)) in 2005 outraged many Moslems. 
[An Nahar] The head of the Swedish 