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US frees Saddam weapons experts

scottyz

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) -
Saddam Hussein's weapons experts known as "Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax" are being released by U.S. forces, an Iraqi lawyer said on Monday, and the U.S. military confirmed several "high-value detainees" were being freed.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said eight leading detainees had been freed on Saturday.

He said they were among 27 prisoners, considered senior members of the administration overthrown by U.S. forces in 2003, who now posed no threat to security, were neither charged with crimes nor material witnesses and had no intelligence value.

Johnson declined to identify any of the detainees or comment on the fate of those still held prisoner.

Lawyers said Tareq Aziz, Saddam's right-hand man in diplomacy, was among other detainees being considered for release.

Baghdad lawyer Badia Aref said 26 people, including five who were ill, were now in the process of being released. He said among them were Huda Ammash, nicknamed "Mrs Anthrax" by the popular press in the West, and Rihab Taha, dubbed "Dr Germ."

Taha was not on the U.S. most-wanted list but was described by American officials as a former director of the Iraqi bacterial and biological warfare programme.

She has admitted producing germ warfare agents but said all such weapons were destroyed long before the U.S. invasion.

Taha has a doctorate in plant toxins from the University of East Anglia in Britain, and is married to Amir Muhammed Rasheed, a former Iraqi oil minister also in U.S. detention.

The releases come days after U.S.
President George W. Bush said his decision to invade
Iraq followed bad intelligence about Saddam's weapons programme -- but he still had no regrets.

They also come as Iraq's Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government is trying to reach out to Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs following a successful election on Thursday that saw most Sunnis take part for the first time and Sunni rebels hold their fire.

"They want to reduce the political tension and Jaafari wants to pull the rug from under his opponents' feet," Aref said of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.

Saddam and seven others are on trial for crimes against humanity; hearings resume on Wednesday. Dozens of other leading supporters remain in jail.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051219/wl_nm/iraq_release_dc_2;_ylt=AuYd2mgljXbacX5z9EVsBhUUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

It seems sort of odd to release Saddams weapons experts while the insurgency is still alive and well in Iraq and likely composed of many Saddam loyalists. What's to stop Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax from joining up with the insurgency?
 
scottyz said:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051219/wl_nm/iraq_release_dc_2;_ylt=AuYd2mgljXbacX5z9EVsBhUUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

It seems sort of odd to release Saddams weapons experts while the insurgency is still alive and well in Iraq and likely composed of many Saddam loyalists. What's to stop Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax from joining up with the insurgency?


There's nothing to stop them. Just like there is nothing to stop many of the others that have been released that we knew were agents of terror. Isn't this what the global left been wanting? Accuse them of a crime or release them?

They can't have it both ways and those that are trying to were only using it to bash.
 
I am sure they are being watched, let's hope they join up.;)
 
Iriemon said:
What is to prevent any Iraq from joining up with the insurgency?
Nothing. The average Iraqi probably doesn't have the expertise to create germ warfare agents.
 
GySgt said:
There's nothing to stop them. Just like there is nothing to stop many of the others that have been released that we knew were agents of terror. Isn't this what the global left been wanting? Accuse them of a crime or release them?

They can't have it both ways and those that are trying to were only using it to bash.

Is that what you think? You just don't get it. Nobody wants criminals or terrorists released. What the global left wants the government to prove the wrongdoing for which it accuses these folks, and if convicted by a neutral body of jurors, then throw them in jail forever.

If guys like Hamdi and these guys really are guilty of terrorist activity, it is unconscionable that the Govt freed them. My guess is the Govt had no evidence to support its accusations.

Due process, contrary to the conservatives' apparent beliefs, has nothing to do with letting guilty people go free. It has everything to do with making sure that those who are acused are actually guilty of a crime.

It's a concept called "innocent until proven guilty." Here's Bush talking about it recently in conjunction with Delay:

"The point I was making was 'innocent until otherwise proven,' " Bush said in an interview aired last night on PBS's "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." "It's a belief in the system, and that's not always the way people are treated here in Washington, as you know."

We on the global left believe that "belief system" applies to all, not just Republican politicians in Washington.
 
The problem is that tactically, it is perfectly sound to imprison those extremists that we know to be guilty and we know to be a threat. It is tactically sound to exterminate them for the vermin that they are. However, the global left and the media demands "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" for all people and demand things that cannot be provided.

Is their any wonder we have "secret" prisons in Europe away from the bleeding hearts that are more inclined to free a terrorist than keep him locked up for the sake of "doing the right thing?"
 
GySgt said:
The problem is that tactically, it is perfectly sound to imprison those extremists that we know to be guilty and we know to be a threat. It is tactically sound to exterminate them for the vermin that they are. However, the global left and the media demands "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" for all people and demand things that cannot be provided.

Is their any wonder we have "secret" prisons in Europe away from the bleeding hearts that are more inclined to free a terrorist than keep him locked up for the sake of "doing the right thing?"

Typical of the damn Libs, demanding truth and justice.
 
Iriemon said:
Is that what you think? You just don't get it. Nobody wants criminals or terrorists released. What the global left wants the government to prove the wrongdoing for which it accuses these folks, and if convicted by a neutral body of jurors, then throw them in jail forever.

If guys like Hamdi and these guys really are guilty of terrorist activity, it is unconscionable that the Govt freed them. My guess is the Govt had no evidence to support its accusations.

Due process, contrary to the conservatives' apparent beliefs, has nothing to do with letting guilty people go free. It has everything to do with making sure that those who are acused are actually guilty of a crime.

It's a concept called "innocent until proven guilty." Here's Bush talking about it recently in conjunction with Delay:

"The point I was making was 'innocent until otherwise proven,' " Bush said in an interview aired last night on PBS's "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." "It's a belief in the system, and that's not always the way people are treated here in Washington, as you know."

We on the global left believe that "belief system" applies to all, not just Republican politicians in Washington.


No...you don't get it.

50 terrorists just graduated from a camp in Bosnia. What do you do? I can tell you what your government does.
 
GySgt said:
No...you don't get it.

50 terrorists just graduated from a camp in Bosnia. What do you do? I can tell you what your government does.

You mean applying the rational of this Administration? That's easy. Invade Albania.
 
Iriemon said:
Typical of the damn Libs, demanding truth and justice.


What you demand is not practical when dealing with an extremists that is bent on destruction and causing harm.
 
Iriemon said:
You mean applying the rational of this Administration. That's easy. Invade Albania.

Don't side step the question. Let's here it. What do you do with the knowledge that 50 extremists just left a training camp in Bosnia? Here's your chance to show us that you're not just hot wind and vinegar.
 
GySgt said:
Don't side step the question. Let's here it. What do you do with the knowledge that 50 extremists just left a training camp in Bosnia? Here's your chance to show us that you're not just hot wind and vinegar.

How do you know they are terrorists? Just because you call them that?
 
Iriemon said:
How do you know they are terrorists? Just because you call them that?

They don't go to the camps to learn songs. Answer the question.
 
GySgt said:
They don't go to the camps to learn songs. Answer the question.

Sole evidence: Gysgt says they're terrorists.

Good luck with that one.
 
Iriemon said:
Typical of the damn Libs, demanding truth and justice.

But never willing to do what it takes to realize these things, hence your lack of an answer to the question, typical indeed.:roll:
 
Iriemon said:
Sole evidence: Gysgt says they're terrorists.

Good luck with that one.

Wow.

The question..."What do you do with the knowledge that 50 extremists just left a training camp in Bosnia?"

Your answer...."How do you know they are terrorists?"

Wow. This would be a perfect example of why other men must keep people like you safe.:shock:
 
Iriemon said:
You mean applying the rational of this Administration? That's easy. Invade Albania.


OK....this was classic....heh....freakin' classic
 
GySgt said:
Don't side step the question. Let's here it. What do you do with the knowledge that 50 extremists just left a training camp in Bosnia? Here's your chance to show us that you're not just hot wind and vinegar.


If you are military, and absolutely secure in your information. As well as knowing beyond any reasonable doubt that these people have a plan to harm the United States.....you kill them. And you do so in secret.

The issue here is not what you do with the guilty. It is how we define guilt in the first place. I for one wouldnt want someone to kill me based on opinion....I would want there to be factual information that I indeed...warranted such drastic action. I do not take killing as lightly as you do Gunny....but then, I havent had to do so...or been put in the position you have, where such descisions are part of daily life. I will respect your experience in this....but I will still require ample evidence before I give you the green light to assasinate.
 
tecoyah said:
If you are military, and absolutely secure in your information. As well as knowing beyond any reasonable doubt that these people have a plan to harm the United States.....you kill them. And you do so in secret.

The issue here is not what you do with the guilty. It is how we define guilt in the first place. I for one wouldnt want someone to kill me based on opinion....I would want there to be factual information that I indeed...warranted such drastic action. I do not take killing as lightly as you do Gunny....but then, I havent had to do so...or been put in the position you have, where such descisions are part of daily life. I will respect your experience in this....but I will still require ample evidence before I give you the green light to assasinate.

Who said anything about assasinate? On the contrary, killing them would do us no good. They are followed and tracked wherever they go. They lead our intel world to other terrorists in places like Indonesia, Iraq, Ethiopia, Spain, America, England, France (yeah even them), and so on. They lead us to terror groups and Al-Queda cells. Plots to do harm are uncovered. Terror attacks are prevented. These individuals are imprisoned. This is how it works. How do you think the intel world in so many countries are able to round up terror suspects in their countries? (These would be the same countries where their people smugly look down upon us by the way.) Why do you think there are "secret" prison camps? These are people that have trained to kill and destroy and if given the chance would carry out their mission for "God." These are the same people that are defended by the Global left that want "proof" of guilt or release them. It is not criminal to learn how to make bombs and murder civillians efficiently. For "proof" we almost have to wait until they accomplish their mission and by then, along with some innocent civilians, they are dead anyway and it is too late. Extremists that are determined to carry out the word of "God" do not change. This is a war on attrition. One where we have to outlast our enemy and killing them is the only thing they will respond to. In the mean time, we still need to stay engaged in the civilization that breeds these zealots so that their future generations continue to move away from the extremist mentality.

There is a lot going on that keeps our country safe and every time I see on the news that some reporter or official is making a name for themselves by exposing what does not to need to be public, it makes me sick. It's almost like their are two enemies...the terrorists and the snooping public who can't leave things alone.
 
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