Saddam Tapes: What They Don't Prove
Newsweek
Feb. 20, 2006 issue - Government investigators are trying to determine how 12 hours of tape recordings of Saddam Hussein and his aides, acquired by U.S. personnel in Iraq, got into the hands of the organizers of a private "intelligence summit" to be held in D.C. next weekend. John Loftus, a former government prosecutor and self-described whistle-blower, claims the tapes "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important—and controversial—weapons-of-mass-destruction questions." At one point Saddam muses how vulnerable D.C. would be to a "biological" attack, but adds that Iraq wouldn't do it.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra is reviewing transcripts to determine if U.S. officials missed WMD evidence after the war. But intel agencies are skeptical. The tapes were taken without permission from an FBI-run translation center, officials say, and are years old. Two government officials, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive subject, say the tapes in no way prove that WMD stockpiles or programs existed at the time of the U.S. invasion or were moved to another country before U.S. troops arrived.
—Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11299205/site/newsweek