Saddam Tapes

The unveiling of the tapes of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein discussing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) was covered in a CNN web post on Saturday. The article included differing interpretations from various officials and experts and indicates much more information may be forthcoming.

The tapes, which were obtained by the U.S. government sometime after the invasion of Iraq, are part of about 35,000 additional boxes of material on Iraq's weapons programs and efforts, said an aide to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, who has reviewed the tapes.

The material is awaiting translation, the aide said, and the Bush administration is contemplating making all the material public for journalists and academics to translate and review.

Meanwhile, the FBI translator who originally interpreted the tapes says that ABC News reinterpreted the excerpts they broadcast last Wednesday night.

Tierney says, however, that what Saddam actually said was much more sinister. "He was discussing his intent to use chemical weapons against the United States and use proxies so it could not be traced back to Iraq," he told Hannity.

And national security expert and writer Ken Timmerman writes at NewsMax.com on what one former top Defense Department official says really happened to Iraq's WMDs.

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John. A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va.