Saddam's Intel Stash: No Breakthroughs So Far (UPDATED 2/15)

By Andrew Cochran

On January 7, intrigued by a Weekly Standard article, I expressed hope that the Pentagon, Congress, and the CT community would delve further into Saddam Hussein's massive stash of intelligence documents for his possible links to terrorists. The author of that article, Stephen Hayes, wrote another on January 21, in which he reported that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had delivered selected documents from the stash to the House Intelligence Committee, and Hayes predicted, "It appears that we will know more soon." That hasn't happened yet, and Hayes hasn't released anything new on the subject since. (EDIT: I wrote that without catching up on the Weekly Standard's new issue; Hayes' latest says that the House Intel Committee chairman will release the documents "within 2 weeks." Hayes also writes of CD's, floppy disk, and documents which document links to the insurgents, but none of these have been released to the public yet.)

What's new is that terrorism investigator John Loftus claims to have audio tapes of Saddam's voice, and the tapes will provide "a few definitive answers to some very important-and controversial-weapons of mass destruction questions." On Washington radio station WMAL-AM this morning, ABC News veteran investigator Brian Ross stoked the issue by announcing that ABC intends to play one or more of the tapes tomorrow, and that they include "intriguing tips" and "Nixonlike statements" about attacking the U.S. Some government intel agencies remain skeptical; two officials told "Newsweek" that "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." I've been told that federal officials consider the tapes now in Loftus' possession to include nothing new and that the tapes were taken from federal custody in some way other than through a proper transfer of ownership. Of importance to me is that none of the tapes appear to include any information about Saddam's links to terrorists. Loftus will present the tapes on Saturday at the Intelligence Summit, a conference on intelligence and terrorism issues. I'm still hopeful that the House Intelligence Committee will release a study about the tapes in its possession, whatever the outcome, and I hope this issue is pursued to an objective and final solution.

UPDATE 2/15: ABC News reveals some of the text in this story preceding "Nightline" tonight. Saddam predicts: "Terrorism is coming. I told the Americans a long time before August 2 and told the British as well...that in the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction." See this analysis of the tape issue back on January 20 in Congressional Quarterly.

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