Gen. Georges Sada, the No. 2 ranking officer with the Iraqi Air Force, is finally being heard in Washington, D.C. Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe, R-Okla., recently said, " . . . This old argument of weapons of mass destruction, which has always been a phony argument from the beginning, now that we have information that's been testified . . . in closed session, by this General Sadas [sic] - all kinds of evidence as to the individuals who transported the weapons out of Iraq into Syria."
Ali Ibrahim, another Iraqi commander, corroborates Sada's assertion that Saddam possessed stockpiles of WMD, but transported them out of Iraq by air and by land. Furthermore, former FBI agent John Tierney says the United States uncovered hours of tapes - since authenticated - of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen discussing WMD, and how they hid their work from U.N. inspectors.
So, we continue our interview with Gen. Sada:
Elder: You said the president did the right thing in invading Iraq -
Sada: Excuse me, you say invading, I always say liberating.
Elder: OK, liberating Iraq. Are we winning this war of liberation?
Sada: The war is won. Now we are trying to win the peace. . . . The new elections were a great thing . . . and the wonderful, wonderful thing is that the first time we had 88 women elected in the Parliament of Iraq. I'm not sure of the number now, but you just imagine 88 women of 275 seats in the Parliament are women - in an Islamic Arab country in the Middle East. This is the fruit of the liberation.
Elder: The WMD transported to Syria, are we talking about hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons?
Sada: Well, of course, because a Jumbo aircraft easily can take more than 50 tons. And especially that Jumbo was doing two sorties a day; maybe 727 was doing only one, but Jumbo for sure was doing two sorties a day, so it will be hundreds of tons were transported to Syria.
Elder: Transporting all these chemical and biological weapons to Syria in 56 sorties, using those planes, obviously a lot of people had to be involved in it. How can someone like David Kaye, our WMD hunter, and his successor, Charles Duelfer, how could they spend all that time in Iraq and not uncover what you told us?
Sada: . . . I can assure you that there are - even in Intelligence sometimes - that people are not taking it that serious, and dealing with it in that serious way. But now I can find that the senators like Inhofe and [Jeff] Sessions [R-Ala.], and Rep. Pete Hoekstra [R-Mich.], they are very serious, and this is the first time I can feel that your Intelligence are very serious . . . and I can assure you that this moment . . . there are people who are doing a lot in the Middle East to see the people who have transported the WMD to Syria.
Elder: What should we do about Iran?
Sada: I was in a discussion in Dubai . . . there were two professors from Iran there, and I was representing Iraq to discuss the security of the Gulf. And I told them like this: If you are going to possess the nuclear weapon, that's a disaster. If you will use it, it's a bigger disaster. And if you will not use it, it's also a disaster, because you are going to make a big, big, big hole in your economy. I hope that the Iranians at last will listen. We don't want that region to have more conflicts and to have more WMD, but the other way around, to get rid of these weapons, and make the region and the Middle East to live peaceful. . . .
Elder: So what should be done, General? They are embarking on acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Sada: Well, I think the world and the United States have got enough knowledge and enough courage, and enough things to know what to do, but I still believe that it will be much, much better to solve it in a peace way, because I am the director of a peace organization. But you know, always we cannot achieve the peace. . . .
Elder: Do you want to see a secure Israel living in peace with her neighbors?
Sada: Of course. . . . I want to see everybody in the region to be in peace. . . . And I hope that peace is coming very soon. And before I finish, I want to bow in front of the parents of those who have lost their beloved one, and I want to tell them that I know it is difficult and tough, but it is worth it, and they should be proud of their daughters and sons killed in the war because they have liberated a country, liberated 27 million people, and that country is the country of father Abraham, and Daniel of Babylon, and Jonah of Nineveh.
