#5 A 2003 tidbit:
The highest-ranking Communist bloc defector, Ion Mihai Pacepa (defected from Romania when it was still Communist) has warned that Russia has an interest in having Iraqâs WMDs disappear. He explains that Russia had a key role in Saddam receiving the weapons initially, and had a secret operational plan to make them âdisappearâ should it become necessary. The plan was called âSarindarâ, or, âEmergency Exitâ. Pacepa played a key role in Operation Emergency Exit in Libya. The goal of the plan? To remove all WMDs from any third world ally that was being invaded by the West. The plan, he writes, originally developed for Libya (and to hide Russiaâs complicity in the activity) was quickly expanded to other allies of Russia including Iraq. As a bonus, the operation âwould frustrate the West by not giving them anything they could make propaganda with.â
WMDs would be burned or buried deep at sea (in Libyaâs case, most likely underground for Iraq), but technical documents would be preserved in small water-proof containers for future use. All the plants for WMDs would have a civilian cover, so the West could not prove they were WMD sites. The plan involved an intense propaganda campaign, in which the politicians making the accusations towards the Soviet/Russian ally would be mocked. Among the propaganda activity would be anti-Western demonstrations and protests. Pacepa says he knows first-hand that the Operation Emergency Exit was applied to Iraq, because Ceausescu, Brezhnev, Andropov and Primakov all informed him about it. It is interesting that Primakov also is known to be close to Saddam Hussein and to regularly consult with him (and was in Baghdad from December 2002 up until when the war began). Pacepa concludes Russia advised Iraq on how to implement its old Emergency Exit plan. |
Here's one for the Surprise-o-meter. Edited for brevity.