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But those weapons were never conclusively found – and the questionable underpinnings of the second Gulf War have blighted the reputations of both Bush and his UK counterpart, Tony Blair, ever since.Why would two men who were so focused their political reputation and legacy launch such a dangerous operation on such an unreliable pretext?One Australian scientist thinks he has the answer.Dr Michael E. Salla believes that the ‘dodgy dossier’ that Bush and Blair used as a pretext for invading Iraq in 2003 was a cover for a wilder, even more unbelievable motive.

(Image: Getty)

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Salla claims that aliens that he identifies as being from the mysterious 10th Planet of the Solar System, Nibiru, had a long-runningrelationship with the people of the Iraq / Iran region.In a paper entitled Exopolitical Perspective on the Premptive War Against Iraq he says that there is evidence for a long-term alien involvement in the area, dating back to the earliest days of the Sumerian civilization that once dominated the fertile lands along the banks of Euphrates.

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He cites the claims by historian Zecharia Sitchin of the 'Nephilim', a group of some 200 aliens who rebelled against their superiors, the 'Elohim' and interacted with – perhaps even created – early civilisation on Earth.

These claims centre around the idea that Nibiru has a highly eccentric orbit that sometimes brings it close to Earth – in an orbit somewhere between Mars and Jupiter, but most often leaves it lost in the blackness of the outer Solar System.The Nibiru hypothesis is partially supported by the work of astronomers Chad Trujillo and Scott Sheppard who in 2014 demonstrated the possibility of a large planetary body lurking on the outer reaches of the Solar System.

Their hypothesis doesn’t, though, allow for the super-Earth sized planet wandering into the Asteroid Belt.

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Nevertheless, Salla is sure that these two groups of aliens, who he collectively calls the Annukai, periodically visit humanity, in a 3,600 year cycle that coincides with its nearest approaches to Earth.It was on one of these missions, in 1991, he says, that an Annukai saucer was accidentally shot down by a US Air Force F-16 during the first Gulf War.

A UFO that the US administration was very keen to secure for themselves.

Its mission, he theorises, was to activate a ‘stargate’ hidden in Iraq, possibly beneath the "Dark Ziggurat" of Enzu, which once was the lair of notorious Sumerian sorcerer Gimil-ishbi.

"It's kind of like an instantaneous space-time means of travel where people are instantaneously teleported from one area to another," he explained.

If this stargate could have been switched on, Salla wrote, it would give to Saddam a conduit to Nibiru and to the advanced extraterrestrial weaponry wielded by the Annukai.And it was the threat of this stargate, according to Salla, that led to the US and UK drafting the ‘dodgy dossier’ as a cover for an interplanetary war.

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"The Bush administration recognized that Hussein had some very, very valuable relevant information concerning the ancient history of the planet," claimed Salla.

"Either technology or texts basically confirming this and he was going to release this to the general public." "I think that was a big part of the reason why the Bush Administration went into Iraq, to stop Hussein from revealing this information and to also get control control themselves."

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Salla says that other powers had their own teams looking for the stargate.

He said: “Hussein controls the ground in Southern Iraq, and is permitting the German led excavations in Uruk, while the US led coalition controls the sky and is monitoring the situation.“The Bush administration wants control of Iraq territory to take control of excavations of Uruk to uncover its buried Stargate, and closely monitor and control it. In contrast, Hussein wants to find and activate the Stargate for his greater glory and presumably the benefit of humanity.”

(Image: Getty) (Image: Getty)

But, of course, the month-long blitzkrieg of Operation Iraqi Freedom marked the end of those excavations, and the end of Salla’s hypothetical subspace corridor between Earth and Nibiru.Did it ever exist? Of the few people that were in a position to say for certain, most on the losing side are now dead and the victors – Bush and Blair – are highly unlikely ever to confirm the existence of such an interplanetary-scale cover-up.