UN Says Iraq had WMD

[Nemont]

UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, June 11, 2004
The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program.

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the council on June 9 that "the only controls at the borders are for the weight of the scrap metal, and to check whether there are any explosive or radioactive materials within the scrap," Middle East Newsline reported.
"It's being exported," Perricos said after the briefing. "It's being traded out. And there is a large variety of scrap metal from very new to very old, and slowly, it seems the country is depleted of metal."

"The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks," Perricos told the council. Perricos also reported that inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.

He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East. at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month. Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters – the latter required for the production of chemical and biological warheads.

"It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for," Ewen Buchanan, Perricos's spokesman, said. "You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax."

The UNMOVIC report said Iraqi missiles were dismantled and exported to such countries as Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, an SA-2 surface-to-air missile, one of at least 12, was discovered in a junk yard, replete with UN tags. In Jordan, UN inspectors found 20 SA-2 engines as well as components for solid-fuel for missiles.

"The problem for us is that we don't know what may have passed through these yards and other yards elsewhere," Buchanan said. "We can't really assess the significance and don't know the full extent of activity that could be going on there or with others of Iraq's neighbors."

UN inspectors have assessed that the SA-2 and the short-range Al Samoud surface-to-surface missile were shipped abroad by agents of the Saddam regime. Buchanan said UNMOVIC plans to inspect other sites, including in Turkey.

In April, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohammed El Baradei said material from Iraqi nuclear facilities were being smuggled out of the country.

 

[Ithaca 37]

This should be huge news and I'm not seeing it anywhere but in SI. Why?

 

[feclnogn]

Actually Ithaca, nobody in the press gives a shit about this. They are more interested in reserecting the Abu Girad prison scandal. In fact I was reading that there will be photos coming out soon that show children being raped by soldiers. The folks at DU are jumping for joy over this. If the story is + for Bush it's not news, if the story is - it's front page news.

I think most of the WMD are in syria right now, or possibly Iran. They are out there. To think otherwise I believe is fundamentaly dishonest.

 

[pawclaws]

 

[Nemont]

IT,
It is news, just not something the liberal mainstream press would want to see out. Perhaps expand your sources a little. Continue the L.A. and N.Y. Times but log on to Drudge, Foxnews etc. and go to foreign sources as well. Not all news comes from the sources you read.

Nemont

 

[Nut]

Where is the story at FoxNews???

 

[Ithaca 37]

Well, how about some links to recognized and responsible news sources that are substantiating this news?

 

[MarlandS]

define recognized and responsible.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Perricos%2C+June+9+&btnG=Search

 

[Ithaca 37]

Not Matt Drudge. Let's see it in the NY Times, US News and World Report, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, 20/20, Washington Post. Mainstream stuff like that.

I'm not saying I don't believe it's true, I just think it's odd that it's not getting more coverage in the mainstream news media.

Take a look at those sources in your Google search! Most of them are just printing the article by EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press. True, she sounds legit, but I'm surprised the story is not getting more coverage. It makes me wonder if there's not actually much to it.

"U.N. weapons experts have found 20 engines used in banned Iraqi missiles in a Jordan scrapyard along with other equipment which could be used to make weapons of mass destruction, an official said Wednesday."

Is it possible that the engines were junked a long time ago?

"The U.N. team also discovered some processing equipment with U.N. tags - which show it was being monitored - including heat exchangers, and a solid propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel, he said. It also discovered "a large number of other processing equipment without tags, in very good condition.""

So some of the junk had UN tags on it and they found a solid propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel. Remember, Iraq was allowed to have missiles that were considered "short range". I forget what the distance limit was-- maybe 90 miles or 150 kilometers?

Finding all this stuff doesn't really prove anything yet. Maybe that's why it's not bigger news.

 

[MarlandS]

True it doesn't really prove anything yet but then again, wouldn't they have been destroyed or rendered inoperable/ unusable if they were junked? Especially if you consider the region and the former owner with all the enemies he had in his own country and region? It's not like they were used cars...

 

[MarlandS]

http://www.lexpress.mu/display_article.php?news_id=19959

Al Samoud long range missles.....

 

[Hangar18]

Ithaca - You & I & the rest of us know that news released on a Friday generally gets little or no national coverage. I am waiting until Monday to see if any of this gets national attention.


Some links

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/


To the post by Nemont:
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html

Alternate to the one above, because it will only be breaking news for so long.
http://216.26.163.62/2004/me_iraq_06_11.html


Google NEWS search on 'UNMOVIC' yields some similar stories.
http://news.google.com/news?q=UNMOVIC&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn


More...
Iran Said Interested in Nuclear Parts

 

[Tom]

Maybe they were sold for scrap metal, maybe the terrorists have weapons stored now too.

Here's what the article says from the scrap metal shippment weights.

"Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East. at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month. Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey."


"1,000 tons of metal a month.
Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey." !!!

 

[pawclaws]

Boys, I got photographs of MIG fighters combat ready being dug out of the sand. Anybody wants an e-mail let me know! Wonder where the shells, binaries, and barrels are stashed!

 

[danr55]

Does anyone else find it strange that just more than a year after the fall of Sadam, Iran wants the world to recognize it as a nuclear power?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm???

 

[Tom]

paws, e-mail me the pictures, please? Where did they come from?

 

[Ithaca 37]

Well, I guess this didn't turn out to be big news! Any ideas why not?

 

[Tom]

Well, say they are disarmed missiles marked by the UN, so all that's left is to cash in on the scrap, maybe that's it?

The nuclear energy guy said way back in April that they were being smuggled out, it wasn't big news back then either.

We're not safe he says. Well, we knew that too, they crashed the World Trade center towers, so we're not safe.

It seems like it ought to be some pretty big news there, smuggling WMD. You got any ideas?

 

[pawclaws]

Yes Tom, the source information will be included with the e-mail.

 

[Tom]

Thanks, here's a web link about it, I searched on Msgt T.Collins who the pictures are credited too.

http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/03RelatedStories/03.09relcontinfo/09.37.NwsfmIrq.htm