Did Anybody Else See This Boarded Boat Story Yesterday?

Fox News ? | 5/11/04 | Self

[TheLurkerX]

Yesterday on Fox News, my father claims he caught a headline on the scroll that said a boat had been boarded off Panama under suspicion of carrying WMDs.

[TheLurkerX]

After watching for it again, he said he never saw it come back around. Did anybody else happen to catch this same headline or hear anything about it from other sources?

[Frank_Discussion]

Not I. Curious.

[appalachian_dweller]

Haven't heard anything. I'll run it by the Threat Matrix thread, see what turns up.

[adam_az]

It wasn't a specific ship.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/international/americas/11ship.html

In a major expansion of the American-led international effort to stop the spread of unconventional weapons, Panama has agreed to permit the United States to board and search its flagships on the open seas if they are suspected of transporting nuclear, chemical or biological arms or equipment, administration officials said Monday. (snip)

[appalachian_dweller]

Haven't heard anything. I'll run it by the Threat Matrix thread, see what turns up.

[TheLurkerX]

Ahhhh, ok. Thanks for the link. I'll let him know.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Sorry, the only thing I saw yesterday involving a ship was a passenger ferry running aground off Alaska.

[marty60]

Well now it is competing against, prison porn pictures, Kobe's rape trial, Fin Kerry's latest lie. WMD how mundane. Coming into the U.S. yawn.

[QQQQQ]

Perhaps this is what he saw:


WMD search extends to high seas

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- Panama will allow U.S. officials to board its flagships and search them for weapons of mass destruction amid concerns that terrorists could take advantage of lax security on the high seas, a Panamanian official said Tuesday.

The agreement, to be signed Wednesday in Washington, is similar to an accord the U.S. State Department reached in February with Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry. Panama is No. 1.

The accord gives the U.S. Navy the right to board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction, and is "an important step ... to strengthen the mechanisms we have to intercept suspect shipments," Escalono's department said in a news release.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/05/11/panama.ship.ap/

[piasa]

On a pleasant spring night in May, 2004, groups of protesters stormed the president’s residence in Batumi, demanding Mr. Abashidze’s resignation. There were many factors that led to his ouster, among them the suspicion that he had raided the Adjara budget and secreted huge amounts of cash — including personal letters from Iranian officials regarding the uranium deal — out of the country. When his secretary protested in those last desperate hours, saying there was no time to gather all his correspondence, Mr. Abashidze replied that he only needed the letters written in Farsi. She complied, according to witnesses, and it took more than an hour to gather all the private paperwork. A plane was sent from Moscow to pick him up. He took his bodyguards, and his son and the incriminating evidence of the Iranian deal. He is now living in Moscow in luxury, (with a fake passport, indeed he is afraid to travel) a billionaire protected by the even more corrupt Moscow Mayor Yuri Lushkov, a close ally, who despises America. Nevertheless, Mr. Abashidze just purchased a home in Vienna for $5 million, where his son — a well known drug dealer and playboy — resides. … The mystery of how Iran got the chemicals to enrich the uranium lies with Mr. Abashidze, a little-known figure now protected by his powerful friends in Moscow. He is under investigation for murder and money laundering, but so far international authorities have little hard evidence of his involvement with Iran’s nuclear program.... —— Shadowy nuclear trail, The Washington Times ^ | 3-29-06 | Tsotne Bakuria

[piasa]

He is now living in Moscow in luxury, (with a fake passport, indeed he is afraid to travel) a billionaire protected by the even more corrupt Moscow Mayor Yuri Lushkov, a close ally, who despises America. [My note: Luzhkov is the husband of a very wealthy wife, Elena Batarina, who later wined and dined with papa Joe Biden and his playboy druggie son Hunter at Cafe Milano in the Washington DC area... ] Nevertheless, Mr. Abashidze just purchased a home in Vienna for $5 million, where his son — a well known drug dealer and playboy — resides. ...