- I couldn't find anything that verifies your Vangard article.
Is there a link to a mainstream news source?
The U.N. does verify ongoing weapons programs, but not that any had been shipped to other countries. Scrapyards in the Netherlands do have findings of Al Samoud missile parts, however.
Here's the link to the U.N. Doc:
A HREF=http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2004-435.pdf
From the U.N. Report:
III. Compendium of proscribed weapons and programmes
11. One of the issues currently under examination by UNMOVIC in the framework of work on the compendium is the evaluation of Iraq’s procurement network that operated from 1999 to 2002, the period in which inspectors were absent from Iraq.
During this period, Iraq utilized a sophisticated procurement network for the acquisition of foreign materials, equipment and technology. It consisted of State owned trading companies, established and controlled by the Military Industrialization Commission of Iraq, with branches in foreign countries, Iraqi private sector and foreign trading companies operating in Iraq and abroad, multiple intermediaries, chains of foreign suppliers of items and materials, bank accounts and transportation companies. In several instances, the Iraqi State-owned trading companies had shares in foreign trading companies or were closely affiliated with local private trading companies.
12. The prime purpose of the evaluation is to identify whether this network has been used for the acquisition of proscribed single-use or notifiable dual-use items and materials that could have been utilized by Iraq in a biological, chemical or missile programme.
13. The bulk of the data for the evaluation came from the semi-annual monitoring declarations of Iraq, procurement information obtained during the course of inspection activities in Iraq from November 2002 to March 2003, notes of interviews and discussions with Iraqi officials and electronic files retrieved through the forensic computer exploitation carried out at facilities and establishments involved in procurement. The computer files alone constitute some 12,000 pages of procurement documents, most of which are in Arabic. The following are preliminary findings of the ongoing examination.
14. In general, from 1999 to 2002 Iraq procured a variety of dual-use biological and chemical items and materials, including chemicals, equipment and spare parts.
To date, UNMOVIC has found no evidence that these were used for proscribed chemical or biological weapon purposes. Although some of the goods may have been acquired by Iraq outside the framework of mechanisms established under Security Council resolutions, most of them were later declared by Iraq to UNMOVIC in its semi-annual monitoring declarations.
15. However, in several instances Iraq provided misleading declarations regarding the suppliers and sources of the items and materials as well as procurement channels, claiming that they had been purchased on the local market. It appeared that they had been procured outside Iraq through private trading companies operating both in and outside of the country. There is much evidence that from 1999 to 2002 Iraq procured materials, equipment and components for use in its missile programmes. In several instances, the items procured were used by Iraq for programmes, such as the production of Al Samoud 2 missiles, that were determined by UNMOVIC in February 2003 to be proscribed. This can be illustrated by the acquisition of at least 380 SA-2 missile engines for Iraq's prime missile establishment by an Iraqi Government-owned trading company controlled by the Military Industrialization Commission through a local Iraqi trading company and a foreign trading company. UNMOVIC is currently analysing documents available to it in order to establish the source of the engines procured through the local trading company and of any additional SA-2 engines (or other missile-related items) that might have been procured by Iraq since 1999.
16. The same Iraqi governmental trading company was involved, through a contract with two foreign private companies, in procuring components and equipment for the manufacture and testing of missile guidance and control systems, including inertial navigation systems with fibre-optic and laser ring gyroscopes and Global Positioning System equipment, accelerometers, ancillary items and a variety of production and testing equipment.
The list of items sought includes several that were not declared or shown to UNMOVIC during the course of its inspections. One Iraqi trading company was also involved in the procurement, through private trading companies, of different pieces of missile-related production equipment and technology. Several foreign private subcontractors were responsible for the 6S/2004/435 implementation of specific parts of the general contract. UNMOVIC is in the process of assessing the possible applications of items and technology outlined in that contract.
17. UNMOVIC is trying to identify the extent to which these contracts have been fulfilled and what has actually been delivered to Iraq as well as the sources of items,
materials, components and technology.
Anyone still wanna believe that many "Mainstream" U.S. Muslims aren't preaching a hateful agenda, in their schools and in their Mosques? Check this story out at Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,46610,00.html
"U.S. Islamic Schools Teaching Homegrown Hate"
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
By Kenneth Adelman
NEW YORK — "Can it be true? That Islamic schools in the United States teach hatred towards American Christians and Jews?
The Washington Post on Monday revealed that one such school outside Washington, D.C., uses textbooks teaching 11th graders that "the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews."
Other accredited Islamic schools in America have world maps on classroom walls that exclude Israel. Some such schools promote class discussions that portray Usama bin Laden as "simply the victim of … prejudice" against all Muslims in America.
These astonishing facts were broken by Post reporters Valerie Strauss and Emily Wax in their front-page piece, too tepidly entitled, "Where Two Worlds Collide: Muslim Schools Face Tension of Islamic, U.S. Views ...."
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,46610,00.html