[piasa]

...You just mistakenly tuned into an Iraqi soap opera.

[piasa]

These are not missile engines, They are engines intended for use as silly-string dispensers for our New Years celebration. You know, the tradition Baathist party where we hoist a political prisoner up a minaret and then let him drop at midnight.

DECEMBER 2002 : (IRAQ IMPORTS SA-2 ROCKET ENGINES, VIOLATING UN RESOLUTION 682, EVEN AFTER THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL PASSED RESOLUTION 1441) "UNMOVIC has also reported that Iraq has illegally imported 380 SA-2 rocket engines. These are likely for use in the Al-Samoud 2. Their import was illegal on three counts. Resolution 687 prohibited all military shipments into Iraq. UNSCOM specifically prohibited use of these engines in surface-to-surface missiles. And finally, as we have just noted, they are for a system that exceeds the 150-kilometer range limit. Worst of all, some of these engines were acquired as late as December [2002], after this council passed Resolution 1441. " - Colin Powell, see "Exposed: Saddam's Prohibited Missiles and Support of al-Qaeda Terrorism," Colin Powell spech, via Newsmax.com, Feb. 5, 2003