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Half the missiles fired at Wolfowitz's hotel were French-made Matra SNEB 68-millimeter rockets, with a range of two to three miles. The others were Russian in origin. The French missiles were "pristine," Navy SEAL commandos reported. "They were either new or kept in very good condition," said one SEAL who inspected the rocket tubes. The rockets were thought to have been taken from Iraq's French-made Alouette or Gazelle attack helicopters. The fact that new French missiles were showing up in the hands of Saddam loyalists months after the fall of Baghdad made Wolfowitz and his close aides livid. Still, others in the U.S. government worked to defend the French.

Example of Gertz waffle and clutching at straws writing. Does he not realise that 68mm unguided rockets are ten a penny in the Middle East. Iraq had literally hundreds of thousands of the things supplied during their long western supported war with Iran. Yet to Gertz mind these were factory fresh still dripping with French missile production workers DNA. Gertz needs to get real. I'm still waiting for him to come out with or re-use a report that the MiG-25RB found buried in the Iraqi sand was packed full of new French and Russian electronic gear. Gertz is a scare-mongerer journalist using dodgy and non-factual information. Look out Gertz the sky is falling!

Inside the Ring

By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

A Pentagon report on weapons found in Iraq after the war revealed a staggering amount of armaments, almost all foreign-made. The report, first disclosed in a new book by one of this column's writers, Bill Gertz, reached this stark conclusion: "Foreign munitions were used against coalition forces during the war and continue to be a potential source of explosives for improvised explosive devices still being used to kill U.S. soldiers."

According to the report cited in "Treachery: How America's Friends and Foes are Secretly Arming Our Enemies," 24 nations supplied armaments to Saddam Hussein. The total amount was between 650,000 tons and 1 million tons. By contrast, the entire U.S. military arsenal is between 1.6 million and 1.8 million tons.

The big three arms suppliers were Russia (and the Soviet Union), China and France: Russia supplied 122 different types of arms and a total of nearly 13 million items; China had provided 19 different types of arms and almost 380,000 items; France had supplied 12 different armaments and more than 115,000 items.

The report was produced by the office of deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, John Shaw.

It found that Russia had violated U.N. sanctions on Iraq by selling Saddam Hussein Kornet-E antitank guided weapons. The report said that in March 2003, Kornet missiles, first developed in 1994, were fired at two U.S. Army M-1A1 Abrams tanks near Najaf, disabling them.

The report also stated that Syria purchased 500 to 1,000 Kornets from Ukraine "on behalf of Iraq"; the transfers took place in early 2003, the report said. The Ukrainians had bought the missiles from Russian manufacturers. The report concluded, "Possession of the Kornet-E violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 687," which barred arms sales to Iraq.

"Example of Gertz waffle and clutching at straws writing."

Which would put him head and shoulder over Putin, who claimes North Korean would only use the advanced missile technology he sold them for peaceful scientific space research. It appears Comrade Putin can't tell the difference between a platform the launch a weather satellite and an ICBM.

Sure.