From Friday, June 2, 2006 issue.
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2006/6/2/f3d72f17-a755-4e6a-8774-b12f0d4b80b0.html
U.N. Releases Report on Iraq CW Program
The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission yesterday released a detailed report on Iraq’s history of production and use of chemical weapons, according to a U.N. release (see GSN, April 4).
The document indicates that Baghdad started exploring chemical weapons in 1971 and established a “large-scale chemical weapons program” in 1981.
The program produced roughly 3,850 tons of mustard, tabun, sarin and VX agents between 1981 and 1991 and “made a significant impact on the outcome of the Iran-Iraq war.”
Baghdad weaponized some 3,300 tons of agents, producing 130,000 munitions. Of these, more than 101,000 were used in combat between 1981 and 1988, according to the report.
Iraq in January 1991 declared that its stockpile contained about 28,500 chemical munitions. Coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War eliminated 5,500 weapons, and Iraq unilaterally declared destroying another 500.
“These last two figures were partially verified by United Nations inspectors,” the report says.
Most destruction of the remaining 22,000 munitions occurred under the supervision of U.N. inspectors between 1991 and 1994. During the collection of those weapons, Iraq was unable to locate some 500 munitions.
“Although a number of issues relating to the Iraqi chemical weapon program remain unresolved, the United Nations inspectors were able to identify the major parameters of the program, its scope and the results achieved,” the report says (U.N. News Service, June 1).
I'd like to wholeheartedly believe this, but we've been burned by supposed findings before. There were stockpiles here and there in Iraq that were known by the US and the UN and wer eunder monitor and seal.
Now, whether or not a "UN seal" is a laughable oxymoron or not is a topci for another discussion, but what I'd just like to know here, in Don Rumsfeld parlance, is if the WMDs Sen. Santorum speaks of are were already "known knowns" or not?