British troops discover Al Samud missiles in a university

The Scotsman ^ | March 31, 2003 | Gethin Chamberlain

[MadIvan]

BRITISH troops in Basra say they have found prohibited Al Samud missiles housed in a university building writes Gethin Chamberlain in southern Iraq.

The missiles, which UN weapons inspector Hans Blix ordered to be destroyed, were discovered on Saturday in what British forces described as a university building in the south-west of the city. Troops who entered the building found 13 missiles.

The discovery is the latest in a series of weapons finds in the area. Last week troops found a massive armoury housed in a heliport and a child health clinic converted into a militia base, complete with weapons armouries next door to storerooms packed with unused medicines.

The find was made in one of a growing number of raids into Basra designed to weaken the Iraqi regime’s grip on the civilian population. It is hoped that Iraqis will eventually feel confident enough to rise up and overthrow the authorities .

[gorebegone]

Maybe we should send Blix and his crew back in to help the world get rid of iraq's WMD!?

[Pearls Before Swine]

Actually, Blixie did inspect one mosque, and there were lots of protests. Mosques are likely to be the mother lode of nasty weapon treasure troves, because they are more "sacred" than hospitals or schools. Expect protests in occupied areas about their visitation and inspection by infidels. It has to be done. What are we going to do--bend to Iraqi sensibilities by sending in only US Muslim soldiers? I think not.

[The Westerner]

You neglected to add, "who places missiles and dangerous things in child care clinics while much needed medicine goes unused."

[airedale]

Anyone remember how many Iraq claimed to have and how many were destroyed? Just wondering if this find puts them over the # declared.

[cake_crumb]

Iraq claimed 100 al Samouds. The number destroyed depended upon which vapid media puff piece you read. They destroyed somewhere in the vicinity of 6 of them...and over a dozen ENGINES. Blixie was unable to confirm whether the crushed engines came from al Samouds, because Iraq promptly dithered around over handing the pieces over for inspection.

In other words, no one know how many al Samouds Iraq really had to begin with, and no one knows how many were really destroyed.

[lilylangtree]

Hans Blix and Scott Ritter: Didn't you miss something on your inspection tours? These are not small objects like a needed in a hay stack.

[airedale]

That's what I was afraid of.

[c-b 1]

Uh Blixie, my lad, you're a fool. I don't recall schools, hospitals and mosques being inspected by the UN.

Blixie was there cover up Sadam's violations, his job was to make sure these hiding places were not discovered.

[Mark17]

British troops discover Al Samud missiles in a university

Ivan, you don't really expect the left wingers to believe this do you? They would not believe it if a missile jumped up and bit them in the arse.

[Grampa Dave]

It was just a group of Iraqi student Rocket Scientists and their school projects and homework.

[browardchad]

BUMP

[finnman69]

Keep looking at every schol and hospital and we will find their Iraqi weapons and bunkers.

[Samwise]

I thought there for a second that the Brits had stormed Columbia--not that that would be a bad thing.

[Catspaw]

We know Blix couldn't have found a smoking gun if it was aimed at his.....um, head.

[Sacajaweau]

If I remember correctly, some of the inspectors visited the Mosques but not for inspections, just out of curiousity. There was a big protest by the Iraqi leadership. I think it was considered as spying. Now what would there be to spy on in a Mosque??

[Sacajaweau]

They were likely all tagged (and photographed). Only about half of them were destroyed before Blix was told to get his a** out of Iraq.

They'll know whether these are from the same cache that Blix located. Of course, the Iraqi's denied they were in violation in the first place. Don't tell me the Iraqis lied!!!

[N. Theknow]

The missiles were found lined up in a classroom in front of a map of the world as they were being programmed for GPS.

[mware]

Paging Mr. Blix, Paging Mr. Blix.

[Sacajaweau]

Interesting. Where did the reference to GPS programming come from. The missiles themselves are programmed?? Didn't think they were that type, i.e., the delivery system would carry the programming.

[N. Theknow]

That is the way Iraqis would GPS a missile; by showing it a map in a classroom.