Iraqi Trailers Said to Make Hydrogen, Not Biological Arms

The New York Times ^ | August 9, 2003 | DOUGLAS JEHL

[RandallFlagg]

OH!!! Please send this list to this thread!!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/951354/posts

[verity]

New York Times and an anonymous source. That strains credibility.

[xzins]

Randall, I posted it on your thread. If you get additional links, please ping me or forward to me. Thanks.

[FreedomPoster]

Nice list

[FreedomPoster]

Thinking about it some more, you and backhoe should compare notes. Check out some of his posts and link lists.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Weather balloons? In Iraq?

What the hell do they need weather balloons for? The weather is going to be damn hot and dry. Today, tomorrow, the next day and every day after that.

[xzins]

LOL. Reminds me of the weather report by Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam."

"It's hot....damn hot." :>)

[PLMerite]

Balloons with radar reflectors to enable them to be tracked by radar for artillery batteries.

It's possible that they wanted their arty units to be self-sufficient in order to reduce the amount of stuff (gas cylinders) that would have to be transported in time of war.

Not that I doubt they had mobile bioweapons labs, it's just that this scenario is entirely possible.

[Almondjoy]

This was actually first reported back in.. hmm May? I think it was May they first found the trailers.. two weeks later quoting British, American, and Iraqi sources they said the trailers were clearly used for making hydrogen. Shortly after that the administration closed the books on releasing information on the public regarding the pursuit of WMD and have gone to their current policy of compeleting a full dossier before releasing their findings.

[snooker]

ummmm ... well if it 'was reported' then it must be true.

[Almondjoy]

I'm just saying that it has been consistant with reports from news organizations across the world that have been saying the same thing. Try to bring your sarcasm down to a level where it doesn't make you look like such a moron.

[piasa]

The best way to read a NY Times article is to remove all of the unsourced material. The reason we have to do this is because the NY Times has over time gained a reputation for just fabricating sources. So here is the REVISED version of this article :

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 — A white paper [was] made public on May 28 by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which said that the trailers were for making biological weapons.

That report had dismissed as a "cover story" claims by senior Iraqi scientists that the trailers were used to make hydrogen for the weather balloons that were then used in artillery practice.

The May 28 finding, [was cited by] President Bush as evidence that Iraq had a biological weapons program.

A spokesman for the intelligence agency, Don Black, said he could not comment on the work of the inspector general.

---

My, what a difference that makes!

[RandallFlagg]

Schweet! Thanks!

[xzins]

BTW, that's an important thread you've got. Those kind need a way of being reposted every now and then.

We could probably beg a moderator to put it on some sidebar again.

[snooker]

In fact ummmm ... you do sound like a moron.

Ever seen hydrogen production? Doubt it. If you had you would know that the equipment shown in those trailers was in no way related to producing a flamable compressed gas, much less hrdrogen.

Only a moron would buy that crapola.

[RandallFlagg]

BTW, that's an important thread you've got. Those kind need a way of being reposted every now and then.

We could probably beg a moderator to put it on some sidebar again.

I've pinged the folks with knowledge about the bump lists, no help there. I'm probably going to consolidate it all on my webpage and ask Jim to put a link to it on the FR site.

I'm calling it, "The Arsenal."

Whaddya think?

[piasa]

Bush administration officials have said the most compelling information that the trailers were used for making biological weapons has come from a human source, an Iraqi scientist who described the trailers and what he said was their weapon-making role to American experts months before the trailers were discovered.

There were many sources of intel. The NY Times author could at least have done a LITTLE research here. Or maybe he did and the editor edited it all out :

From the State Dept web site:

"Although Iraq's mobile production program began in the mid-1990s, UN inspectors at the time only had vague hints of such programs. Confirmation came later, in the year 2000. The source was an eyewitness, an Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of these facilities. He actually was present during biological agent production runs. He was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998. 12 technicians died from exposure to biological agents.

He reported that when UNSCOM was in country and inspecting, the biological weapons agent production always began on Thursdays at midnight, because Iraq thought UNSCOM would not inspect on the Muslim holy day, Thursday night through Friday.

He added that this was important because the units could not be broken down in the middle of a production run, which had to be completed by Friday evening before the inspectors might arrive again.

This defector is currently hiding in another country with the certain knowledge that Saddam Hussein will kill him if he finds him. His eyewitness account of these mobile production facilities has been corroborated by other sources.

A second source. An Iraqi civil engineer in a position to know the details of the program confirmed the existence of transportable facilities moving on trailers.

A third source, also in a position to know, reported in summer, 2002, that Iraq had manufactured mobile production systems mounted on road-trailer units and on rail cars.

Finally, a fourth source. An Iraqi major who defected confirmed that Iraq has mobile biological research laboratories in addition to the production facilities I mentioned earlier.

...snip...

- source : "Iraq's bioweapons program: detailed info on mobile labs from pre-war intel," US State Dept., Feb. 7, 2003

[Almondjoy]

Sigh... you totally missed my whole point which is why you continue to have zero credibility. I was merely pointing out the fact that this has been repeated time and time again since May in various news organizations, including fox news. Now I didn't make a statement either way as to whether I believed the story or not. I'm still waiting for the full story, meanwhile you continue to assume assume and assume some more. I'm sure you know the saying about people that assume.......

Now promise me you won't cry some more.

[huck von finn]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/929883/posts

[huck von finn]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935678/posts