Iraq: Missile Discovery Strengthens U.S. Hand in U.N. (I wonder why France?)

Stratfor.com ^ | 10-3-2003 | Stratfor

[menotyu]

Iraq: Missile Discovery Strengthens U.S. Hand in U.N.

Polish troops claim to have discovered French -manufactured anti-aircraft missile systems in Iraq, produced in 2003, giving the United States a stick with which to beat the French in the U.N.Security Council.

Polish troops in Iraq have found four French-built anti-aircraft missiles that were built this year, Polish Defense Ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak told Reuters Oct. 3. The troops found the Roland-type missiles in an ammunition depot near the region of Al Hillah, approximately 55 miles south of Baghdad, on Sept. 29, Mleczak said. The Roland anti-anticraft system is a short-range air defense missile used against aircraft flying at low and medium altitudes.



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[menotyu]

Ok I know it's Stratfor, but they did reference reuters in the piece, and they are without a doubt not with the program. I didn't see this anywhere else so forgive me if someones already posted this.

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[vger]

"unless, of course, it is discovered that Paris did in fact sell the weapons to Iraq in early 2003 "

Probably an agreement that iraq buys the roland and france hides the WMDs.

[Phyto Chems]

btt

[11B3]

No doubt France sold Iraq lots of stuff through third parties. (Syria, Lebanon, etc.)

[Finalapproach29er]

Why are anti-aircraft missles being sold to any Arab state? Those are for use against US pilots! I say we start turning the screws against France; enough is enough.

[nopardons]

This was on FOX CABLE NEWS Friday night at 6:00p.m. and may have also been talked about later as well.

[nopardons]

It was against INTERNATIONAL LAW ( vis the UN ), for France to have sold these items to Iraq; but, they did.

[OldFriend]

Most likely this sale was thru a third party. Syria perhaps.

[Big Bad Bob]

I've just put a similar piece concerning this very subject on the board. The Daily Mail reported on it here in England this very morning, I think we now know France's sinister intent in supporting Saddam throughout the war.

There must be retribution against the French Goverenment.

[OldFriend]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"Why are anti-aircraft missles being sold to any Arab state? Those are for use against US pilots! I say we start turning the screws against France; enough is enough."

Plastic sea mines along the French harbors would be in our national interest. To heck with the friggin UN. They won't do a blessed thing about France's crimes. If we do it our way, we are much less bogged down. We could load barges up with US garbage and dump them off the French coast, making it the Great American Garbage Dump. We could slap a fee on every ship that enters French territory and use that fee to pay for the inspections of those ships. The same with planes that leave France.

[Steel Wolf]

I'm sure that the profit France made from those missiles will cost them more then they could imagine. Already their tourist economy is in the tank, thanks to everyday Americans. That's just the immediate effect. Bush won't forget this, and as the details become clearer, he'll make sure France doesn't forget it for a long time either.

[defenderSD]

We're already turning the screws. American tourism to France was down 25% this Summer. The French fogot that it's the high-income Republicans who can afford to go to Europe and they angered their best customers. (Da French never were very smart.)

[Tommyjo]

The story also broke in April when a US intelligence officer came across a stockpile of Roland in Iraq. On the missiles were plates with the following "05/11 KND 2002" It was deemed from this that the missiles were built in
2002 and came from France that year. What people failed to realise was that the Iraqi's spent great time and effort in returning what they had in their inventories back to an operational state. The missile tag could easily have
come from the fact that a Roland supplied pre 1990 was put through the Iraqi Kindi Research, Testing, Development, and Engineering facility and tagged with Iraqi's own marker tag. This is a possible reference to the "KND"
tag.The Iranians for example reverse engineered British Rapier SAMs and the Iraqi's had a good history of missile development, they could with effort refurbish and extend existing missiles in their inventory. The Iraqi's also
cobbled together SA-6's with infra-red seeker heads from AA-8 Aphid air-to-air missiles. These missiles were also discovered by US troops. This recent breaking story needs more indepth analysis. Simply having a tag with a 2002 or 2003 date on it proves nothing if the Iraqi's simply refurbished and extended the life of existing stocks of Rolands and tagged them accordingly. The US sells vast amount of military equipment to Arab and Muslim states including surface-to-air-missiles. The US Army also bought Roland missiles from France.

The story is as bad as the WMD being smuggled out of Iraq into Kuwait to an undisclosed European nation. Immediately the "French bashers" are bumping their gums about France as being the destination. As a serving HM Forces it is laughable watching these news stories develop and the reaction to them. It was the same with the MiGs and Sukhois buried in the sand. Some Freepers were anxiously awaiting the discovery of factory fresh Mirage fighters from beneath the sand! I can imagine these stories being re-told years from now to grandchildren on the knee about the dastardly deeds of France!

[AMNZ]

Let them collect their "Iraqi" debt from Saddam. Iraq owes them nothing.

[CDHart]

This was in the Washington Post this morning.

Carolyn

[Feckless]

Hand is very important.
Oh, you've got to have hand.

[Maria S]

What is "HM Forces"?

[anglian]

Her Majesty? = Great Britain just a guess tho.