Posted on 03/13/2005 5:53:53 PM PST by CHARLITE
In a stunning about-face, the New York Times reported Sunday that when the U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003, Saddam Hussein possessed "stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials," as well as sophisticated equipment to manufacture nuclear and biological weapons, which was removed to "a neighboring state" before the U.S. could secure the weapons sites.
The U.N.'s Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission [UNMOVIC] "has filed regular reports to the Security Council since last May," the paper said, "about the dismantlement of important weapons installations and the export of dangerous materials to foreign states."
"Officials of the commission and the [International] Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to report on what it knows of the fate of the thousands of pieces of monitored equipment and stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials." Last fall, IAEA director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that "nuclear-related materials" had gone missing from monitored sites, calling on Iraqi officials to start the process of accounting for the missing stockpiles still ostensibly under the agency's supervision.
Quoting Sami al-Araji, Iraq's deputy minister of industry since the 1980s, the Times said:
"It appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away."
Calling the operation "sophisticated," Dr. Araji said the removal effort featured "cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," adding, "They knew what they were doing."
The top Iraqi defense official said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's WMD program.
Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.
The United Nations, worried that the nuclear material and equipment could be used in clandestine bomb production, has been hunting for it throughout the Middle East, largely unsuccessfully, the Times said.
It's only stockpiles of materials and equipment to make WMD's, not WMD's.
Please pay it no never mind - unimportant - move along - nothing to see here. No, there is no further clarification needed.
Wonder if Syria moving all its troops in Lebanon to the Bekka Valley has any significnace....probably not, just a hairbrained thought. I have them all the time.
Then why did Bush say, "We thought there were WMDS" during the debate with Kerry?
Political reasons?
""It's only stockpiles of materials and equipment to make WMD's, not WMD's."" -HardStarboard
is that it?
"Were" does not mean the president closed the door on WMDs being in Iraq just before the war.
With Syria likely to be moving completely out of Lebanon, these WMD`s and the plans that got them to where they now reside will no doubt be made public, and any news media who towed the " Bush lied " liberal party line will soon have egg on their faces.
Looks like the NYTimes might be pulling their baby wipes out early. : )
thanks
I am so sick of hearing this "sophisticated equipment used to manufacture nuclear weapons, and other things".
They are talking about low tolerance milling machines. There are companies in every industrialized city in the world that will do this for you. They are listed in the yellow pages. Give them a spec for a dumb metal flange part thing you want, and they will mill it and FedEx you the part back.
Everyone wants low tolerance parts (.1 mm, or whatever) because that makes the thing you are building generally have a higher quality (golf cart, sewing machine, washing machine, etc). Any metal shop would love to have one of these $1 million machines for a black market $50,000; which is why they were looted!
Read the New York Times article carefully. They have no evidence whatsoever that the stolen devices were not some milling machines and screwdrivers - THINGS USED TO PRODUCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!??!!!!
I can just imagine these NYT reporters yelling this stuff while they write the article.
I will bet a lot of money that there were sites that contained essential precision equipment and raw materials to make chemical, biological, and ...Yes...."nucular" weapons and missiles for delivery. President Bush and Secretary Powell did not lie. Kennedy really lied when he said Bush lied!
We will find out shortly that actual Iraqi weapons went to one of the Axis' allies. From there they were disrtibuted to other axis countries or put into safe-storage under guard.
"I don't know if you are familiar with what is called "The Bible Codes" or not, but it also has said the exact same thing as to where these WMD's went/are."
I just Googled "the Bible Codes" and found this interesting article entitled "WMD from Iraq Matrix" - it is a PDF file that requires adobe:
http://www.biblecodes.us/pages/WMDinIraqarticle.pdf
So why do you need a special permit to ship stuff like this out of the US?
Yeah, modern CAD/CAM machine tools are as good as the stuff used to make the bombs that we dropped on Japan. But you still can't build something like a nuke or a jet engine or a rocket motor without this type of sophisticated tooling- the same kind France and Germany are selling to anybody with the coin.
Saddam took a page out of Joe Stalin's book and disassembled his WMD factories and moved them out of harm's way.
Anyone doubt this is why Syria pulled tneir troops in Lebanon back to the Bekka Valley, and no further?
At least, until they can remove what they hid there to a new safe haven?
I'm not sure we read the same article. There were chemical and biological facilities whose guts were transported out of Iraq during the initial war. What am I missing?
""
Read the New York Times article carefully. They have no evidence whatsoever that the stolen devices were not some milling machines and screwdrivers - THINGS USED TO PRODUCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!??!!!!"""
Too many double negatives, cannot process this information.
Oh, never mind.
can't upload. Do you have a better link.
Char:)
I'm suprised the NYT covered this?!
Well that's the slime's and I guess your spin, but the fact is since the inspectors were kicked out in 1998 and weren't allowed back in Iraq until we had troops massed on their border there was absolutely no "regular inspection".
And the fact is much of this equipment was really specifically designed for weapon manufacture, such as machines to build shaped explosive charges for nuclear warheads. The truth is this equipment was listed and watched because it did violate the ceasefire that ended the Gulf War, it's just that the UN never made Saddam destroy it.
The article is written to point out the fact that while the HYT knew these materials where in Iraq, they never mentioned them in there drive to slam President Bush and the Coalition of the Willing. Now they think they can slam him because that stuff wasn't our top priority, when the truth is if the UN had done their job that stuff would have been destroyed years before.
Recently, it has been stated by several people in the admin that Russia moved the WMD out of Iraq into Syria.
There was no balking by Russia. I do believe - when Dr. Rice went to Russia she told Putin - in Russian - we are going to reveal that you moved the WMD.
I agree - the NYT sources knew - but it didn't fit their agenda.
The former PM Allawi said in a recent interview that the people who took the elements out of the nuke facility - did so with precision - knowing exactly what to take and removing it carefully.
I believe that would have been Russia's doing prior to the war.
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