BLAIR AND BUSH TO GIVE SADDAM JUST 48 HOURS TO LEAVE IRAQ...

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[Myrddin]

The Stealth Fighters and Bombers are almost undetected by enemy radar unless they have advanced radar systems.

There are passive detection systems that employ ambient RF from television and cellular phones that can detect our stealth aircraft. The stealth aircraft creates a moving disruption in the steady state ambient RF. It isn't nearly as accurate as a fire control RADAR, but they are no longer completely undetectable. Strikes with EMP equipped cruise missiles would be helpful in reducing the amount of TV and cell phone RF.

[PhiKapMom]

Went to post they could not be tracked by radar originally but was then told they can be tracked with the newer radar but give out a low signal.

Do you think that the Iraqi's have obtained the radar that can track these planes from say the Chinese? We know that the Clinton administration sold upgraded radar and the rest of the kitchen sink to the Chinese -- would assume the way they, the Russians, French, and Germans are acting they all sold items covered by the embargo that enhanced Saddam and his military.

[caltrop]

For what it's worth, I know plenty of other ex-military types who are less than enthusiastic about invading Iraq. You don't have to take my reservations seriously but when General Zinni (among others with experience in the region) expresses his doubts about the wisdom of the current plan it should get your attention.

As long as we're on the subject of broken pledges to the UN why hasn't anyone mentioned North Korea? Everybody here must be aware that the North Koreans have killed GI's (in one incident with baseball bats) and otherwise demonstrated their contempt for their UN obligations.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

b. We have a lot more regulars in theater than the American people have been led to believe.

And we have a plan & capability for getting a lot more over there a lot quicker than Saddam can possibly imagine.

[caltrop]

North Korea has also violated the terms of our cease fire - including killing GI's with baseball bats. They also export weaponry to anyone with the price and have missiles capable of reaching Alaska in their inventory are developing missiles capable of reaching the West Coast. Whatever the reason we're going after Iraq, it isn't because Iraq is the greatest foreign threat to the US.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Can you add a sign "KICK ME" near the (shall we sump "outgoing" end) of the bird ?

Some things are just so obvious that nothing further needs to be said. . .

[Myrddin]

Do you think that the Iraqi's have obtained the radar that can track these planes from say the Chinese?

I would plan as if they did have the better RADAR equipment. The Iraqis just imported more SCUD missiles from North Korea (under the ruse that they were bound for a buyer in Yemen). They could easily save their best "toys" until we believe we have air superiority.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Husband just reminded me - another UN report due Feb. 14th; perhaps we'll wait until after that.

I'm HOPING that Blix will have the good sense to announce that this futile game is over, and all the inspectors have already been extracted and flown out of Iraqi air space as he speaks. (And I would expect that this news would be no surprise to the Bush administration.) And then it will be a matter of days or hours, not weeks, and certainly not months.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

I've also heard that we might wait until the haj is over

That's probably true. I am increasingly getting the feeling that everything that is unfolding has been very carefully choreographed and is following a precise timetable, created months ago.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for your comments. I was expecting that might be the case.

I was wondering about those SCUDS as well. Makes me think one of the reasons we cannot wait much longer is that Iraq keeps getting upgraded by countries turning out to be willing to sell anything for a buck.

[Nam Vet]

"Going to War without FRANCE is like going Deer Hunting without an ACCORDION!!!!! "

Best illustration I've read yet! (Just finished drying and cleaning the vodka - tonic off my nose, keyboard and screen)

Nam Vet

[caltrop]

Sorry, but the notion that AQ and Saddam are working together is a stretch. Those guys are polar opposites. That AQ gets support from governments in the region is certainly correct but nobody has come up with anything that's credible regarding an AQ - Iraq connection.

The anthrax question is interesting but I'm more inclined towards either North Korea or former Soviet biochemists as the source - in either case generously compensated. AQ has, after all, got plenty of money.

I don't know what to make of the jetliner camp. If, however, Iraq had the resources to train the hijackers and gave AQ access to their facility, why did they risk sending the hijackers here for flight school? After all, had the FBI not bungled they might very well have been caught.

Atta's meeting in Prague with an Iraqi agent isn't entirely credible having been denied, as I recall, by both Czech and our intelligence agencies.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

While his inspectors have now been granted private access to a number of Iraqi scientists, one of their prime targets - the English-trained woman who used to run Saddam's lethal biological weapons programme - said that she will refuse to talk to them. In an exclusive interview to be broadcast on BBC1's Panorama at 10.30 tonight, Rihab Taha, who studied at the University of East Anglia and is known as "Dr Germ", said that she does not trust the inspectors. "It is a human right that if you don't want to speak to anyone, no one will oblige you or force you." Speaking of her work on biological weapons, Dr Taha added: "It is our right to have a capability to defend ourselves and to have something as a deterrent."

Dr. Joseph Mengele used words somewhat along these lines in his defense at Nuremburg. He hanged. So should she.

[travelnurse]

"Who or what is a Tom Brokaw and why would anyone in the administration tell it/him anything?????"

---

President Bush invited a select group of TV news anchors to a luncheon about a week ago, just before he gave his address to the nation. Tom Brokaw was one of them. A coincidence?? I'm inclined to think NOT.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

And then I watch the President's address to congress on September 20th, 2001. If you watch that stuff, there is no way you can forget.

And I'll just betcha our President still carries that policeman's badge with him in his pocket, every day. Every morning he picks it up, looks at it, runs his fingers across it, and remembers. And repeats this same ritual every night. And there is NO WAY that he can or will forget.

[Man of the Right]

The last week of Feb. The attack's Mar. 3.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

RE: Moon phases -

There is no doubt that they are one factor that enters into the operational planning. But they are just ONE factor, not the only factor, or even the main factor.

Enough said.

[rewrite]

Good, I'm off work Monday and I don't have a writing seesion booked. Got Popcorn and I'll order pizza! AND PEPSI!!!

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'm sorry....I forgot about that. Seriously, do you think GW actually TOLD THEM something? As much as I adored his dad, GW's got more of a handle on things than GHB did....and it would surprise me to know that he told them any dates, etc.

I rather expect he laid down the law to them for when the bombing DOES start.

Does anyone know what came of that meeting???? I forgot to check...

[Monti Cello]

Both are Arabic, Muslim, autocratic, terrorist Middle Eastern groups. They are not polar opposites, but birds of a feather, different strains of the same disease. Just because they may have some supposed ideological conflict does not preclude intelligence and military cooperation in the name of their common goal.

Just last week Saddam was threatening to send terrorist bombers at us and trying to rile up the entire Arab world. Saddam is drawing the connection to the jihad himself.

The Salman Pak jetliner was parked, not used for flight.

Contrary to some gov't spin and shoddy reporting, the Czechs stand by the claim that Atta met Iraqi agents.