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Report: Iraq Asked Finland About Anthrax
guardian ^ | 2/15/03

Posted on 02/15/2003 10:25:37 AM PST by knak

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - The Iraqi Embassy in Helsinki sought information about anthrax from the foreign ministry in October, Finnish media reported Saturday.

The query - reportedly lodged about a month before the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Baghdad - sought suitable methods ``for the early detection of anthrax,'' the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper reported.

The request also concerned ``ways of protecting against anthrax, as well as methods, procedures and equipment needed for decontamination,'' the tabloid said.

Ilta-Sanomat said that the head of the foreign ministry's political division, Markus Lyra, confirmed the report.

``We did not answer it (the request) at all, and there have been no further discussions,'' Lyra was quoted as saying. ``It is not our field.''

``One wonders, whether it was intended simply for propaganda or similar purposes,'' he added.

Foreign ministry officials were unavailable for comment Saturday.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: warlist
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To: Mitchell
A test? Accountability? Performance-based evaluation? "Mais, c'est insupportable! C'est le simplisme! Oo-la-la!"
101 posted on 02/16/2003 9:48:31 AM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan
The main technical problem with the creation of this new organization is to avoid having its potential supporters view it as a mere shill for the U.S. Perhaps the proposal needs to come from elsewhere. Some country like the Czech Republic would seem to me to be a possibility. Or maybe it needs to be a group of countries to give the proposal the necessary weight.
102 posted on 02/16/2003 9:59:50 AM PST by Mitchell
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To: Mitchell
Now you're thinking strategically. Excellent! I'm pretty confident Dubya won't just announce that now we're taking our marbles home from the UN and everybody who wants to join our gang can just tag along. No, it will be presented as a fait accompli (pardon my French). And will we actually pull out of the UN, or cut our funding, or will we cancel their lease? -- all interesting questions.
103 posted on 02/16/2003 10:11:32 AM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan; Mitchell
But, we had to go through the motions: it buys us valuable time.

To do what?

104 posted on 02/16/2003 11:33:27 AM PST by Allan
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To: Mitchell; keri
Pres. Bush virtually spelled everything out.

Since you like to believe Bush spells out everything precisely,
I'd like you to explain this statement:

"The game is over"

What game? When did it end? What was the score?

I must have been watching the wrong game on the wrong channel.

105 posted on 02/16/2003 11:39:40 AM PST by Allan
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To: Allan
To do what?

Uh, little stuff like pepper the entire country, and eventually the world, with anthrax detectors, or make enough vaccine to protect everyone in the US and its allies. What is your personal estimate of how long that would take? You have given this a lot of thought, I take it?

106 posted on 02/16/2003 12:00:52 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan
What is your personal estimate of how long that would take?

About 50 years. Saddam might not be around by then. We might not be either.

107 posted on 02/16/2003 12:05:57 PM PST by Allan
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To: Allan; The Great Satan
Since you like to believe Bush spells out everything precisely, I'd like you to explain this statement:
"The game is over"
What game? When did it end? What was the score?
I must have been watching the wrong game on the wrong channel.

Well, I'm not so naive as to believe that Bush really spells everything out. "The first casualty of war..." and all that. However, I do think that his statements mean something.

As for his statement that "the game is over," look at it in context. Here's the Voice of America article on it, from Feb. 6, 2003 (my emphases in boldface):

President Bush wants a second U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it does not cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction.

President Bush says the "game is over," that it is time for the U.N. Security Council to take action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because he is violating U.N. resolutions demanding that he disarm.

"Saddam Hussein was given a final chance. He is throwing that chance away. The dictator of Iraq is making his choice. Now the nations of the Security Council must make their own," he said.

Mr. Bush says it is a moment of truth for the United Nations which he says must renew its purpose as a source of stability and demonstrate that it is prepared to meet future challenges to its authority.

"Now the Security Council will show whether its words have any meaning. Having made its demands, the Security Council must not back down when those demands are defied and mocked by a dicator," he said.

The president called for a second resolution restating U.N. demands, but said that resolution will have little meaning without the will to act.

I think the game that is about to be over is the U.N.'s game. Saddam's game won't be over for a while yet, unfortunately.

108 posted on 02/16/2003 12:06:44 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: Mitchell; Fred Mertz; Grampa Dave; OneLoyalAmerican; patriciaruth

109 posted on 02/16/2003 12:10:31 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan; Allan
Uh, little stuff like pepper the entire country, and eventually the world, with anthrax detectors, or make enough vaccine to protect everyone in the US and its allies.

The problem that this brings up is that Iraq (or anybody else with anthrax) will have a strong incentive to use it before their WMD is essentially neutralized. There's a very unstable period while the civil defenses are being developed and installed.

It's just like the worry that construction of an ABM system by Country A would encourage a first strike against Country A before the system is completed, since it's Country B's last chance (and since B would worry that once the system is completed, A could stage a first strike with impunity).

It is very difficult to see a solution to this interim problem.

110 posted on 02/16/2003 12:23:44 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: Mitchell
The problem that this brings up is that Iraq (or anybody else with anthrax) will have a strong incentive to use it before their WMD is essentially neutralized. There's a very unstable period while the civil defenses are being developed and installed.

And guess what? There's absolutely nothing we can do about that. That's just a fixed, operational constraint, the real-world consequence of Clinton's fecklessness and Annan's duplicity. We can attack now and face the near-certainty of a massive retaliation against which we have no defense, or we can string things out until we have some way to blunt the threat. Guess which option we're going to take.

111 posted on 02/16/2003 12:28:35 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan
OBL needed killing. The Taliban needed killing. The UN needs killing. And that's what's coming down. Woo-hooo!

I hate to bolster your ego but man, your good!

112 posted on 02/16/2003 3:12:46 PM PST by riri
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To: The Great Satan
[The problem that this brings up is that Iraq (or anybody else with anthrax) will have a strong incentive to use it before their WMD is essentially neutralized. There's a very unstable period while the civil defenses are being developed and installed.]

And guess what? There's absolutely nothing we can do about that.

Yep, that's the way it is. So we shouldn't be surprised at further covert attacks, presumably by proxy for Iraq, designed to be very damaging but still below the level that would provoke a strategic response. After all, Iraq would figure that there's nothing we can do about it that isn't in the works anyway, plus they have a strong incentive to use their bioweapons before our civil defense is in place.

113 posted on 02/16/2003 3:42:00 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: Grampa Dave; The Great Satan
They all had to go. And, one by one, they're being picked off. Before each one is taken out, we go through an exercise in which their true nature is very publicly exposed.

Great job GS and thanks for ping GD. Your summary goes well with my tagline, which I ain't changin' till we obliterate Iraq.

114 posted on 02/16/2003 4:34:12 PM PST by BOBTHENAILER (Just like Black September. One by one, we're gonna get 'em.)
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To: riri
I hate to bolster your ego but man, your good!

No one is more humble than Satan. Absolutely no one.

115 posted on 02/16/2003 7:03:15 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan
But, we had to go through the motions: it buys us valuable time, and legitimates the hammer, once it comes down.

Perhaps this is why we are going back to the UN for yet ANOTHER exasperating resolution that seems to mirror all the rest. Keep feeding rope to the UN while we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.

I'm beginning to think that "severe consequences" in UN speak means: "we'll pass yet another resolution if you don't comply with the first."

116 posted on 02/16/2003 9:12:06 PM PST by ConservativeLawyer (Liberate Iraq.)
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To: The Great Satan
And, one by one, they're being picked off. Before each one is taken out, we go through an exercise in which their true nature is very publicly exposed.

Sort of like President Bush has been doing to the Democrats. He certainly knows how to do this.

117 posted on 02/16/2003 9:17:53 PM PST by ConservativeLawyer (Liberate Iraq.)
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To: ConservativeLawyer
The weasels are crowing over "Colin Powell's bad day" at the UN, and over de Vichypin's smug, self-satisfied smirk. The weasels ought to be smart enough to understand that Colin Powell doesn't have bad days. The weasels ought to remember the Dems' glee over Trent Lott's case of foot-in-mouth. But, if they were smart, they wouldn't be in the weasel club, would they?
118 posted on 02/16/2003 9:35:26 PM PST by The Great Satan (Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)
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To: The Great Satan
... eerily reminiscent of the Arafat gambit

How do you interpret what has happened with Arafat?

119 posted on 02/17/2003 10:35:02 AM PST by Mitchell
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To: Mitchell; The Great Satan
How do you interpret what has happened with Arafat?

Arafat is being eased out so that Hamas can take over.

120 posted on 02/17/2003 11:32:09 AM PST by Allan
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