Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops' (See Para #2 of story -- MUST READ)

London Times ^ | 8 March 2003 | James Bone

[PhiKapMom]

March 08, 2003

Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops'
From James Bone in New York

A REPORT declassified by the United Nations yesterday contained a hidden bombshell with the revelation that inspectors have recently discovered an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of 7.45m, suggesting an illegal range that could threaten Iraq’s neighbours with chemical and biological weapons.

US officials were outraged that Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, did not inform the Security Council about the drone, or remotely piloted vehicle, in his oral presentation to Foreign Ministers and tried to bury it in a 173-page single-spaced report distributed later in the day. The omission raised serious questions about Dr Blix’s objectivity.

“Recent inspections have also revealed the existence of a drone with a wingspan of 7.45m that has not been declared by Iraq,” the report said. “Officials at the inspection site stated that the drone had been test-flown. Further investigation is required to establish the actual specifications and capabilities of these RPV drones . . . (they) are restricted by the same UN rules as missiles, which limit their range to 150km (92.6 miles).

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, told the Security Council in February that Washington had evidence that Iraq had test-flown a drone in a race-track pattern for 500km non-stop.

In another section of the declassified report, the inspectors give warning that Iraq still has spraying devices and drop tanks that could be used in dispersing chemical and biological agents from aircraft. “A large number of drop tanks of various types, both imported and locally manufactured, are available and could be modified,” it says.

The paper, obtained by The Times, details the possible chemical and biological arsenal that British and US Forces could face in an invasion of Iraq. The paper suggests that Iraq has huge stockpiles of anthrax, may be developing long-range missiles and could possess chemical and biological R400 aerial bombs and Scud missiles, and even smallpox.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, told his fellow Security Council Foreign Ministers that the document was a“chilling read”.

General Powell resorted to reading passages from the paper out loud in the Council chamber. He pointed out that it chronicled nearly 30 times when Iraq had failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate its claims, and 17 instances when inspectors uncovered evidence that contradicted those claims. But his draft copy, dating from a meeting of the inspectors’ advisory board last week, did not contain the crucial passage about the new drone.

The decision by Dr Blix to declassify the internal report marks the first time the UN has made public its suspicions about Iraq’s banned weapons programmes, rather than what it has been able to actually confirm. “Unmovic has credible information that the total quantity of biological warfare agent in bombs, warheads and in bulk at the time of the Gulf War was 7,000 litres more than declared by Iraq. This additional agent was most likely all anthrax,” it says.

The report says there is “credible information” indicating that 21,000 litres of biological warfare agent, including some 10,000 litres of anthrax, was stored in bulk at locations around the country during the war and was never destroyed.

The paper, a collection of 29 “clusters” of questions for Iraq, offers some reassurance about Iraq’s missing botulinum toxin, which Unmovic believed is “unlikely to retain much, if any, of its potency” if it has been stockpiled since 1991.

[Rocky]

Then why was it pulled?

[Howlin]

Yes, I did. And I do not trust people who put up a rationale on their web page either.....LOL.

[Howlin]

I have no idea, unless it got banned and all it's posts were pulled, which is what I understand happens when one is banned.

[Ethyl]

"Our people should have uncovered this for themselves."

They have and presented it to the UN and then Blix comes out and says we're lying...

Well I guess in this case, we weren't...


The quote above was not by me, I was responding to it.

[PhiKapMom]

Reminds me of the people that call Rush and tell him they have listend all those years and then proceed to trash Republicans and Rush. Seminar Callers -- maybe we have seminar posters now!

[marajade]

Thanks for the clarification... Next time to make it easier don't forget the quotes please...

[Torie]

Foxnews has a show on now that says this drone is the one Powell mentioned flying around in circles that has a range of 300 kilometers (within easy range of Israel and where the US troops are in theater), that Iraq denied having. It was not mentioned in the 167 page report Blix distributed before his presentation, but was added and buried in an amended 173 page report distributed after the meeting. He clearly didn't want it discussed in the meeting because he feared it would serve as fodder for war, and Blix doesn't want war. And that's the poop.

[MaeWest]

If they simply disliked Bush but supported the policy, they could keep fairly quiet. If they didn't like the current policy and had changed their minds, they would be explaining WHY they changed their minds. Instead, they are acting as nuts as Scott Ritter, whicih leads me to believe they are as compromised as he is.

I fear at the end of the day we will discover that the US has been betrayed by some at home who at one time swore an oath to defend this nation.

I wonder if this will end up with the equivalent of the Nuremburg Trials?

[Dolphy]

Have you seen the thread that says that the UN is investigating us for spying?

[Mo1]

From your profile page

"I have been a lurker for around 8 years,"

8 YEARS???

[tlrugit]

Remember those reports of someone possibly shipping drones into the US some time back?

It would be easy to ship them. I'd load 'em in a container with a bunch of other stuff. Zillions of containers enter the US every day; impossible, for practical reasons, to search them all.

[Howlin]

Well, MSNBC had people on that said just the opposite. I wish we could get a CLARIFICATION, but I guess we'll not have a clarification of anything concerning this war.

For instance, both Chris Matthews and Pat Caddel said on Chris' show tonight that the Bush administration and Powell had "manufactured" evidence about nuclear weapons in Iraq and they both quoted a Wash Post article from today and said that it was equivalent to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution because we FABRICATED the information.

However, if you actually READ the Wash Post article, it says NO SUCH thing......it clearly says that we were just as duped as Blair was and that we gave it to Blix "in good faith."

I'm sick of the lot of them, to be honest.

[Howlin]

Yes.

More BS.

[longtermmemmory]

made in france or germany?

[marajade]

Are those the supposed letters that El Bardai (sp?) talked about?

[Dolphy]

I shouldn't read this stuff late at night...anger keeps me up:)

[MaeWest]

Actually it started as the Whitewater Bulletin Board on Prodigy in '94, I think it was. There were a lot of complaints about Prodigy censoring posts. When people started going to ISPs Jim Robinson started this site and invited everyone to move over here.

[Ethyl]

"Our people should have uncovered this for themselves."

---

Don't look Ethyl... too late... she already got a shot. [the streak]

Read my post again, I was answering an uninformed poster, but I did look.

[Torie]

The Foxnews program had a Brit on who seemed pretty authoritative about the discrepancy between the 167 page report and the 173 page report. Who did MSNBC have on?

[Howlin]

I fear at the end of the day we will discover that the US has been betrayed by some at home who at one time swore an oath to defend this nation.

Tonight, for the very first time, I fear the very same thing.

This article does NOT help my thought process either. We may very well be being sandbagged.

UN plan to give Saddam 72 hours to leave Baghdad