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Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops' (See Para #2 of story -- MUST READ)
London Times ^ | 8 March 2003 | James Bone

Posted on 03/08/2003 7:27:51 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: blix; drone; drones; lies
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To: marajade
I'm in the mood to pick up a bat right now and go bash some heads....are you coming? < /ends unlady like rant >
161 posted on 03/08/2003 9:33:30 PM PST by Calpernia
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To: Howlin
Who do you think is hiding something? Those who oppose us?
162 posted on 03/08/2003 9:34:19 PM PST by Dolphy
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To: Dolphy
Yes. All of them. It's like a concerted effort to destroy this country, IMO.
163 posted on 03/08/2003 9:34:55 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: PhiKapMom
What else has Blix not reported on that they have found?

Good Question

164 posted on 03/08/2003 9:34:57 PM PST by Mo1 (RALLY FOR AMERICA - VALLEY FORGE,PA MARCH 16, 2003 1:00 PM)
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To: Howlin
My original screenname:

That is funny. I can understand why you changed it, but why did you?

165 posted on 03/08/2003 9:35:37 PM PST by Spunky
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To: Calpernia
Bush has the patience of a saint...
166 posted on 03/08/2003 9:35:44 PM PST by marajade
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To: marajade
I know this may be stupid, but I honestly do not believe any of them would lie to us.

I trust them with my life and the lives of my family and friends.
167 posted on 03/08/2003 9:36:22 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: marajade
Did you catch Powell saying that he gave them a report from the European country detailing the purchase of those tubes??!!! Is that public information??? Anyone else have more detail on that? I will do some investigating.
168 posted on 03/08/2003 9:37:04 PM PST by Calpernia
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To: Howlin
I agree with you, it has only recently become entirely clear to me. It is about oil and breaking the back of our economy. The French, Germans, Russians, etc. are happy to invest in Iraq and their state run oil operations, they fear privatization. And look further into their investments in Iran. What turns my stomach is that we want to push democracy, these countries are happy with the status quo tyrants and oppressive societies.
169 posted on 03/08/2003 9:37:47 PM PST by Dolphy
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To: Spunky
When I first came here, I worked for a cable chat room and used Howlin there. They didn't want me posting on a board like this using Howlin; so I picked stalker; unoriginal as hell. When I left the chat room, I reregistered as the name most people knew me by.
170 posted on 03/08/2003 9:38:17 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: marajade
I do too and I pray they live up to the faith we have in them.
171 posted on 03/08/2003 9:39:04 PM PST by bonfire
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To: Howlin
"It's like a concerted effort to destroy this country, IMO."

But why? They'd all be bankrupt or have no freedom if it wasn't for the blood spilled by us...
172 posted on 03/08/2003 9:39:42 PM PST by marajade
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To: Dolphy
You bet your butt it's about oil:

UN plan to give Saddam 72 hours to leave Baghdad
Sunday Herald ^ | 3/8/03

Posted on 03/08/2003 10:47 PM EST by areafiftyone

SADDAM Hussein and his family are to be given 72 hours on Tuesday to accept an offer of exile, while 50 of Iraq's top military brass will be offered an amnesty in return for full co-operation with the United Nations in a secret plan to be tabled at its New York headquarters. The highly sensitive proposal was tabled by Pakistan during a closed-door meeting of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council on Friday and was brokered by Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and moderate Arab states. Failure by Saddam to agree to the plan would clear the way for war.

If the proposal, understood to be in the form of a short paragraph, becomes part of a second resolution and is adopted by the Security Council, the UN would oversee the establishment of a post-Saddam government and the UN, not the US, would take stewardship of Iraq's oilfields.

The Iraqi generals and top ranking officers would have to co-operate fully with UN inspectors to oversee the total elimination of any weapons of mass destruction.

Pope John Paul II has dispatched his emissaries to meet all the key parties during the past two weeks. His special envoy and per manent observer at the UN, Archbishop Renato Rafaele Martino, has been discussing the proposal with all the Security Council members.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former Papal Nuncio, met with President George W Bush, while Cardinal Angelo Sodano has met with Tony Blair. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray met with Saddam in Baghdad and discussed the subject of exile, which he said Saddam did not rule out.

American sources have confirmed that the US and Jordan have recently discussed the prospect of using the UN to offer a formal exile and amnesty package to Saddam and his inner circle.

Last month, Saddam rejected informal pleas to choose exile over war. But the US is aware that one of the attractions of an amendment that extends the offer to his family and military leaders is the likelihood it may trigger a coup, leading to his assassination by a member of his inner circle.

It is thought that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, would push for a safe passage out rather than face a cataclysmic end in a Baghdad bunker. 'Uday might be the first to shoot his father if he refused an amnesty,' one senior Jordan official is quoted as saying.

The proposed amendment is still at a low rung on the UN procedural ladder but the non-permanent members believe it represents a last best chance to avert a war. But, from the Security Council's point of view, it offers a compromise that would allow its members to unite and vote for a second resolution.

UN sources have also indicated that a second resolution on Tuesday with the March 17 ultimatum -- incorporating an offer of exile -- would provide an attractive compromise that would let the French to come on board without 'losing face' or appearing to have capitulated to the US.

173 posted on 03/08/2003 9:40:45 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: Calpernia
"Is that public information???"

I don't know... the History Channel had in their show tonight...
174 posted on 03/08/2003 9:40:46 PM PST by marajade
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To: PhiKapMom
>>>hiding plenty if you ask me

Did anyone see my post today from Uday? Someone bumped it to War* and someone analyzed it as Uday sounding worried. It had to do with how resolution 1441 went.
175 posted on 03/08/2003 9:41:08 PM PST by Calpernia
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To: marajade
They want to put the U.N. over the entire world.
176 posted on 03/08/2003 9:41:39 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: Howlin
That article makes my blood boil. Saddam in exile would be devastating for the people in Iraq. Anyone that thinks he would keep his hands off Iraq, better think again.

UN should have no say in Iraq IMO! Time for us to start bombing like yesterday!
177 posted on 03/08/2003 9:42:07 PM PST by PhiKapMom (Get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US)
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To: Calpernia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/860029/posts
178 posted on 03/08/2003 9:42:41 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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To: Howlin
"They want to put the U.N. over the entire world."

The people of this country would never stand for that...
179 posted on 03/08/2003 9:42:55 PM PST by marajade
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To: PhiKapMom
Now it's all about us not coming out victorious. I honestly believe that. And they will literally agree to give him ANYTHING to cause us to lose face.
180 posted on 03/08/2003 9:43:32 PM PST by Howlin (Only UNamericans put the UN before America!)
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