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.

[Dolphy]

"They'd all be bankrupt or have no freedom if it wasn't for the blood spilled by us...

Japan seems to have some memory of this, they support us without reservation, including the March 17 date. France and Germany on the other hand can't seem to recall any good that comes from war.

[marajade]

Thank God for Japan and Tony Blair... Did you see the latest poll in Britain? More are for war than against... Ain't life grand?

[Mo1]

OK .. thanks, I'll to look for it

[Dolphy]

The UN in control of the oilfields...and we all know where the United States stacks up in the UN after these last several months.

[Howlin]

Tom Daschle thinks we should check everything with the U.N. before we do it.

Remember, the Democrats are PRAYING Bush loses this war so they can regain power.

Don't be so sure they wouldn't sell our sovereignty out once they are in charge.

[Howlin]

That's exactly why all these "amendments" and "offers" are flying fast and furious.

They know they are getting ready to be irrelevant and are going to be totally closed out.

[Calpernia]

>>>>The French, Germans, Russians, etc. are happy to invest in Iraq and their state run oil operations, they fear privatization.

Interesting! Back in...1999? Maylasia's PM gave a G/d awful speech to the WTO (World Trade Organization) opposing Globalization. After that speech he implemented Vision 2020. This objective was to shift world powers to the east against us, the west. The goal is to make the eastern hemisphire totally independent of the western hemisphere. I wonder how tied in all this is to Vision 2020. (can produce documents if interested)

[Dolphy]

I have a friend who is a journalist in NYC (major network) and he tells me he might have to cancel a trip next week because word is the war will start. He got the Gulf War date right and it's an important trip he would be cancelling.

I hope we push the vote for Tuesday AM and bomb that night.

[PhiKapMom]

I think so too! They will do anything to take us down IMO. They must know that Pres Bush is not overly impressed with the UN (to put it mildly) and Cheney is even a lot less impressed!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Thursday or Friday, Russia ordered all it's citizens to leave Iraq.

[Calpernia]

Now let's tie in a few things to this. #1...Go read my post on Uday. He said Iraq would not trade oil to anyone that helped us. #2...I'm becoming more suspicious on that Vision 2020 goal Maylasia stated. I will post more on Vision 2020. Not sure I can do it tonight though. It is 1:00am here.

[PhiKapMom]

Where was daschle and co. when clinton went into Serbia? I don't remember any words about going to the UN then!

[Howlin]

Well, one of the reports on there says Saudi Arabia has ordered one of their airports closed after Wednesday.

[Calpernia]

I think you are right. Saddam is only the head of the B'aath Party. That is the 'ruling party" of the Arab Tent (=Arab League).

[Dolphy]

I would be interested in those documents when you get a chance. It's 1:00 AM here too, but I start reading this stuff and get so angry I can't sleep:)

[marajade]

That's because he had a D by his name and even the gang from NOW supported it...

[Mo1]

**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.**


THere have been a number of countries that are reportly wanted to knock us down a peg or two

Even if they do .. the problem of Saddam still exists and then what will they do

BTW .. have you seen this one


Moscow warns US on unilateral Iraq strike as Baghdad scraps more missiles
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/860258/posts

[Spunky]

I have a question. Your profile says you registered as Howlin on 7/1/99. Those links you showed Stalker posted on were in 2002. If you were Stalker and now Howlin how were you able to have two different names posting at the same time on FreeRepublic?

[PhiKapMom]

Russia ordered their people out on Thursday and Japan on Friday of last week!

[marajade]

They were about Iraq supposedly trying to buy uranium from some country in Niger... the US and Britain thought they were legit and it turned out they were fake...

On the other hand, the drones are the real thing...