Photos Prove Connection Between Iraq and Al-Qaeda Terrorists

Rush Limbaugh ^ | March 14, 2003

[Republican_Strategist]

Photos Prove Connection Between Iraq and Al-Qaeda Terrorists
March 14, 2003
About 20 minutes before show time, we posted satellite imagery of Salman Pak - home of the terrorist training center in Iraq we've been telling you about. I want to thank Gary Napier and his whole staff from Space Imaging, Inc. for these images from their IKONOS satellite. It's not in geo synchronous orbit, so they can move it to map, measure and monitor anywhere on earth. The third of the three shots zeros in on what looks like a Boeing 727 fuselage to me. Everyone says it's a 707, but its wings would be farther forward if that were the case. So it's probably a 727, or at least a tri-jet. One of the stories I read this week and put into Rush's Saddam Stack of Stuff in researching all this, cited Aviation Week and Space Technology's article on this facility. This confirms the existence of that fuselage, which Iraqi defectors including Captain Sabah Khodada warned America about.
Jet Fuselage in Salman Pak, Iraq Used to Train Al-Qaeda Terrorists
UN inspectors say this was once and could still be the site of BW research. The facility includes a terrorism training facility where they train on this civilian airliner. (Read the chilling transcript.) The entire facility sits in an ox bow of the Tigris River, 25 km south of Baghdad. This series of shots gradually gets closer to the plane’s fuselage, located at the southern (bottom) part of the facility, above the bend in the river. IKONOS travels 423 miles above the earth's surface at a speed of 17,500mph, but it's done a better job of pointing this out than the UN Inspectors who saw it on the ground.

[nutmeg]

Wow, thanks for the ping.

[dinodino]

Apeman is correct in saying that it doesn't matter anyway what sort of fuselage was used for terror training; the issue is rather that it was used at all. I still think it's a Tupolev. :P

[photogirl]

bump

[Robert_Paulson2]

[r9etb]

Excuse me; make that 5 ft. longer, and that is being very generous.

So now you're measuring down to the IKONOS pixel resolution of the picture, using that (bogus) computation to tell us it can't possibly be a jet?

The real question in my mind is why you so obviously don't want it to be what it so obviously is.

[Robert_Paulson2]

[r9etb]

The position of the wings in relation to the fuselage matched with the apparent lack of shadow strongly suggest to me that the wings in question are not attached to the fuselage.

Is this the same plane? Sure looks like it: tri-jet with no vertical stabilizer and a cockeyed wing. Time magazine calls this part of an "antiterrorist training camp in Iraq."

[struwwelpeter]

I don't think they'd trash a Tu-154 or 134 for this, and the scale of the roads makes me wonder that it's not quite a bit smaller.

I'm thinking short-hopper like a Yak-40

[Bohemund]

Great find.

[apeman81]

The picture you provide displays a sizable tree aft of and in relatively close proximity to, the aircraft. The satellite image shows the aircraft to be in a barren spot.

The satellite photo does show a clump of tress to the rear and to the right of the fuselage as viewed from the nose. Given the 152 ft length of the 727, I estimate the distance from trees to aircraft tail at a tad more than 1000 ft. The trees in the photo, judging from their height relative to the 20 ft high top the engine, appear to quite a bit closer. Less than 200 ft, I should say. Of course, it could be a 727/100 series, which gives it a 134 ft length, decreasing the distance from tail to trees to about 830 ft. Still to distant for the ground photo.

If this is a 727, as has been suggested, the location of the wing in relation to the tail engine cowling is all wrong in the satellite photo. The distance between the trailing edge of the wing at the fuselage and the front beginning of the vertical stabilizer that house the engine cowling is approximately 25 feet. In the satellite photo, the trailing edge of the wing and the beginning of the vertical stabilizer appear to be at the same point. I don’t believe the wing in the satellite photo is attached. The wing in the ground photo clearly is.

It is, of course, difficult to say. The purely academic point of whether it is the same airframe is fun to explore, however.

Any evidence that the photo you sent is located at the same place as depicted in the satellite photo?

[apeman81]

Very nice! The Yak-40 does show some promise as a match for the satellite photo. Notice the extremely short relative distance from the trailing edge of the wing to the forward area of the engine/vertical stabilizer.

However, the Yak-40’s wingspan, at 82 ft, is about 25% longer than its length of 66 ft. In the satellite photo, length and wingspan are very close to equal.

The Yak-42 fits the bill quite nicely. A similar short distance between trailing edge of wing and cowling of engine. And the Yak-42’s 114 ft wingspan is nearly identical as its length of 119 ft.

I think struwwelpeter has lead me to a winner!

[algol]

Every suggestion on this webpage, for which a top view silouhette can be found, has been overlayed. No matches ... yet.

The Trident looks like a match. Not the best Trident silhouette, but I've superimposed half of it over the satellite photo, also chopped and rotated the horizontal tail into place over the other "structure".

Looks like a match to me.

[cmsgop]

Ya Done Good! My next thought would be a VC-10, Nah!

[struwwelpeter]

Too late to add a few ringers for consideration?

[Jhoffa_]

That is not a jet aircraft.

It's not a 707

The Boeing 707

---

The "terrorist training" aircraft:

[struwwelpeter]

This 707 casts a rather strange shadow ;-)

[cmsgop]

I just wanted to say goodnight! Don't worry though,Im still on the Casting Couch Thingy..........

[Jhoffa_]

Cool, we'll be regular pimp daddies in no time flat..

[struwwelpeter]

Seriously, I don't think there's a need to look for zebras when you hear hoofbeats. Iraq historically bought a lot of Soviet aircraft, and a few French. The photo with Ritter looks a lot like a Tu-154 "Careless". It might make a good trainer given the similarity to the 757 seating.

Tupolev-154

[aeronca]

Another Article on Worldnet Daily

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31546