Rockets launched at hotel were French

[LiberalBushFan]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003492786,00.html

A BAGHDAD hotel where US defence chief Paul Wolfowitz was staying was
yesterday blitzed by rockets made in FRANCE.

Half of the missiles fired were modern French weapons, said experts--
produced after the arms embargo imposed on Iraq following the first Gulf
War.

The shock discovery will further fuel growing concern over blackmarket
French arms links with Islamic terrorists.

...

[Rose Siding]

1. 20-30 attacks a day and this is the first time

that the country of origin of the weapons has been mentioned.

[papau]

12. It's by the Sun- and as credible as the New York Post . Wash Times, or Fox

not saying that the Bush media is full of liars - they just have problems with fact checking.

[Kellanved]

34. Of course: like the NYPost it's owned by Murdoch

As is Fox for that matter.

[Drifter]

28. That's because up until now ...

they were most likely American (or American Ally) weapons.

It's just like those Surrender Monkey French to be supplying Iraq with weapons to kill Americans.

Bring Our Soldiers Home NOW ...
So we can send them to France.

</sarcasm off>

Cheers
Drifter

[underpants]

29. This is at least the third time the 20-30 number has been mentioned

Just after Baghdad fell it was 20-30, a couple of months ago (early Sept.) Sanchez said 25-30, and now this. In other words the number of attacks have not changed.

[rooboy]

2. Newsflash...

the nuclear reactor in Israel was also supplied by FRANCE.

[Spazito]

3. Yeah, the "experts" have been wrong 100% of the time, so far...

so, pardon me, if I don't believe them now.

[Caution]

4. Big deal?

The vast majorityt of the arms in and around Iraq are American made and were sold through the Reagan administration. I'm less concerned about where weapons are made and sold then I am about an admnistration waging a war of aggression against a foreign power and continued occupation of their territory against overwhelming evidence that they are not wanted there.

[jabbo]

11. I'm afraid you're wrong

about this. Check

http://projects.sipri.se/armstrade/atirq_data.html

and this

http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=dissidentfrogman&uid=14915553&tab=weblogs#Scene_1

[newyawker99]

14. Hi jabbo!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[karlschneider]

18. Huh??????

:grr:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

27. Interesting... Absolutely nothing sold to Iraq after 1990 and the USSR

was the major supplier up until then with 54% of the sales followed by France with 13% and China with 12%.

Food for thought there.

[jamesinca]

38. These are conventional weapons

It says nothing about Nuclear, Biological or Chemical. These things were sold prior to the embargo. Black market selling goes on all the time. Do you remember the story earlier in the year about the guy who bought the missle and was going to use it to down an American aircraft here in the states? As the foreign press and foreign officials said, 1 rocket is not even worth mentioning compared to the amount of things being sold on the black market. Mostly what that story did was give Bush a photo-op about how good his national defense is, that was it. By the way, some college kid destroyed that myth of national security and so did ABC news with the uranium from Indonesia. Conventional weapons have not been a point of contention, it is WMD and things sold after the embargo of the '90s.

Look at the entire issue, can you hold the French responsible for the black market? If you say they are responsible for the munitions that are being stolen and they need more control, then you have to give President Clinton credit for a strong military and national security, unless U.S. weapons are found. If you are just going to blame the French because the CONVENTIONAL weapons said France on them, then you must blame th U.S. for the WMD used on the Iraqi people in the '80s. And that has not happened because Reagon, GHW Bush and Rumsfeld are not in jail or being tried for crimes against humanity. Do they hate us for our freedoms, or our hypocrisy? Look at the entire issue.

[DemVet]

53. No.

The former Soviet Union/Russia, China, and France sold the bulk of the weapons in Iraq's inventory. I don't support our policy over there, but it doesn't help our cause to twist the facts. Stating info like this makes us look foolish. Peace. :)

[SoCalDem]

5. Of course they were..

:eyes:.. Everyone knows that Chirac sent them to Iraq last week..:eyes:

[maggrwaggr]

6. "Freedom" missiles

I suppose........

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. Yeah, sure. So, the Iraqis couldn't have purchased...

...those French missiles through a third party?

More crap from the Masters of Crap.

[shamanstar]

8. i guess

we know what needs to be done now.

[tridim]

9. I wonder who made the other "half" of the rockets?

Seems like we're missing half the story.

[Cronus Protagonist]

36. No kidding - I'll bet you they were made in America

Click Here To See Fair & Balanced Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. Homemade?

Earlier they said the missiles were "homemade" - that they took months to construct. This was used to spin the "Wolfowitz was not the target" story.

Maybe that's the "Other half", or maybe someone said "OOO-OOO, What if we say they're French?".

[tlb]

50. No, the LAUNCHER was described as homemade.

The cart from which the rockets were fired was made up to look ordinary. The rockets were always described as a mix of french and Russian weapons.

[number six]

15. Oh yeah...The Sun

They're the ones whose headline was "GOTCHA" when the Brits sank the Belgrano during the Falklands Conflict. Great track record. So the missile parts were French. We all know France (and just about everyone else) sold Saddam weapons in the 80's. So they stockpiled some weapons. Big deal.

[sam sarrha]

16. Due to the lack of soldiers there are several Amo dumps, some over 4 miles

square..totally unprotected. I heard in CNN that anyone could back up and load tons of C4 on a truck. no one there to protect it. there are also current charges that "W" ignored long standing info on invasion needs and went in with 1/4 of what was needed.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. What's so damned shocking about this?

I can buy an Uzi today, but that doesn't mean Israel sold it to me. If I buy an AK-47, it doesn't mean I bought it from the Soviet Union.

This is just more France smearing.

[karlschneider]

19. Exactly! n/t

[underpants]

22. Exactly

I read this within another thread and knew it was going to get it's own headline. Sadam bought a tone of stuff from everybody and apparently overpaid on all of it. So what the missiles were made in France, did the French fire them? No it was probably Iraqis or the streams of people this action brought to Iraq.

The gas used to kill the Kurds and the Iranians was derivative of the agents sold to Iraq and made WHERE again?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. Wolfie's just pissed because they weren't made in the USA...

How dare the Iraqis buy missiles from France instead of us!

[underpants]

21. He can rest assured that the WMD programs were

Hows that? Will that make him feel better.

[Skittles]

23. HA HA, HA HA HA HA

OMG, they are getting SO F***ING DESPERATE.

[underpants]

24. I'll bet the hotel had one of them "concierge" 's too

Which is French. Maybe the inside guy??? ;-)

[Spazito]

25. ROFL!

Thanks, I needed a good laugh!

[schultzee]

26. Could this be another administration lie? To lead us off track

because there are so many attacks daily, and they don't want us to think about it. I for one want us to have good relations with Europe again.

[Barrett808]

30. Not surprising - France was the first western power to do big arms deals

with Iraq. Then the other Western UNSC nations joined in. France makes good weapons -- remember the Exocet.

[0007]

31. This is about as funny as "French ticklers"

only made by the french, and only used by the french!

[yella_dawg]

32. Have you heard the rumor...

that Clinton's Penis was developed in France?

[shirlden]

33. Remember when the Polish soldiers

found the French made anti-aircraft misiles in Iraq a few weeks ago? Well, that was a bullcrap also. Check out the story here.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2137676

Sorry, Shrub, you just can't get those lies past us like you used to. We are on to you.

:argh:

[bahrbearian]

37. Good Catch.

[DemVet]

54. Actually, if you read the story...

...the date the missiles were made is in doubt, not that they were French. Accuracy is important.

[Ashcroft Kutcher]

35. damn french

to think all this time, the conservo assholes were right

[DemoTex]

39. Ever been to the Paris Air Show? I have as an aviation writer.

It is one bizarre arms sales bazaar. The French sell Exocets, the Chinese hawk their Silkworm, and the biggest arms exporter of them all, the granddaddy of world-armamant, the good old USA, sells just about anything to just about anybody. That's why the world is so fucked up now. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Peace,
Mac

[Skittles]

40. DEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE SEVEN MONTH DALLAS SUMMER IS FINALLY OVER! There was COOL WIND today. Are you gone for good ????

[DemoTex]

43. Nope! I will be back in a week or so.

Got to sell that house in Dallas, though!

[tinnypriv]

41. Actual Sun headline: "WMD: THE PROOF"

Somebody had found some castor beans in Iraq at the time.

Seriously.

[tinnypriv]

42. Oh

And it was overlaid on a pic of a missile. :D

[IndianaGreen]

44. "Freedom" rockets

to go with our "freedom" fries, in our "free" Iraq.

[Iverson]

52. you beat me to it, IG

I was thinking "freedom firebombs" when I saw the headline.

[DivinBreuvage]

45. Think of the bright side, guys...

When they reinstate the draft, maybe you'll be assigned to "Operation We Done Saved Yore Ass Twice And This is the Thanks We Git: The Liberation of France" rather than to Iraq, Syria, Iran, or North Korea. Wouldn't that be nice? Try especially to get assigned to the southern invasion force.

Dang, fellers, when I was a little farmhand I used to git me a kick out'n blowin up frogs with firecrackers. Now that I'm Prezadink just lookit all the cool crap I kin blow em up with now!

Françoise

[PurityOfEssence]

46. Even if it's true, it means nothing

unless they can trace the sale to an entity that was shady. If the ordnance was sold by a French company to a party that was legally allowed to purchase them, then this means nothing unless a case can be made that the French company knew of questionable intentions from their customer.

Hey, remember when the U.S.S. Stark was hit by a missile from one of the planes of our ally/friend/cohort/stooges Iraq? That was an Exocet fired from a Super-Etendard. Funny how nobody talks about that incident today...

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

47. Anthtrax mail attacks--that anthrax was made in the U.S.A.

Did we ever hear much about that?
it was confirmed to have been made in the good ol U.S.of A
Remember anthrax?

[Cocoa]

48. missiles looked like John Kerry

according to military sources.

[PurityOfEssence]

49. Tee hee hee

I'm sure some would say that they changed course too...

He's not "my guy" right now, but I think his approach regarding the way this administration's been pursuing this reckless mess displays integrity and wisdom.

So where's a guy get that "Kerry Gone Wild" video?

And how the hell did this cat get his face on the $20 bill, anyway?

[jonoboy]

51. havent made them recently

the French say they stopped manufacturing this type of missile in 1993