UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

[YIMA]

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program.

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html
---------------------------------------

A friend just e-mailed this to me. What are we to make of this?

[MattNC]

1. i came across that earlier

I tend to take everything off World Tribune with a grain of salt, but those are certainly some strong claims they make nonetheless. I'll remain cautious about it until I hear about it from a more credible news source.

[YIMA]

2. Oh

If you came across it earlier on LBN, I apologize to all concerned for any double-postings of the same story.

[MattNC]

11. i saw it linked off drudge n/t

[Hoping4Change]

5. Low-down on World Tribune from the New Yorker.

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030908ta_talk_mcgrath

[CharlesGroce]

16. good link

explains a lot.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Blews? More like Blows.

[radwriter0555]

32. *snarf* Lemme know when the WHITE HOUSE holds the press conference

on this, after all, I'm SURE the World Tribune (friend to alien lovers) scooped this.

[salin]

36. bwahahaha... I forgot that item, nor tied it to this

source... good catch.

What a farce of a source.

[Terran]

43. This explains it all (from the New Yorker):

"Its editor and publisher, Robert Morton, is an assistant managing editor at the Washington Times..."

Well, there you go.

[Carmerian]

3. Treat "news" that breaks in World Tribune as suspicious

World Tribune is affiliated with the Moonie Times.

[qanda]

4. On May 1, 2003 Bush* stood atop an aircraft carrier and proclaimed

Mission Accomplished!!! I cannot see how Saddam was shipping out anything from hideaway in the ground. This sounds like the same crap we were told to believe before the war, just repackaged. Also, I thought that America was in charge of the weapons hunt and so they are probably feeding the UN any information it receives.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. What are we to make of this?

Little or nothing.

Why?

Because if this were true, it would be knocking the funeral off of the front pages of every paper in the world. The maladministration would see to it. That's why.

Remember: The inspectors oversaw a lot of materiel destruction.

[Garion_55]

7. One HUGE problem with this article...

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.







Who had control of baghdad in may 2003??

[bluedog]

9. check out the dates!!

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war.

Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003,

and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

HHHHmmmmm....I'm thinking the US Military and George have a lot of explaining to do considering the invasion was March of 2003.

[LiberalFighter]

27. Whoa... gw* moved the WMD!!! Why??

Because it would incriminate them?

[Fridays Child]

10. Bingo!

[maggrwaggr]

15. DOH!!

Nice catch.

[UpInArms]

8. make mud pies of it

who controlled Iraq from April 2003 until February 2004?

this is utter garbage

:puke:

[Dr Fate]

12. Our sattelite thingys would have caught that...

...or am I wrong?

The "before" part is the most suspicious- if true,wouldnt they have have used this info to "make the case?"

[struggle4progress]

13. Garbled version of a real story

Suspicious material moved out of Iraq
Equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been removed from Iraqi sites since the war started and shipped abroad, the head of the U.N. inspectors office told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Demetrius Perricos, deputy to the former chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, and now the acting executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, told a closed session of the council that many of the items bear tags placed by U.N. inspectors naming them as materials having the suspected capabilities for creating harmless consumer products as well as unconventional weapons.

Perricos accompanied his briefing with a report showing satellite photos of a fully built-up missile site near Baghdad in May 2003, and the same site denuded in February 2004.

<snip>
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/153762-7958-010.html


Once again, it's a US failure to secure sites and materials. If Saddam had WMDs, the US let them be looted.

[notbush]

14. Wasn't the invasion in March 2003?

Some explaining indeed.

[struggle4progress]

18. Yes. The point is that a large amount of material ...

has been stripped out of Iraq and sent to scrapyards around the world. This looting occurred AFTER the invasion and is apparently on-going.

None of it shows Saddam had WMDs, and I don't think he had them. But if he did, the Administration's failure to secure Iraqi sites would have enabled almost anybody to take the stuff.

Google it, if you're interested. There are plenty of stories. Alkso some earlier threads here at DU on the subject.

[leesa]

19. Right. And despite high-tech observation and continuous surveillance

we couldn't find nary a one! Imagine that!

[jayfish]

20. Although Subtle,The Deception Never Ends.

The headline reads "shipped out WMD before war and after" while the very first line of the story says "weapons of mass destruction components". Ferchrissakes, give us all a break already!

Jay

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. "Subtle" in terms of large lead ballons.

[jayfish]

25. To The "Average Joe" conswerve? Probably Not.

That headline alone eliminates the need to actually read the story.

Jay

[markses]

21. Here's what anyone with any brains makes of it

1) World Tribune is a conservative rag with absolutely no credibility at the start of it. This article further damages its credibility with outright lies and cleverly worded deceptions. So, on to those clownish statements.

2) The UNMOVIC report to the UN Security Council concerned looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Let's take a closer look at the wording. Here's the initial claim:

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

The question reasonable people ask: Is it shown to be true in the remainder of the article? Here's one of the supports:

The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

Um, last I checked, Saddam had already been deposed in May 2003, so how was it that a satellite photograph showing a site in May 2003 and then February 2004 could demonstrate anything that Saddam had done? Simple answer: such photographs can't show any such thing. Strike UNO, for those keeping score. (What's worse is that the World tribune expects its readers to be so gullible and ignorant to believe that this paragraph supports the initial contention!).

Next: UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the council on June 9 that "the only controls at the borders are for the weight of the scrap metal, and to check whether there are any explosive or radioactive materials within the scrap," Middle East Newsline reported.

"It's being exported," Perricos said after the briefing. "It's being traded out. And there is a large variety of scrap metal from very new to very old, and slowly, it seems the country is depleted of metal."

"The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks," Perricos told the council. Perricos also reported that inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.

All this shows is that the US has done a piss poor job of securing sites and materials, especially if these materials had already been checked by UN inspectors! Get it: They already had tags. That means that they weren't dangerous, or were already turned in according to agreements. No unaccounted for "WMD" components here. Same with the al-Samoud 20's. These were famously turned in only weeks before the war, on the laughable pretext that they travelled 15 km past the agreed upon limit. These were already accounted for by UN inspectors, and allowed to slip away in the bizarre and incompetent US occupation. We won't even talk about the open policy allowing looters to grab thousands of RPG rounds and launchers, which eventually ended up killing our own troops, because to pile more charges of incompetence upon the irredeemably stupid Donald Rumsfeld seems a wasted operation, since he is already manifestly the most hare-brained SECDEF in US history. Strike ZWEI. Moving swiftly on:

He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East. at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month. Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey.

No please, conservative rag World Tribune, tell us WHAT MONTHS you are referring to!

Next: The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters – the latter required for the production of chemical and biological warheads.

"It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for," Ewen Buchanan, Perricos's spokesman, said. "You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax."

Was this site already in control of UNMOVIC prior to the illegal US invasion? If so, it looks like our invasion has made more of a mess than we even expected. Nice job, Bush and Co.!

UN inspectors have assessed that the SA-2 and the short-range Al Samoud surface-to-surface missile were shipped abroad by agents of the Saddam regime. Buchanan said UNMOVIC plans to inspect other sites, including in Turkey.

In April, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohammed El Baradei said material from Iraqi nuclear facilities were being smuggled out of the country.

Once again, WHEN WHEN WHEN? Any reasonable person would ask this question: When was this smuggling going on. Of course, the article doesn't answer the basic journalistic question WHEN because the result would be utterly embarrassing: The WHEN is post-Saddam Iraq. Here's what the article hides in its mist of propaganda illusions: The UN inspectors were doing their jobs. Saddam Hussein was complying with their program. The US invasion happened, and all material confiscated and secured by UN inspectors was looted in the subsequent chaos. Much of it is being sold as scrap metal. We do not know the nature of the components (ostensibly, they are not as laughably stupid as the nuclear component found rusted in some guy's rose garden, but the hang-mouthed credultiy of our imbecile conservatives is really beyond measure, so who knows). Strike TROIS, as it were. Thanks for playing, you murderous fucking LIARS. This article is so transparently bullshit that I actually feel sorry for the writer, and any reader who believes its initial premise.

[Merlin]

24. Brilliant analysis!

I should have read yours before my pissed off, off-the-cuff rant below.

You hit it on the head. If this is picked up in the majors newspapers I'll be surprised. But, of course Fox and CNN and MSRNC will carry it. Jesus, it might even crowd out a few moments Reagan worship.

[BraveDave]

29. Here is the most recent UNMOVIC report.

In case you wanted to see the source of info for the article.
http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2004-435.pdf

[markses]

30. Thanks for that: The UNMOVIC report demonstrates the World Tribune's lies

The report makes no mention of anything being moved out of the country by Saddam Hussein, and suggests, rather, that the scrap SA-2 engines were looted after the commencement of the US occupation:

"Company (that is, the Dutch scrap metal company at whose yard the SA-2 engines were found) staff confirmed that other items made of stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant metal alloys bearing the inscription "Iraq" or "Baghdad" had been observed in shipments delivered from the Middle East since November 2003" (p. 3).

"It is not known whether such equipment and materials were still present at the sites at the time of coalition action in March and April of 2003. However, it is possible that some of the materials may have been removed from Iraq by looters of sites and sold as scrap" (p. 4).

This second statement is as close as you're going to get to a working hypothesis in diplomatic language regarding the appearance of materials and equipment in Dutch scrapyards. Notice what the report does NOT say: "It is also possible that Saddam Hussein sold his own equipment and material as scrap in March and April of 2003 in order to hide it from the advancing US forces." There's a reason that the report says no such thing: it is a laughable claim on its face, believable by only the most ridiculous, gullible or ideologically blinded elements of the US conservative movement. The report goes on to mention a series of relatively minor and non-dangerous infractions on supposedly dual-use technologies and "long-range" missiles. Of course, the inspections re-initiated in 2002 were working, and there was no need for a murderous war that has thrown the region into chaos, destroyed the image of the United States abroad and increased al-Qaeda's recruiting. This UNMOVIC report only reconfirms the unnecessary character of Mr. Bush's despicable war.

[Merlin]

23. First this is a Moonie pub; a right wing rag with no credibility at all.

The Washington Times wants to compete with the Post's (former) affiliation with the NYT in publishing the Int'l Herald Tribune, so they founded this piece of crap propaganda sheet.

The report itself is simple rodent leavings.

--It makes no sense to say they had satellite pics before and after, but did not identify the site as suspect. Who the hell do they think the sat pics came from? US that's who. We would have killed for WMD info (and did!).

--It is absurd to call rocket casings found in a dump in the Netherlands "WMD components."

--It is nonsense to talk about "explosive or radioactive materials within the scrap" being rapidly shipped across the border by Saddam's minions after the war started. Where did it go? Why? Did somebody buy them? Then why destroy them first? If they couldn't detect it at the border crossings, then what do these morons base their assertion that it was shipped upon?

This is complete and utter campaign crap invented by the Shrubbies. It's probably why * was so animated yesterday. He thinks this is going to save him. I'll bet it isn't even picked up by the majors.

[Joanne98]

26. The whole country was looted

The only thing the US military protected was the OIL ministry. Saddam's old blown up nuclear power plant was looted by Iraqi's who got radiation poisoning. Rummy testified before congress that "Iraqi's took looting to a whole new level". IF the photos are real (and that's a big if) it just shows how little the Bush Administration cared about WMD getting in the hands of terrorists. If Bin Laden does have WMD it's a good chance he got it during the looting of Iraq. It's enough to make you wonder if Bush and Bin Laden are working together. (tinfoil)

[struggle4progress]

39. I think the fact that the Bushistas allowed the looting ...

actually establishes pretty clearly that they weren't really concerned about WMDs. If the Bushistas had believed WMDs existed, they would have made an effort to secure facilities and the countries borders. But, in fact, not even the conventional munitions dumps were really guarded post-invasion, thus enabling the Iraqi resistance to arm itself.

[Joanne98]

45. They care about nothing but themselves

I've never seen anything like it. They're completely devoid of concious. It's just me,me,me,me.... It's greed gone wild. Someone should make a video.

[struggle4progress]

46. "All through the day I me mine I me mine I me mine"?

[Tight_rope]

50. I don't wonder. I'm sure that they are buddies! n/t

[Carolab]

28. Iraq was free of WMD; that's why they ended inspections

Apparently in 2001-2002 the DIA and CIA were not giving Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld intelligence information that would justify a US invasion of Iraq. In fact, it was well known to our intelligence agencies that Iraq's WMD was dormant, and as early as 1998 it was understood that Saddam had no ties to Al Qaeda. <49> To date, no professionals in the CIA, DIA, MI5 or MI6 have provided reliable evidence linking Saddam Hussein to bin Laden, Al Qaeda or to the September 11th attacks. <50> Undeterred, Donald Rumsfeld set up his own secretive and rather autonomous unnamed intelligence unit referred to simply as the "cell." This small group later merged into his other small "intelligence unit" called the Office of Special Plans (OSP).

The purpose of these "intelligence units" was to bypass the CIA and DIA, and to provide "faith-based intelligence" to Vice President Cheney and President Bush. The OSP's sole purpose was to promote the Iraq war. This group self-mockingly referred to themselves the "cabal". <51> The following is a slightly modified chart from the February 2004 edition of Mother Jones. <52>
It is now obvious the main rationales for the Iraq war were developed by a rather unprecedented government conspiracy perpetrated by a small number of radical neoconservatives in the OSP, plus Iraqi exiles in the INC. In essence, the justification for invading of Iraq was a coordinated and transparent pack of fabrications and deceptions -- designed to create the requisite societal fear for an invasion. I suspect the OSP "cabal" will go down in history as the `Office of Special Propaganda.' It is disconcerting that 19 men were able to instill massive levels of irrational fear into the citizenry by creating visions of "mushroom clouds" and "1000 metric tons" of Anthrax.

Of course our elitist, corporate-controlled media dutifully repeated all this propaganda verbatim. Indeed, the 2002-2003 propaganda campaign by the OSP and the Bush administration was designed to portray an "imminent threat" to U.S. national security -- regardless of the facts.

<snip>

Neoconservative Geostrategy is based upon the idea of a US "Global Empire" and therefore it could not be tolerated for any nations, be it France, Russia or China to gain control over 40 billion barrels of Iraqi oil, or for that oil be sold in the euro currency. (This assumes Iraq reserves are in fact 112 billion barrels, of which those three nations would have gained legal exploration access to 35% of Iraq's total reserves -- but only if Iraq was declared by the UN to be free to WMD). The European media has noted that had Dr. Blix and the U.N. inspectors been allowed to complete their `pre-war' inspection process for an estimated 6 more months in 2003, they could have ultimately determined Iraq was indeed free of WMD.

In that scenario, the lease contracts and oil exploration rights that the Russians, French and Chinese held regarding Iraq's oil fields could have been legally initiated. Indeed, lifting the UN sanctions would have allowed foreign investment to begin rebuilding and exporting Iraqi's vast reserves, while simultaneously impeding the ability of major US/UK oil companies to gain access to Iraqi oil given Saddam's dislike of the US/UK post-1991 foreign policies towards Iraq.

Returning to the core macroeconomic reasons for the Iraq war, it should be noted that under the UN's `oil for food' program, the U.N. provided oversight of Iraq's oil receipts, which in 2000 became denominated in euros, and then deposited into a French bank. The passage of UN resolution 1483 effectively ended French involvement with Iraqi oil via the UN `oil for food' program. Incidentally, the various contracts that Saddam Hussein signed during the 1990's regarding oil exploration leases with France, Russia and China are now also void.

<snip>

Apparently until the U.N. sanctions were lifted; Iraq's oil was to remain under UN control in the "oil for food" program. However, UN Resolution 1483 passed on May 22, 2003 establishing a joint US/UK administered "Iraqi Assistance Fund" which provided the mechanism to quietly and legally reconvert Iraqi's oil exports back to the dollar.

(more)
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html#p3a

[Barkley]

31. Great Article with Great Analysis - n/t

[blind_dog]

33. We MUST invade Jordan, The Netherlands, & Turkey at once!!!!!

OMG!! Somebody PLEASE call Dick Cheney on his bunker-phone!!!! We MUST invade Jordan, The Netherlands, & Turkey at once!!!!! Follow the WMDs, Follow the WMD's (follow the follow the follow the follow the.....) !!!! Screw those Windmill Making Dutch!!-HEY!!-that's CODE for WMD!!- we should've known that, dammit!!!! - someone please hire George Tenet back so we can fire him again, oops, I mean so he can resign to be with his family (nod, nod, wink, wink) again!!

Aside to the President -- "Sir, it's not MICHAEL Jordan -- it's the KINGDOM of Jordan!!! We can use the WMD's as an excuse to get rid of that evil dictator King Abdullah II (whose real name is HUSSEIN----ring any bells, sir?????) and free all the Jordanians from this oppressive regime...we got away with it once, so GO FOR IT!....and it's TURKEY the country, not the stupid bird you rescued last November!!!! You're welcome, sir, now BOMBS AWAY!!!!

blind_(AKA)bomb-'em-all_dog <whoneverbelievedthatfingerinthedikestoryanyway>

[Tight_rope]

49. LMBAO! Good one! n/t

[leftofthedial]

34. correct me if I'm wrong, but . . .

photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004

The US, not Saddam, "controlled" Iraq during this timeframe.

[markses]

35. You're not wrong; the conservative ideologues are imbeciles

That's the upshot of this utterly stupid piece of insipid propaganda. It is no surprise that the bizarre World Tribune should put out such a steaming pile, except when you consider how ignorant and lacking in any analytic skills its readers would have to be to believe it. Then, it does become surprising: How could they have such little faith in the intelligence of their readers? How could they assume the baseline stupidity needed to give the article any credence. And then it dawns on you, in an almost shocking way: The conservatives are so gullible and ignorant that this article - an outright and manifest pile of lies and deceptions - actually registers as truth for them. It floors me that adults of reasonable functionality could be so ideologically blinded. It just floors me.

[salin]

37. The question is whether the rw talking heads will be stupid

enough not to "see" the inconsistency and start pushing the story...

and with the description of the source above... ayeyieyieyie... will there listeners ever catch on that they are fools?

[struggle4progress]

41. The question is whether the rw talking heads will be dishonest ...

enough to push the story, after they read it and immediately see that it is a big crock of @#$%.

The answer is "Yes, indeed. They have no integrity whatsoever."

[salin]

53. while I certainly agree about the no integrity

this one implicates the U.S. - (given the source is bogus so its a nonstory) and thus their boys of bushco.

[ghola]

38. If you U.N. said it then it must be true

Unless the Zionists somehow faked this... which wouldn't be too hard for them to do

[struggle4progress]

42. Huh?

First: nobody at UN said this; the "story" is jibber-jabber concocted by deliberately garbling real news.

Second: I really don't at all see what "Zionism" has to do with this; your assertion simply triggers my "anti-Semitic crap" detector.

<edit: syntax>

[markses]

52. How very....

incoherent.

Congratulations on your complete non-statement. It's as inscrutable as an ancient rune, or a child's scribbling.

[Paradise]

40. Let's just face it...

We unseated the Mayor of Baghdad at a cost in lives and dollars of... still counting! :bounce:

[kungfugrip]

44. Freepers undergo a brainscrubbing...

Three or four rational freepers debunked the story in plain and simple terms. EVERYONE seems to have ignored it and are revelling in their "I knew it all along" moment.

[Tight_rope]

47. THIS IS PURE BULLSHIT!

Even a 5 year old has more common sense then to believe this crap of shit. I am so sick and tired of Bushco thinking that they can keep shoveling this bullshit down our our throats.

Everyone know that the US has satellites in space that are able to see any movement from anyone anywhere in the world. It's how they are able to precisely hit targets.

Trust me Bushco knowingly knew they were going to attack Iraq years before and that they should keep one eye on every move. Especially, on large vessels, including, ships, planes, convoy of trucks and cars.

Like the rest of the bullshit that they try to feed us, "I REFUSE TO SWALLOW"!:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[AlFrankenFan]

51. Wonderfully said!

n/t

[Gloria]

48. remove...wrong thread...

eom

[struggle4progress]

54. Kuwait sends back truck carrying radioactive material

<snip>
Kuwaiti customs department on Thursday impounded four trucks coming from Iraq for suspicion that they were loaded with radioactive material.

After checkup, three of them were found not containing any radioactive material, while the fourth was found to be carrying a container of highly radioactive substance.

Customs officials refused to open the truck, and insisted that it should not move before American military personnel and Kuwaiti security officers arrive at the scene.
<snip>
Three of the four trucks were then released and the fourth one was sent out of Kuwait to where it came despite the US army's objections.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/13/content_1523130.htm


:wtf:
Why are we shipping radioactive materials from Iraq?