"UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after"

UNMOVIC admits that Saddam sent "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..."

Oops.

Expected "liberal" reaction:

1. Ignore
2. "Yes, but the components to make 20,000 liters of anthrax are not the same as 20,000 liters of anthrax, you XRM-SBAH!"
3. "Well, the way I see it, it's like this. $hrubCo and their NeoCon handlers got to UNMOVIC and threatend to release information on Kofi Annan's secret love child if they didn't invent all these shipments. Plus, those satellite photos were obviously doctored."
4. Go to #1.

Comments

Regarding

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

and the many republications of it that have appeared on the web.

Here are some comments about _The World Tribune_:

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

The World Tribune article is supposed to be based on this report
which you can read for yourself:

http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2004-435.pdf

The Headline in the World Tribune Article reads:

UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

and the first paragraph says:

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.

But there isn't anything in the article to support the notion that
Saddam Hussein exported anything prior, during, or after the
2003 invasion of Iraq.

Even more damning, there isn't anything to support that paragraph
in the UNMOVIC report cited by the Tribune as the source for that
information.

For instance, according to the very article:

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.

By May, 2003 Saddam Hussein had been deposed. Note the missile site
was still intact at that time. It was dismantled some time between
then and February, 2004. Saddam Hussein was not in control of Iraq
during that period of time. The United States and UK were.

Please note also that UNMOVIC must rely on satellite data because
the United States will not allow inspectors back in on the ground.

Here's another gem:

"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.

Note _still contained UN inspection tags_. This refers to material
that had been declared to UNMOVIC and which UNMOVIC had inventoried
and tagged. The proliferation in question has taken place since (and
one might argue BECAUSE) we threw UNMOVIC out of Iraq and have not
let them back in.

Also, the UNMOVIC report does NOT refer to 'WMD and missile' components.

Continuing:

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.

Note that the 'proliferation' in question consists of scrap sales
to junkyards. These materials are being sold for scrap. I hope
you remember that UNMOVIC supervised the dismantling and destruction
of the Al Sammouds. No one is claiming that any of these material
are useable. But they were inventoried as part of the UNMOVIC
program and the United States is allowing that material to be
exported. Perhaps by Haliburton and Bechtel?

In April, [2004, FF] International Atomic Energy Agency
director-general Mohammed El Baradei said material from
Iraqi nuclear facilities were being smuggled out of the country.

Again, WE were in charge in Iraq in 2004 and El Baradei was referring
to the removal by the United States of material that the IAEA had
secured and inventoried. People who were reading newspapers back in
April are already aware that the IAEA lodged a protest against the
United States for smuggling the material out of Iraq.

There are a few comments in the Tribune article about fermenters.
The word 'fermenter' does not appear in the report the Tribune
cites as its source. There are lots of comments in the UNMOVIC
report about 'dual use items and materials'. These might include
fermenters.

I have no doubt that there were fermenters in Iraq, and that there
still are fermenters in Iraq. *I* have fermenters in my basement.
Zymurgists use fermenters all the time. All fermenters are 'dual
use', in fact 'multi use' as you can ferment lots of different
things in them. A hundred years ago Poncho Villa used fermenters
(canteens) to produce botulinum toxin.

We threw UNMOVIC out of Iraq and have not allowed them back
in. The ability fo UNMOVIC to continue its work is being compromised
by the United States. WE are allowing the materials UNMOVIC has
inventoried to be sold for scrap. UNMOVIC is a bit more diplomatic
as to how they are going about saying it but that is the clear
implication of the report.

--

FF

A better approach, IMNSHO, is to reserve judgment until/unless a real news source can corroborate it.