Fausta's blog

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The official blog of Fausta's Blog Talk Radio show.

Friday, June 18, 2004

What WMDs?
And now for a quick, 2-question pop quiz:
A) "There is much evidence that from 1999 to 2002 Iraq procured materials, equipments and components for use in its missile programmes". This is a statement presented at
  1. GWB's daily briefing, circa January 2003
  2. The CIA, late in December, 2002
  3. The United Nations Security Council report, dated May 28, 2004.

B) The statement quoted on question A above was made by
  1. VP Dick Cheney complaining about the New York Times on June 17, 2004
  2. John Kerry while having a nightmare sometime in 2003
  3. United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commision (UNMOVIC) acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos in May 2004

Answers A)3Seventeenth Quarterly Report on the activities of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commision, 28 May 2004. B) 3

"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", from an article at the World Tribune
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.

Granted, the World Tribune might not be the most reliable of sources, which is why I have the link to the actual UN report, and also this article from the NYTimes
Demetrius Perricos, acting head of United Nations inspectors office, tells Security Council that equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been emptied from Iraqi sites since war started and shipped abroad; says many of items bear tags placed on them by UN inspectors as suspect dual-use materials; cites discovery of engines from banned missile in scrap yards in Netherlands and Jordan

an entire Google search, and this article in the Herald Sun,
The UN team also discovered some processing equipment with UN tags - which show it was being monitored - including chemical reactors, heat exchangers, and a solid propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel, he said. It also discovered "a large number of other processing equipment without tags, in very good condition." The UN inspectors in Jordan were told that "brand new material like stainless steel and special alloy sheets" was being sent out of Iraq, he said. At today's closed council meeting, UN diplomats said many members expressed concern about items missile engines and other material that had been monitored by UN inspectors ending up in foreign scrap yards including Algeria, Brazil, Germany, France, Chile, Spain, Russia and China.

There's even a version in Spanish
You might not find it on CNN, but Junk Yard Blog, The Spoons Experience and Hispalibertas are paying attention.

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