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| Iraq | |
| Weapons teams scour Iraq | |
| 2003-04-12 | |
| Britain and the United States have None in two weeks, compared to Blixie's 0 for forever. The decision to set up a new group of inspectors, dubbed US-movic because they are an American-led rival to Unmovic, will infuriate the UN. Blixie might postpone his retirement! Er, nah. Kofi Annan, the secretary general, pointedly reminded Britain and the US this week that Unmovic still has a mandate to carry out inspections. "Sure, boys, come right ahead. Travel where you like. We'll provide some Marines for your security, and you'll reimburse us (full retail) for that. And of course we're going to vet your people for our own security reasons, and we'll have cooperative observers working next to you." Last night the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, added his criticism by saying that war against Iraq was a foregone conclusion months before the first shot was fired. In a scathing attack on Britain and the US, Mr Blix accused them of planning the war "well in advance" and of "fabricating" evidence against Iraq to justify their campaign. Well of course we planned it well in advance. You don't just move a quarter million superb soldiers halfway around the world in a week. And remember, Blixie, it was our pressure that got you anything from Saddam. Mr Blix told the Spanish daily El Pais: "There is evidence that this war was planned well in advance. Sometimes this raises doubts about their attitude to the [weapons] Back to that again, are we? The role played by the new inspectors, who set up a base in Kuwait a week before the war began, was disclosed to the Guardian by David Kay, the former head of Unscom, the arms inspections team which left Iraq in 1998 after Iraq accused it of being infiltrated by spies. No mention has been made of the new group by ministers or military spokesmen, who have indicated that weapons inspections are carried out by military forces. But the group, headed by Charles Duelfer, a former deputy head of the Unscom weapons inspectors, has travelled extensively in Iraq. It is understood that Mr Duelfer's team was called in to inspect weapons and papers found at an airbase in Iraq's western desert two weeks ago. In the past week it has made two separate visits to sites on the road between Kuwait and Baghdad. So they hit the ground running. Good. The failure to find any weapons of mass destruction after three weeks of war has raised questions about the casus belli. But British intelligence officials said it might be months before evidence was uncovered. A cabinet minister has told the Guardian that Saddam Hussein's failure to use chemical weapons was not an indication of their absence. They had been dismantled and their contents hidden around the country. "The regime has not had time to reassemble the things," a British official said. And fortunately won't have time in the future. "You will not find a factory of gleaming missiles," a source said. "They would have been broken down ages ago." Mr Kay described the new inspectors as a "robust group of people". "There are special forces teams that carry out [immediate] inspections. But they are not as technically based as the Kuwait team, who are heavily science-based civilians." A spokesman for Mr Blix, Ewen Buchanan, said the US-led team had tried and failed to recruit some of his staff. Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, said the existence of the Screw 'em. If we find it we'll show it to the world
Which we now have. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 The many rumored-but-didn't-pan-out WMD reports we've already had should bolster the credibility of our present inspectors. If they were out to fake or plant evidence, they would have done so already. Instead, they spend their time shooting down overblown reports filed by embedded reporters and rumor mongers. The logic of why they would make stuff up after shooting down so much made-up stuff simply escapes me. Guess I'm unfit to be a Hollywood actor, Democratic politician or network newscaster. Sorry 'bout that. |
| Posted by: tbn 2003-04-13 01:01:54 |
| #7 The UN has 12 years to find weapons, and didn't. Now they're bitching that we haven't found any that satisfies them in 3 weeks? I dunno....maybe we could have found something if we weren't distracted by discoveries of torture chambers and kiddie jails. |
| Posted by: Baba Yaga 2003-04-13 00:40:30 |
| #6 If I was Joe Iraqi, and I saw a UN insignia chap, I think that I would find the nearest knife or machete and start sharpening it in the UN-ik's presence and see what happens... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-04-12 21:19:06 |
| #5 We should allow UN people into Iraq only if they wear UN insignia. That way the Iraqis can show them the back of the foot and those images will reinforce the message that the weasels have yet to get. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-04-12 20:30:02 |
| #4 I'll bet Al-Saadi tells a different story to the US than the "We have no WMD's..." bit he used to parrot to the world press... He will have no special value to us if he doesn't come clean - and you can bet he knows it. To save his sorry ass, we'll get much if not all of the truth, whatever that turns out to be. Regards Blix & El-Baradai - I suggest that absolutely NO UN personnel be permitted within the borders of Iraq. If found, they should be expelled. The UN is DEAD. They have no mandate or rights in Iraq and they convey no legitimacy to anything. The US should do this alone, if necessary, and we'd better do it right. We get one shot. If we DO get it right, then it will unravel the whole M.E. collection of Dictatorships and Monarchies. This is a GREAT thing, IMHO. These guys are the main providers of funds, weapons, material, and bases of operations for terrorism. THIS must be done to win TWAT (The War Against Terror). Love that acronym... Our stickiest problem, IMHO, will be our own slimy sneaky shit-for-brains politicians - many of them will attempt to hijack the post-war phase - for petty personal gain. Biden and others are already working on their PR game. Everyone needs to do their part to keep their own Senators and Reps honest. They fear US, for we give them their power. Let's use that to slap 'em down when they get in the way. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-04-12 09:51:50 |
| #3 oops.... General Amer Al-Saadi |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-12 08:50:24 |
| #2 Reuters says it was Saddam's top scientific advisor - Al-Masadi? one of the 55 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-12 08:40:54 |
| #1 Perhaps the Field Marshal and Generals wearing Baath Party uniforms who just surrendered to the Marines at the Palastine Hotel will have some info on the weapons and location/status of our POW's - just saw it live on Fox (yep RG, on Fox) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-12 08:36:32 |