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| Axis of Evil |
| Inspectors Find Undeclared Iraq Warheads |
| 2003-01-16 |
| U.N. inspectors on Thursday found 11 empty chemical warheads in ``excellent'' condition at an ammunition storage area where they were inspecting bunkers built in the late 1990s, a U.N. spokesman reported. They had not previously been declared by Iraq. A 12th warhead, also of a 122 mm, was found that requires further evaluation, according to the statement by Hiro Ueki, the spokesman for U.N. weapons inspectors in Baghdad. ``It was a discovery. They were not declared,'' Ueki told The Associated Press. Oops, the UN inspectors screwed up and found something. Ueki was referring to Iraq's December declaration which was to be a full and final report on its doomsday weapons program and how they had been disposed of. The inspectors used portable x-ray equipment for a preliminary analysis of one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing, Ueki's statement said. ``The warheads were in excellent condition and were similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980's,'' the statement said. The warheads were found during a visit by inspectors to the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Baghdad. It was one of several sites inspectors checked on Thursday. Inspectors do not usually report specific discoveries, which made Thursday's announcement unusual. It means even they think its a big deal. It is up to the U.N. Security Council to determine whether Thursday's find would amount to a breach of U.N. resolutions. On Dec. 7, a chemical team secured a dozen artillery shells filled with mustard gas that had been inventoried by their predecessors in the 1990s. It was the first batch of weapons of mass destruction brought under their control in the new round of inspections in Iraq. Inspectors have said Iraq has failed to support its claims to have destroyed missiles, warheads and chemical agents. U.N. inspectors have said Iraq's final weapons declaration made in December failed to support its claims to have destroyed missiles, warheads and chemical agents such as VX nerve gas. Because maybe they didn't? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 unless it was a plant by special forces of some stuff captured in GWI. |
| Posted by: john 2003-01-16 19:33:57 |
| #4 My guess would be Belarus or Ukraine... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-16 18:43:07 |
| #3 Any guesses on where those warheads came from? NKor, maybe? |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-01-16 16:15:20 |
| #2 From Wash Post: Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison officer to the inspection teams, said they were short-range shells imported in 1988 and mentioned in Iraq's December declaration. He expressed "astonishment" over "the fuss made about the discovery by a U.N. inspection team of 'mass destruction weapons.' It is no more than a storm in a teacup," Amin told a news conference hastily called after the U.N. announcement. Amin said the inspection team found the munitions in a sealed box that had never been opened and was covered by dust and bird droppings. "When these boxes were opened, they found 122-mm rockets with empty warheads. No chemical or biological warheads. Just empty rockets which are expired and imported in 1988," Amin said, adding similar rockets were found by U.N. inspectors in 1997. Physicist David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq, said that the discovery would represent a violation "if Iraq knew that these warheads existed and they are for chemical weapons." |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-01-16 14:45:20 |
| #1 From Fox News: "But former U.N. inspectors Tim Trevan and David Albright told Fox News that the presence of the casings -- even if empty -- would in fact put Saddam Hussein in violation of the U.N. resolution ordering Iraq to disarm. Albright added that the pristine condition in which the casings were found implies that they were recently procured." |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2003-01-16 13:54:18 |