U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.
U.N. inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the U.S.-led war in 2003 so they have been using satellite photos to see what happened to the sites that were subject to U.N. monitoring because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.
In the report to the U.N. Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said he’s reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased.
He said the missing material can be used for legitimate purposes. “However, they can also be utilized for prohibited purposes if in a good state of repair.”
He said imagery analysts have identified 109 sites that have been emptied of equipment to varying degrees, up from 90 reported in March.
The report also provided much more detail about the percentage of items no longer at the places where U.N. inspectors monitored them.
Looks like it could be a case of the US removing evidence. Any evidence from Iraq’s WMD program that can be traced back to the US and it’s corporations could prove to be quite embarrassing – especially if it wound up as evidence in the up-coming trial of Saddam.
From reading the article there’s no exact date for the photos. Saddam’s son in law, Gen. Hussein Kamel, was in charge of Iraq’s weapons program until he defected to Lebanon in the mid 90s. His testimony to US officials was used to pinpoint weapons program locations corroborated by satellite images. UN weapons inspectors used these before Bush yanked them out prematurely. The reason Bush yanked them out was that Kamel had told them Saddam had ordered the destruction of the weapons to remove any pretext for invasion by the US. Bush knew no weapons would be found by the UN inspectors and it would foil his Administration’s plans to invade Iraq that were established back in 1991 in the PNAC/RAD. Also, because the US is complicit in providing Saddam with many of these weapons and material to produce them – the US has good reason after the invasion to remove any remaining evidence before Saddam goes to trial. It would be interesting to see the exact dates for the photos referred to in the article.
Bombshell revelation from a defector cited by White House and press
February 27, 2003
On February 24, Newsweek broke what may be the biggest story of the Iraq crisis. In a revelation that “raises questions about whether the WMD [weapons of mass destruction] stockpiles attributed to Iraq still exist,” the magazine’s issue dated March 3 reported that the Iraqi weapons chief who defected from the regime in 1995 told U.N. inspectors that Iraq had destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and banned missiles, as Iraq claims.
Don’t stop there–more that 8 BILLION dollars has also disappeared from Iraq under the US administration.
However, the materials under discussion might have been amog the stuff recovered–with IAEA seals still intact–from an amsterdam scrap dealer after the invasion.
All kinds of stuff has disappeared: as you no doubt recall, marines after the invasion Marines smashed the UN seals on sites related to Iraq’s reactor, destroyed in the eighties. The marines abandoned the site once it became clear that there were no WMDs to be found, and they took no steps to secure the facility.
So, villagers came and “salvaged” the nifty barrels and equipment, pouring the radioactive heavywater out onto the ground and hauling the barrels away to store water in.