U.N. inspectors continue the hunt for Iraq WMDs.
U.N. inspectors continue the hunt for Iraq WMDs.
“More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.”
Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan’s East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. They scour the international news media for stories on Hussein’s deadly arsenal. They consult foreign intelligence agencies on the status of Iraqi weapons. And they maintain a cadre of about 300 weapons experts from 50 countries and prepare them for inspections in Iraq — inspections they will almost certainly never conduct, in search of weapons that few believe exist.
Josh Marshall has more.
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More money down the toilet.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:13 amWhat a huge waste of time and money.
The one thing I will never figure out, is why BushCo didn’t plant the damned WMD in the deserts of Iraq. It would have been easy enough, wouldn’t it?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 amZooey, they don’t give a shit whether you believe it or not…..
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:16 amTerrytheTurtle,
Wouldn’t it have made their lives easier?
I guess my mind just doesn’t work like a criminal’s mind.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 amZoo – They probably did, but forgot where they planted them?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:19 amZoo – They probably did, but forgot where they planted them?
Comment by JTitor
And that’s why they’re still looking for them! Perfect!
Thanks, JTitor!
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:26 am“Wouldn’t it have made their lives easier? ”
Wolfy said that WMD was the reaosn they all agree on to start the war… after that, well they knew it didn’t matter. The interesting thing is that Blair hung a lot on the ‘45 minutes to launch’ WMD well after the invasion and Bush didn’t give a shit the day after the war started. The way the two leaders have led their respective countries down the tubes is very instructive. Goebbels would cream his jodpurs in glee.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 amLOL the Bush Regime must pay those UN inspectors to look for nonexistent WMD.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 amZooey > Bush probably wanted to plant WMD in Iraq, but he would forget to ask for the “Made in America” stickers to be removed from the bombs and weapons.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 amZooey:yes, but when they forgot/didn’t care about guarding the weapons they had put there, and they, well, y’know, kind of….got stolen….
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 amJay Randal: they are already on the weapons; we sold them to Iraq in the 80’s.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 amhows my POP Star(TM)?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 amScott Ritter basically summed up the deal in Iraq, by saying the US sold mustard gas and sarin nerve gas to Saddam, but that stuff had a shelf life and expired for use by the time Bush invaded Iraq in 2003.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 amY’all are a bunch of geniuses. :-)
Seriously concerned about your brains work, but we’re all on the same side, so it’s all good. Heh.
hows my POP Star(TM)?
Comment by whiteyfresh
Hey whitey, I’m fabulous. How are you?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:39 amYes whiteyfresh> the old mustard gas shells from 1980’s were buried by Saddam in late 1990s, because they were leaking and no longer viable for use. Some of those old shells have been dug up, but they clearly have markings to denote being manufactured in the US.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:39 amI don’t understand why they just didn’t go back and look thru the Reagan Admin’s records to see what they gave him and when they did it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:41 amAfter all, both Cheny, Rumsfeld, and Dumbya’s own F*#kin’ father were involved back then and helped Saddam gas Iranian troops at the time.
WTF?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:43 amIs this some alternate effing reality show?
Why is this charade still being played out and paid for with the Iraqi’s oil revenues?
To keep the chymp a shred of hope that his neocon fantasy might come true?
Tinkerbell, where are you?
After all, both Cheny, Rumsfeld, and Dumbya’s own F*#kin’ father were involved back then and helped Saddam gas Iranian troops at the time.
Comment by the republic of stupidity
That’s why. :-)
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:47 amThey did find a cache of WMDs in Iraq.
But they all had those damned yellow ribbon stickers on them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:50 amFaire > Bush got upset when an old mustard gas shell got dug up in Iraq with an inscription: To Saddam Hussein, from your pal Donald Rumsfeld, 1983.
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:53 amSoooo frikkin glad it’s the weekend.. Gonna prime my living room…
also gonna go shoot some scenes for a movie/short film/commercial….i never know with those wacky guys…
you?
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:54 amSoooo frikkin glad it’s the weekend.. Gonna prime my living room…
also gonna go shoot some scenes for a movie/short film/commercial….i never know with those wacky guys…
you?
Comment by whiteyfresh
Sounds like fun. :)
No plans yet — the weekend’s too far away. :D
That road in Glacier Park will be open any time now, and I may blast out of here soon. Cool!
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:58 amIt’s hard to blog late at night(well, late for me, anyway.
OFFTOPIC:go to google, type in United300. frikkin hiarious!!
June 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 amoops did I say google or youtube? It’s youtube…
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 amOy whitey, I have frickin’ dial up…..how long is it?
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:05 am4 minutes or so….
dialup? what’s that?
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:09 am;)
4 minutes or so….
dialup? what’s that?
;)
Comment by whiteyfresh
It’s the thing that keeps kicking me offline, and pissing me off. I’ll look at it tomorrow. :)
Goodnight whitey, have a great weekend.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:12 amnight all!!!
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 amseems like as good a time as any to crash out here too!
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 amStory sounds a little hoaxy to me. MSM never checks sources anymore, just runs.
Sounds too much like what the administration and/or other interests would like us to believe.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 amThe continued existence of UNMOVIC is not a bad thing.
• When Bush illegally invaded Iraq, he released HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TONS of munitions, including hundreds of tons of HMX, a very dangerous high-explosive.
• When Bush ililegally invaded Iraq, he allowed the high-precision machine tools in Iraq to be looted from the country. Very handy for Iran’s enrichment program.
• When the IAEA attempted to inspect what remained at Tuwaitha nuclear reserve after the looting, Bushco prevented IAEA from inspecting the enriched materials (cesium and strontium), and only allowed them to inspect the several hundred tons of yellowcake previously stored there.
Though at least FIVE spy satellites were targeted specifically on Iraq during and after the invasion, SOMEHOW they apparently didn’t notice the HUNDREDS of 40-ton trucks and THOUSANDS of pickup trucks hauling this dangerous materiel from the UNMOVIC-inspected and sealed sites.
This continues to be the LARGEST MUNITIONS LOOTING (”CEA”)SCANDAL IN WORLD HISTORY.
“David Kay, the former chief US weapons inspector said that looting was so bad during the fall of 2003 that Iraqis were going in at night individually and in trucks. “There were just not enough boots on the ground, and the military didn’t give it a high enough priority to stop the looting. Tens of thousands of tons of ammunition were being looted, and that is what is fueling the insurgency.â€7 The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) confirmed Kay’s account and in a 9 November 2003 DIA report, noted the vast majority of explosives and ordnance used in anti- coalition improvised explosive devices have come from pilfered Iraqi ammunition stockpiles and prewar established caches.†…
“IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES
The ammunition strewn all over Iraq provides insurgents with easily accessible materiel to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used to kill coalition forces, Iraqi security personnel and civilians… “IEDs continue to be the greatest casualty producer among our troops in the field,†General Abizaid said during a 3 March 2004 House Armed Services Committee hearing.10 Six months later with the IED problem continually growing, General Richard Cody, Army Vice Chief of Staff, stated in an interview in September 2004 that 500 to 600 IEDs go off every month and are now responsible for about 90 percent of killed and wounded.”
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/ksil72.pdf
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 amThis continues to be the LARGEST MUNITIONS LOOTING (â€CEAâ€)SCANDAL IN WORLD HISTORY.
Hmmm, I wonder what Hell’s Own Airhead – that would be Tracy – has to say about this.
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:38 amYou sure got that straight.
At the time of his death, that’s all I could think – “Boy, they sure want to shut Saddm Hussein up for good, and fast, don’t they?”
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:40 amNews flash…Iraq doesn’t have them!
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:54 amNews flash…Iraq doesn’t have them!
Comment by Karim
In Other News, BuschCo To Continue Searching…
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:07 amThese experts from 50 countries are payed well,with a nice size budget.
They proved to be useless when Bush/Cheney and Blair decided to go to war.
Bush declared the whole UN was ‘irrelevant’ before he started this war in Iraq.
So why keep this bearucratic body when it proved its ‘uselessness’?
I wonder who is writing their checks.
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:02 amAmazing what uninformed, closed minded buffoons lurk here!
The point of the story as originally published on MSNBC was that the US was trying to cancel the program and the Soviet Union was keeping it going.
But did that stop anyone from trashing President Bush or the USA?
Come on use some of that gray matter to investigate before you castigate!
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:30 amTIMING FOLKS…IT’S ALL ABOUT TIMING. You don’t want to be revealing something to the public when you can save it for maximum propaganda effect later, say just before the 98 elections? They will find WMD destruction just before they announce Schwarzeneggar’s plans to run for president on the United States. Oh, you haven’t heard? The GOP has inserted a provision into the new bipartisan immigration bill Bush is SURE to sign, allowing foreign born persons to run for President. And of course the WMD we likely be either old worthless c r a p or planted munitions by false flag agents.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 amMake that the 08 elections.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 amcon10tious,
I read it as the U.S. doesn’t want ANY other country to come into Iraq
to “investigate” matters of any sort. Who knows what they might uncover
and report? The way it’s set up now, very little facts get reported about
what’s happening in Iraq.
Bottom line: If Khalilizad doesn’t want it to happen, I DO!
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:01 amIf there ever were any WMDs, they’re in al Qaeda’s hands by now.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 amMaybe they can find Bush a brain and Cheney a heart. Follow the yellow brick road!
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 amThe king of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, just left Congress and he was a major supporter of the theory that Iraqis helped move the WMDs out to Syria and Iran as we were amping up to invade their country. Of course, this asshat is also under investigation for dealings with playing around with the “black ops” budget, defense contractors and the like. Go figure.
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:31 amEstablishing shot: looking up from the East River, a light is on in a second floor office room. The camera slowly cranes up to the window and looks inside. 20 unbathed and highly caffeinated geeks are staring at a computer screen with wide-eyed wonder, while Google Earth spins on the 22″ LCD and Fox News flickers on a 1980’s era wall mounted color TV…
Among these haggard spirits, there is one who is only known by his code name: Curveball.
The Aristocrats!
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm“Bottom line: If Khalilizad doesn’t want it to happen, I DO!” –Stay out of the Bushes
DAMN STRAIGHT!
The scandal of underdeployment, failure to write ANY orders to contain CEA, failing to arrest looting once it began, ARMING THE ENEMIES OF OUR TROOPS on a scale unheard of in human history, endangering every man, woman, and child in Occupied Iraq:
We need international checks on Bushco acts of criminal negligence and treason. We need UNMOVIC voices countering Bushco LIES.
And that is what Bushco does not want. “Oh my god, they are spending a few million a year! We can’t have that — OUR war costs a few million A SECOND.
ThinkProgress, Josh Marshall — being USED (and not for the first time).
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:52 pmNYT, USA Today: “$177M per day, $7.4M per hour and $122820 per minute”
Real costs? Only your grandchildren will know.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:56 pmInspector Clouseau, where are you?
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:00 pmAnd we’re supporting the UN in this endeavor?
And whose relatives are profiting greatly?
It’s a shame that the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, cnn,abc and all the other news clowns cannot find anything better to report on than the condition of Lindsay Lohan’s crotch.
“…the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.â€
a.k.a. “laundrying money”… ? …
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:56 pmHey, what you gonna do, it’s the UN. They’ve got to justify their paychecks somehow… If they’re so damn keen on being absolutely sure, they should make a visit to Syria to see if there ever was anything to the rumors that WMDs were moved there. With Syria on the ropes due to the incoming Hariri tribunal, I’m sure they’d be welcomed.
June 3rd, 2007 at 8:05 amha!! – what a f**king joke!! – so a couple of 20 blowhards are cooped up in a manhatten bar looking at old newspapers and google earth – and these pricks need 300 advisors from 50 countries to prepare to actually go there??? – to a place where the chances of getting blown up by a tin can full of fertilizer are far higher than finding a nuke?? yeah right!!! go there my ass!!! – how can i get a job at the u.n? – this working in the real world sucks!!
June 4th, 2007 at 1:34 am