Saturday, June 12, 2004 |
14:44 - Hell, I coulda told them that
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=11361_WMD_Puzzle_Begins_to_Come_Togeth
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Remember that whole "rush to war" thing early last year? Where there were those who urged us to attack Saddam before he had a chance to hide or destroy his contraband, knowing how embarrassing it would be if none were discovered after the war and how hard it would be to prove he actually had them? Remember how such people were scorned as fearmongers and bloodthirsty maniacs who thought blowin' stuff up as soon as possible was more important than taking the time to "build an international coalition"?
Via LGF:
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.
The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam’s missile and WMD program.
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.
UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the council on June 9 that “the only controls at the borders are for the weight of the scrap metal, and to check whether there are any explosive or radioactive materials within the scrap,” Middle East Newsline reported.
“It’s being exported,” Perricos said after the briefing. “It’s being traded out. And there is a large variety of scrap metal from very new to very old, and slowly, it seems the country is depleted of metal.”
“The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks,” Perricos told the council. Perricos also reported that inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.
He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East. at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month. Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey.
But I thought there were no WMDs! I mean, the UN said so!
...Uh, wait...
(Not, again, that this matters at all to people who have understood all along that there's more to this war than frickin' WMDs. It's just kinda funny, is all. In a tragically sad kind of way.)
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