News Did Saddam's Fall Spur WMD Component Smuggling?

[GENIERE]

From the World Tribune Website:

"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."

For the rest of the story: >>>>http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html

 

[member 5645]

If true, I will do my best not to gloat to those that took the opportunity to be on their soapboxes.

 

[kat]

Official UNMOVIC Report
Just FYI

 

[Dissident Dan]

Yet another reason why we should not have gone to war in Iraq

 

[Adam]

Actually this very same subject was discussed here some time ago. People are grabbing all the metal they can, loading it on trucks, and selling it as scrap.

 

[Njorl]

So,

The UN is shown evidence that Iraq has contraband missiles.
Missile sites are dismantled
Iraq begins destroying missiles.
Missile parts start showing up in junkyards.

Excuse me if I am not alarmed.

Njorl

 

[Adam]

Actually, they found in a scrap-yard an engine from a SAM, which was also used in a missile they were not allowed to have. They have also found huge amounts of other scrap metals over the past months.

 

[member 5645]

Yet another reason why we should not have gone to war in Iraq

I fail to see how that is

 

[Kacper]

I fail to see how that is

I totally agree with you phatmonky. Also I do not agree with the suspision of Iraq moving missiles and weapons of mass destruction. So we did not notice thousands of missiles and wmd's being transported to the Netherlands or even Iran(Though they are helping us). No, no, no. Saddam never moved anything. Maybe dismantled sites and scraped any program he had but as for a massive transport, or even small ones, that most likely never happened. Maybe though, but I doubt it.

 

[Dissident Dan]

The lack of control that the war resulted in allowed all sorts of dangerous contraband to be smuggled about.

 

[member 5645]

The lack of control that the war resulted in allowed all sorts of dangerous contraband to be smuggled about.

So the war allowed Saddam to smuggle this? Not the time the war was put off?
Again, your logic doesn't seem straight.

 

[Kacper]

So the war allowed Saddam to smuggle this? Not the time the war was put off?
Again, your logic doesn't seem straight.

Yet again I must agree with phatmonky.

 

[Zero]

Adam hit the nail on the head...the UN had Iraq scrap weapons, and Iraq smuggled the useless scrap out of the country for money. There's no smoking gun here, at least not yet, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

 

[member 5645]

Adam hit the nail on the head...the UN had Iraq scrap weapons, and Iraq smuggled the useless scrap out of the country for money. There's no smoking gun here, at least not yet, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

Oh yes! They took the time to smuggle the metal out for scrap money
Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? The cost of smuggling does not outweight the low cost of pay for scrap metal!
A missile is only worth something when it's together - the raw material in itself is not worth jack.

 

[Adam]

Oh yes! They took the time to smuggle the metal out for scrap money
Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? The cost of smuggling does not outweight the low cost of pay for scrap metal!
A missile is only worth something when it's together - the raw material in itself is not worth jack.

Um... As I said earlier, we did cover this in another thread a while ago. People are taking metal out of Iraq by the truckload, and scrapping it in other nations, for a quick profit.

http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=5869
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/pressreleases/20040428_scrap.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6916B6A2-20DB-4B2C-96EA-9A4ED9EC6DED.htm
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=iraq+metal+scrap&btnG=Search&meta=

 

[Kacper]

Can someone please explain to me then why no one noticed them trucking hundreds to thousands of weapons out? Even if it was just a bunch of metal at least on truck would have been stopped, searched, and discovered. I highly doubt the movement of weapons, scrap or not.

 

[Zero]

Can someone please explain to me then why no one noticed them trucking hundreds to thousands of weapons out? Even if it was just a bunch of metal at least on truck would have been stopped, searched, and discovered. I highly doubt the movement of weapons, scrap or not.

Because a) it wasn't hundreds of thousands, and b) it was parts of weapons, technically not to be moved without UN permission, but not actually weapons. A rocket without fuel, a guidance system and a warhead makes a really nice planter.

 

[Dissident Dan]

So the war allowed Saddam to smuggle this? Not the time the war was put off?
Again, your logic doesn't seem straight.

Firstly, this is not apparently due to any orders of sadam. After his government fell, other people took it upon themselves to grab the metal and sell it in other countries.