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Comments by YACCS

 

Good news and bad news

Hans Blix is set to give his report to the United Nations today, and of course every media outlet on the planet has already read it. Now, it seems pretty clear that it supports George Bush's position, since it says that Iraq still has many weapons of mass destruction that are completely unaccounted for. There's anthrax and other biological warfare agents:

Blix questioned Iraqi statements that it had stored all bulk biological warfare agents during the 1991 Gulf War at the Al Hakam plant and destroyed those unused after the war.

"There is credible information available to UNMOVIC that indicates that the bulk agent, including anthrax, was in fact deployed during the 1991 Gulf War," the report said. "Thequestion then arises as to what happened to it after the war."

"Based on this information, UNMOVIC estimates that about 5,547 gallons of biological warfare agent was stored in bulk at locations remote from Al Hakam. About half of this, about 2,641 gallons was anthrax," Blix wrote in the report.

"It therefore seems highly probable that the destruction of the bulk agent, including anthrax, stated by Iraq to be at Al Hakam in July-August 1991 did not occur," the report said."

Blix said Iraq needed to provide documentation or other evidence to support its account.

Plus, the Al Samoud missile charade (gasp) may be a big smokescreen:

The new report also said Iraq may be producing more banned missiles in addition to the Al Samoud 2 rockets it is now destroying and had declared last year to inspectors.

"Other missiles systems with ranges in excess of 93 miles may possibly be under development or planned," the report said.

"Indications of this come from solid propellant casting chambers Iraq has acquired, through recent import, indigenous production or from the repair or old chambers," said the report.

Blix had ordered the Al Samouds destroyed.

So that would sound like good news for Bush, and bad news for Chirac/Hussein. But somehow I bet it won't matter. I suspect that there will be some sentence, somewhere in the report, which will suggest that Saddam Hussein deserves more time. And I'll bet that this will be the only sentence the Axis of Weasel focuses on. Which will just serve to show how much of a charade this whole process is.
posted by David Nieporent at 3/07/2003 06:10:00 AM |