Oh, those weapons of mass destruction
It seems the UN is alarmed that the equipment that was not used to not make weapons of mass destruction has been removed:
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.
Sure, they had equipment to produce WMDs but that means there were no WMDs, right? And there were no WMD related program activities? And they were in compliance with various UN resolutions regarding WMDs and their production, right? I mean, I’m just saying, you know.
June 7th, 2005 at 9:22 am
Now you’ve done it; we’ve got worms everywhere.
June 7th, 2005 at 6:30 pm
I responded at Bill Hobbs (I think) in the same way: I don’t think this proves anything. If the UN is watching these sites from imagery then they knew about them. If they knew about them, presumably they were inspecting them, and since they reported they couldn’t find WMD, these sites wern’t producing WMD.
Now, there were problems with inspections – so maybe they didn’t get the full story. However, I’m sure US forces inspected these sites after they gained control, and I assume since they haven’t reported they found WMD then there was no WMD there.
If we haven’t found WMD by now I don’t think we’re going to. This isn’t to say that Bush lied about thinking Iraq had WMD – Iraqi military commanders thought units next to them had WMD. I don’t see how meaningful intelligence can be derrived from a country fooling its own leadership.
June 8th, 2005 at 1:12 am
No, he restricted his lying to the degree of threat those WMDs may have posed and to phantom ties to al-Qaeda. 😉