Sectorgame

liberator wrote:The commander of the American force assigned to guard the facility has gone on record as saying that there were no explosives there when they arrived. There are several stories about that talk about Russian Special Forces assisting Iraqi Intelligence(Saddam's) in moving what is actually closer to 3 tons than 350 tons to Syria.

Also, something of note, the reason why France, Germany, Russia, and the United Nations were perfectly happy to sit by and allow 12 resolutions to go by is because they had financial interests to the tune of billiions of dollars in maintaining the status quo with Saddam's Iraq. There is a lot of blood on the hands of the leadership of those places.

Presumably you'd include the UK-US leadership of the 80s in that as well, given that they supplied WMD and satellite photos of Iranian troops for their use?

All i have heard so far is unfounded and unproven accusations of bribery towards named foreign (to the US) nationals and unnamed US nationals. Being willing to accuse foreign diplomats et al whilst not your own sparks thoughts of political motives IMO, especially if you have no actual proof. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 723924.stm / http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 550356.stm both state an investigation is ongoing). (edit; also http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1010-22.htm / http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/ ... click=true of interest RE: us companies)

And, of course, corruption / financial motives are not unknown for the US actionsin Iraq (and the UK probably) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 550356.stm - and wasn't there a report commisioned by the new administration in something like june 2001 which recommended invading Iraq for its oil?

He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. “There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,’" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001. Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.

He obtained one Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for exploration.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/ ... 2330.shtml
(the map is also referenced in http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle ... temID=6314)

There's something almost obscene about a map that was studied by senior Bush administration officials and a select group of oil company executives meeting in secret in the spring of 2001. It doesn't show the kind of detail normally shown on maps - cities, towns, regions.Rather its detail is all about Iraq's oil.
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Another interesting task force document, also released under court order over the opposition of the Bush administration, was a two-page chart titled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfields." It identifies 63 oil companies from 30 countries and specifies which Iraqi oil fields each company is interested in and the status of the company's negotiations with Saddam Hussein's regime. Among the companies are Royal Dutch/Shell of the Netherlands, Russia's Lukoil and France's Total Elf Aquitaine, which was identified as being interested in the fabulous, 25-billion-barrrel Majnoon oil field.Baghdad had "agreed in principle" to the French company's plans to develop this succulent slab of Iraq. There goes the filet mignon into the mouths of the French!

(NB: I realise this illustrates a French interest in preserving the status quo... but by the same token it also illustrates a US interest in removing the status quo for the benefit of US companies)

NB: IAEA / UNMOVIC already confirmed they were no WMD at Al-qaqaa during the inspections, just conventional high explosives.

oh, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle ... 963795.stm

And in what could be a significant development, the US network ABC broadcast pictures which it says appear to show at least some of the explosives in bunkers at the site in mid-April while US troops were there.

I don't have US TV (obviously....except Fox *hack,spit* on Sky, which I don;t watch because I have an iota of sense), so someone else can tell me about this.

yah abc has some photos and videos from an inbedded reporter.

"MAJOR: WE REMOVED 200+ TONS OF EXPLOSIVES FROM FACILITY... "
FROM THE NEWS CONFERENCE
I think Kerry has just made the biggest ass of him self for the past 4 days. If you don't know he has been yelling and screaming and saying this is bush's fault.

Add to that the fact that they've disposed of over 7,000 tons of munitions in addition to the quantity in question.