Experts: Russia Helped Iraq With Missiles

Sun Herald ^ | Mar. 05, 2004 | Associated Press

[yonif]

WASHINGTON - Weapons-hunters in Iraq have found evidence that experts from Russia and other countries helped with Iraq's missile programs, but it is unclear whether those countries' governments played any role, U.S. officials said Friday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Bush administration will compile information it has obtained and eventually present it to those countries. In addition to Russia, officials found signs that experts from Ukraine, Serbia and Belarus may have been involved.

It may be that the alleged assistance came from companies or individuals who came to Iraq without the knowledge or sanction of their home governments, the officials said.

Still, any such assistance would violate the prewar U.N. sanctions that prohibited foreign weapons aid to deposed President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the officials said. They provided no details on what was discovered or the nature of the technical help.

The information found in Iraq was first reported Friday in The New York Times.

Of all the prewar intelligence assessments regarding Iraq's illicit weapons programs, so far the predictions regarding long-range missile efforts have found the most validation.

"Since the war we have found an aggressive Iraqi missile program concealed from the international community," CIA Director George J. Tenet said in a speech last month.

Previously, officials had said Iraq's missile dealings primarily involved North Korea. Last year, then-chief weapons hunter David Kay said Pyongyang and Baghdad had negotiated for the sale of missile technology.

It appears that North Korea kept an Iraqi down payment of $10 million but never delivered any parts from its No Dong class of ballistic missiles, Kay said.

According to Tenet, Iraq had advanced design work for a liquid-propellant missile with ranges of up to 620 miles and was working on other kinds of missiles. Since the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq has been prohibited from having missiles with ranges longer than 93 miles.

[Burkeman1]

Really? Bush has the gonads to push this line when his own credibility is zilch on the world stage? If this story is true, and it might be, I wouldn't worry too much if I were Putin. Bush has some explaining to do himself and no one in the world is going to care if Russia or Ukraine was helping Sadaam. Heck- we helped that bastard when it was in our interests to do so.

[Lion in Winter]

Think about it... why did saddam-it need any missles IF he had nothing BIG and BAD to put in the warheads?????

Where are the warheads??? Oh, They exist! Count on it.

[Burkeman1]

Yeah- sadaam was a "threat" to us? At the very least we had true debate on what was a threat to us in the 30,s. Hitler could barely be called a threat to us even then. But Sadaam was a threat? Myabe to two year old idiots. But not to me.

[armyboy]

Yeah- sadaam was a "threat" to us? At the very least we had true debate on what was a threat to us in the 30,s. Hitler could barely be called a threat to us even then. But Sadaam was a threat? Myabe to two year old idiots. But not to me.
Saddam had WMD. It disappeared neighboring countries while we f\/Banned weapons HAVE been found (like French made missiles made in 2003) but for some odd reason the media doesn't release that info. or the fact that radar guided shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles are springing up here and there.
And about your asinine comment about no threat. true maybe no threat to you. but when I first got here mortars were hitting almost every day. There was even the occasional 122mm rocket.
Plus Use your head for somthing besides a hat rack. Once he got a missile with a range of 620 miles. he would barter and trade with other countries for ones with longer and longer range till he had one that could reach the U.S.
One last thing. If this war happened 5 or 10 years in the future, Saddam would've had a lot more WMD and might not have moved it to other countries but used it on our troops.
Just because something isn't an immediate threat to you doesn't mean that thre is no threat.

[Burkeman1]

Mortars? To you? Really? Real threat to this country isn't it? Mortar technology? Then I guess the whole world is a threat to us then. Absolutely ridiculous.

[American in Israel]

Yeah no threat, as long as you don't get mail at your house, or live in a city. Anthrax and nukes are no threat at all.

Tell me, what ever happened to the 5 reactor loads of weapons grade fuel the French supplied to the reactor the Israeli's "de-activated"? I hear about yellow cake all the time, but the real stuff seems to not be mentioned. Must not be a threat, at least when we find it someday.

Saddam must have been buying those nuke triggers to, uh, blow the rocks out of the fields so he could make more baby milk factories for his starving children. The ones behind all his new palaces I am sure.

And he had the Airliners set up in those training camps so he could train his guys on how to free planes from hijackers, and he used the tests of chemical weapons on the kurds to develop more and better ways to protect people from chemical weapons, and he invaded the neighboring countries to train them on self defence and, and.

Some people are made to be sheeple...

[armyboy]

And that is why Amercans are dead because Sadaam might have beeb able to make weapons that could have killed civilians years from now? Go fry ice suck ass. Mortars? To you? Really? Real threat to this country isn't it? Mortar technology? Then I guess the whole world is a threat to us then. Absolutely ridiculous.
Ok listen up you SOB I tried to be somewhat civil. but you had to go to 2nd grade name calling. Saddam HAD WMD he just burried it or moved it to neighboring countries while we were messing around with the U.N. you ignorant twit. Do you know what an SA-7 is? It's a shoulder launched anti-aircraft missile. The can be equiped with heat or radar guided missiles. They are RUSSIAN made. And one of them was used on one of my company's helicopters. I lost 3 friends. SO DO NOT tell me that he was obeying the U.N. sanctions BECAUSE HE WASN'T!
If you don't think mortars are dangerous. Why don't you grow a pair of balls and come on over here and let a few land close to you. People in my company in the guard towers have had them as close as 25 meters. and we've been close enough to a rocket landing we could hear the whistle as it came in.
I'm proud to be over here. And unlike you, I believe that we are doing a good thing over here.

[Lion in Winter]

Thank you for being in the service of our country, i really do appreciate it. I have several nieces and nephews in the service, by the way.

I agree with you as do MOST freepers.

One bad egg doesn't spoil FR.

I am sorry that that jerk was so rude to you. After what you have been through... he is but a tiny, tiny pimple of no annoyance.

[Lion in Winter]

BTTT

[Burkeman1]

Some people are made to be sheeple...

Yes they are. Not one of your fairy tales is even confirmed by this administration.

[Burkeman1]

Well- I do owe you an apology for the language. Uncalled for. But the conventional weapons you face are not WMDs. And they do not pose a threat to this nation. To you? Of course they do because you are there.

Quite simply I don't believe a word this government says about Iraq since no WMDs have been found. You are in Iraq for false reasons in my opinion.

That you think the endevour worthwhile is fine with me. I disagree.

Again- sorry- the language I used was just not right.

Hope you come home safe to your loved ones.

[American in Israel]

Hey I got a fresh bucket of sand for you to stick your head in, it works much better than the see no evil, hear no evil game!

As a wise man once said, you strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

[American in Israel]

Not one of your fairy tales is even confirmed by this administration.
12 posted on 03/06/2004 7:28:53

Quite simply I don't believe a word this government says...
13 posted on 03/06/2004 8:25:33

ROTFLMAO!

Uh, your credibility is showing..

[FranklinsTower]

So tell us why Saddam had a missile program if he didn't have WMDs?

Don't tell me he was into model rockets, cause that answer isn't going to fly.

[MamaLucci]

Thank you for your service, sir, and for you and your family's sacrifice.