Engines Used in Missiles Found in Jordan ( Scrap yard )

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | June 09, 2004 at 19:06:49 PDT | EDITH M. LEDERER

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. weapons experts have found 20 engines used in banned Iraqi missiles in a Jordan scrapyard along with other equipment that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction, an official said Wednesday.

The discoveries were revealed to the U.N. Security Council by acting chief U.N. inspector Demetrius Perricos during in a closed-door briefing. The text was obtained by The Associated Press.

The U.N. team was following up on an earlier discovery of a similar Al Samoud 2 engine in a scrapyard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. Perricos said inspectors also want to check in Turkey, which has also received scrap metal from Iraq.

Perricos told the Security Council said U.N. inspectors do not know how much material that they had monitored orginated in Iraq.

U.N. inspectors were pulled out of Iraq just before the war began in March 2003, and the United States has refused to allow them to return, instead deploying its own teams to search for weapons of mass destruction.

Perricos suggested that the interim Iraqi government, which will assume sovereignty when the U.S. and British occupation of the country ends on June 30, may want to reconsider "the whole policy for the continued export of metal scrap" which apparently started in mid-2003 and is regulated by the U.S.-led coalition.

"The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks ... thereby also rendering the task of the disarmament of Iraq and its eventual confirmation, more difficult," Perricos said.

"The only controls at the borders are for the weight of the scrap metal, and to check whether there are any explosive or radioactive materials within the scrap," he said, according to the text of his briefing.

Afterwards, he told reporters that up to a thousand tons of scrap metal was leaving Iraq every day.

"It's being exported. It's being traded out, and there is a large variety of scrap metal from very new to very old, and slowly, it seems the country is depleted of metal," he said.

During last week's visit to Jordan, Perricos told the council that U.N. experts visited "relevant scrapyards" with the full cooperation of Jordanian authorities and discovered 20 SA-2 missile engines.

The U.N. team also discovered some processing equipment with U.N. tags - which show it was being monitored - including heat exchangers, and a solid propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel, he said. It also discovered "a large number of other processing equipment without tags, in very good condition."

"These visits provide just a snapshot of the whole picture since the scrap metal has a short residence time and is re-exported to various countries," Perricos told the council.

In its quarterly report to the council on Monday, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission which Perricos heads, said a number of sites in Iraq known to have contained equipment and material that could be used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been cleaned out or destroyed.

The inspectors said they didn't know whether the items, which had been monitored by the United Nations, were at the sites during the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The commission, known as UNMOVIC, said it was possible some material was taken by looters and sold as scrap.

UNMOVIC said its experts and a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. body responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear program, were jointly investigating items from Iraq discovered in a scrapyard in Rotterdam.

--

[stylin19a]

I guess the major question is...when did they get there ?

[Mrs Zip]

ping

[Army Air Corps]

Those things could not come from Iraq because Scott Ritter and Hans Blitz told us that the Saddam was good boy and had smashed his naughty toys. </sarcasm>

[bayourod]

All this new information coming out sure is making it hard for the 9/11 Commission to write its final report blaming Bush for breathing.

[zip]

I guess the major question is...when did they get there ?

I first question is...are they called scrap but in working condition and being shipped to rogue nations or terrorists groups via scrap yards to be reassembled and used against us?

[BOBWADE]

Paging Scott Ritter.

[BOBWADE]

Do we really want to know the answer to that one?

[Vic3O3]

ping

[piasa]

The U.N. team also discovered some processing equipment with U.N. tags - which show it was being monitored - including heat exchangers, and a solid propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel, he said. It also discovered "a large number of other processing equipment without tags, in very good condition."

(* My note: does that mean "a large number" of items had not been monitored?)

[holden]

HF

[piasa]

JUNE 10, 2003 : (UN vs IRAQ : INTERIM UNMOVIC CHIEF NAMED, PERRICOS WAS THE LEADER OF THE IAEA TEAM WHICH CERTIFIED SOUTH AFRICA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM 'DISSOLUTION') U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed UNMOVIC Deputy Executive Chairman Demetrius Perricos to take over as acting head of the commission July 1, when Blix retires. Perricos was the commission's director of planning and operations for three years prior to his appointment in January to the body's number two post. The Greek native joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1972 as a safeguards inspector and led the team that certified the dissolution of South Africa's nuclear weapons program. He also worked in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War -"Interim UNMOVIC Chief Named ," U.N. release, June 10

Note that South Africa graciously sent a team to Iraq just before we invaded to "help destroy" the weapons of mass destruction that many in the press keep saying they didn't have...

FEBRUARY 24 +/- , 2003 : (SOUTH AFRICAN "DISARMAMENT EXPERTS" ARRIVE IN IRAQ) A group of South African disarmament experts has arrived in Baghdad to help Iraq destroy any weapons of mass destruction it may have. The team of seven includes nuclear and chemical-biological weapons specialists who helped destroy South African weapons during the 1990s. Both President Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor Nelson Mandela have criticised United States-led plans to attack Iraq. Correspondents say that South Africa is the only country to voluntarily dismantle its programme of weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, was involved in South Africa's disarmament. He has praised it as a model of co-operation, and has urged Iraq to adopt it. Iraq's General Hosam Mohamad Amin, head of the National Monitoring Directorate which liaises with the UN inspectors, said he would start his meetings with the South African experts on Monday. "We will exchange technical viewpoints... and they will share with us their expertise in their declarations about their programmes of weapons of mass destruction," he said.
The South Africans are led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad. South Africa's nuclear, chemical and biological arsenal was established during the apartheid regime. South Africa's nuclear programme began in the 1970s as a deterrent against neighbouring states opposed to apartheid and against the Cold War instability that was fuelling the war in nearby Angola. Mr Mbeki announced that the team would leave for Iraq in his state of the nation address earlier this month. "Hopefully, what they will do, freely to share their invaluable knowledge and experience, to facilitate the work both of the UN weapons inspectors and the government of Iraq, will bring us back from the brink of war, while helping to ensure that Iraq is truly free of weapons of mass destruction," he said. Mr Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has offered to go to Iraq as a human shield. - "SA experts start work in Iraq," BBC News, Monday, February 24, 2003

[piasa]

1994 late : (IAEA SAYS THAT IT HAS VERIFIED THAT SOUTH AFRICA'S WEAPONS FACILITIES HAD BEEN DISMANTLED) The IAEA declared in late 1994, after it had completed its inspection around the end of August, that it had verified that South Africa's nuclear weapons facilities had been dismantled. The total inventory of enriched uranium was about 1500 kg, with an average enrichment of 37 percent. Taking into account the highly enriched portion, the remaining 1100 kg would have an enrichment a trifle under 20 percent. The seven weapons for which HEU cores were fabricated would have combined mass of 390 kg, essentially matching the quantity of weapon grade material found."South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program : Putting Down the Sword ," http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Safrica/SADisarming.html.Last changed 7 September 2001

Hmm. This South Africa?

AUGUST 1997 : (SOUTH AFRICA SELLS ZIRCONIUM TUBING PLANT TO CHINA, NEWSPAPER REPORT OF ILLEGAL CHINESE WORKERS DISMANTLING PLANT ALERTS PEOPLE TO THE SALE RIGHT AROUND THE TIME CHINA HAD CONCLUDED AN AGREMENT WITH IRAN TO BUILD A ZIRCONIUM TUBING PLANT THERE) Abstract : In August 1997, South Africa and China concluded a contract for the sale of a plant used to manufacture zirconium tubing at Pelindaba. The deal was not made public until a South African newspaper revealed the presence of "illegal" Chinese technicians dismantling the plant and packing equipment for export to China. The Chinese workers had entered South Africa with business visas, and had been working without the proper employment visas. According to an unidentified member of the South African government, had it not been for the newspaper report, "there might have been nothing to stop this sensitive equipment leaving the country."
The South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) stated that there are three pieces of equipment, described as CNC [computer numerically controlled] machine tools used to make complex molds, require authorization for export under the Nuclear Suppliers Group dual-use guidelines. The South African government requires an end-user certificate from China before it will authorize the export of the equipment. US officials are concerned that China might ship the South African plant to Iran, because China has signed a contract to build a zirconium tube factory in Iran. - "Is Iran In RSA-China Zirconium Deal?," Jane's Pointer, February 1998, p.1 , 1 February 1998 via - "CNS Nuclear and Missile Developments Database: Sample Abstracts on South Africa's Nuclear Doctrine," These abstracts were selected from the over 30,000 entries in the CNS Nuclear and Missile Developments Database., http://www.nti.org/e_research/e1_safrica_nuclear.html.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Are you making some sense out of this?

They found some stuff in Rotterdam also.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LOL!!

[piasa]

JANUARY 24, 2003 : (WOLFOWITZ SAYS IRAQ HAS A HISTORY OF PRESSURING & BLACKMAILING UN INSPECTORS) The significance of former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter's arrest, allegedly in a police sex-sting operation a year and a half ago, was underscored today when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told of Baghdad's use of personal information to intimidate the inspectors. "In the past, Iraq did not hesitate to use pressure tactics to obtain information about the inspectors," Wolfowitz said today in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Noting that often the pressure was "quite crude," Wolfowitz said that during the previous inspection period in the 1990s, "one inspector was reportedly filmed in a compromising situation and blackmailed." Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Dave Lapan told WND today he would seek further elaboration from Wolfowitz concerning his remarks about the inspectors. The deputy defense chief said in his speech this afternoon that sometimes Iraq's pressure on the inspectors was subtler. Wolfowitz said, "Richard Spertzel, a former UNSCOM specialist in biological warfare, recalled the case of an Iraqi official coyly asking a new member of his team: 'How far is it from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis?' Having moved from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis just days prior to her arrival in Iraq, she was unnerved by the comment, according to Spertzel." More recently, according to Wolfowitz, "Iraq has again begun referring to the inspectors as spies, clearly hoping to make them uncomfortable at best, and afraid at worst, and intimidate Iraqis from interacting with the inspectors." Wolfowitz claimed today that Iraq has not destroyed its chemical and biological arsenal and is working hard to produce nuclear weapons. Iraq has failed to cooperate fully with weapons inspectors, he said, treating "disarmament like a game of hide and seek – or, as Secretary of State [Colin] Powell has called it, 'rope-a-dope in the desert.'" - "Baghdad pressuring Ritter? Wolfowitz says Baghdad has history of blackmailing weapons inspectors ," By Art Moore, WorldNetDaily.com, Friday, January 24, 2003

JANUARY 30, 2003 : (IRAQ : RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE UN INSPECTORS IN IRAQ, IRAQI MILITARY STILL GOES ABOUT EFFORT TO HIDE EVIDENCE OF WMD : OFFICER FROM THE REPUBLICAN GUARD HQ ISSUES INSTRUCTIONS TO AN OFFICER IN THE FIELD: THE US SECRETLY TAPES THE CONVERSATION AND POWELL WOULD PLAY PART OF IT BEFORE THE UN IN FEBRUARY 2003)

...
HQ : "They are inspecting the ammunition you have, yes?"
FIELD OFFICER : "Yes. For the possibility there are forbidden ammo."
HQ : "For the possibility there is, by chance, forbidden ammo?"
FIELD OFFICER : "Yes.
HQ : "And we sent you a message yesterday to clean out all the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there.”
...
HQ : "After you have carried out what is contained in this message, destroy the message because I don't want anyone to see this message."
FIELD OFFICER : "Okay."

-- Source: "Remarks to the United Nations Security Council," by Secretary Colin L. Powell, New York City February 5, 2003

MARCH 2003 first week : (CUBA : CASTRO TELLS IRAQ TO DESTROY ITS WMD & COMMENTS ON IRAN ) President Fidel Castro has urged Baghdad to destroy "the last cubic centimetre of chemical or biological weapons" to remove any pretext Washington might have to attack it. At the close of the new Cuban parliamentary legislature, in which Castro's re-election as head of the government and the state came as no surprise, the Cuban leader praised Iraq's decision to destroy its Al-Samoud 2 missiles. "The American Government will no longer have the least legal or moral pretext to attack Iraq," Castro said. He slammed Washington for closing its eyes to atomic weapons held by Israel having provided the means for their transportation. "Only the complete truth ... would give the Iraqi people enough moral strength and international support to defend their homeland and integrity right up to the last drop of blood," he said. Castro acknowledged that Iraq had "committed two grave and unjustifiable actions" in invading Iran and occupying Kuwait, but had also had to endure "very hard action" itself. Iraq "is not in a position, militarily speaking, to constitute the least risk to US security or of their allies in the region", Castro said.- "Castro tells Iraq: destroy weapons," Agence France-Presse , March 7, 2003

[piasa]

MARCH 25?, 2003 : (REPORT : SUSPECTED SCUD MISSILES FOUND IN DIRHAMAIYAH PETRO-CHEMICAL PLANT) EXPERTS are examining suspected Scud missiles discovered by British soldiers searching a chemical plant outside Basra. A number of the grey-painted rockets, about 23ft long, were found in the Dirhamiyah petro-chemical plant close to Iraq’s second city. The discovery has raised suspicions that Saddam Hussein was planning to arm the missiles with chemical warheads. British officers say it is difficult to find an innocent explanation for storing missiles in a chemical plant. The find comes a day after soldiers with the Black Watch discovered a cache of weapons, including two Russian al-Harith anti-ship cruise missiles, at the Az Zubayr civilian heliport south of Basra. - "Missiles find in chemical plant," by GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND PAUL GALLAGHER, The Scotsman, March 25, 2003*

APRIL 2003 : (JORDAN BASE POISON PLOT : JORDAN SUSPECTS THAT IRAQI DIPLOMATS PLOTTED TO POISON WATER SUPPLIES SERVING BASES USED BY THE USA IN MARCH) Jordan supected Iraqi diplomats whom it expelled last month of plotting to poison water supplies serving military bases near the Iraqi border used by US service personnel, diplomatic sources said Tuesday. "The Iraqi diplomats expelled on March 23 were conspiring to poison water mains serving the east of Jordan," where most of the US forces deployed in the kingdom are based, one of the sources told AFP, declining to be identified. The source did not elaborate on the nature of the poison said to have been involved in the plot. Jordan originally expelled five embassy staff but later lifted the expulsion order against two of them. King Abdullah II also made clear the following day that Jordan was ready to allow Iraq to name replacements for those kicked out. - "Jordan suspected expelled Iraqi diplomats of poisoning plot (on U.S. military base water supply)," Agence France-Presse , April 1, 2003

[piasa]

2003 spring : (IRAQ : THE UK TELEGRAPH'S CON COUGHLIN MEETS DR. KAY IN BAGHDAD ABOUT THE NEWSPAPER'S FIND OF DOCUMENTS INDICATING HUSSEIN WAS ATTEMPTING TO DEVELOP A BALLISTIC MISSILE WITH A RANGE IN EXCESS OF POST GULF WAR 1 UN-IMPOSED LIMITATIONS) ... I [Coughlin] spent time with him [Dr. Kay] in Baghdad in the spring and he helped to corroborate documents discovered by The Telegraph that indicated Saddam was attempting to develop a ballistic missile [May 25, 2003] with a range of 600 miles. - "Meanwhile, Saddam's secrets rise from the desert," Con Coughlin;The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) , 08/17/03; Con Coughlin is the author of Saddam: The Secret Life

[Cindy]

Thanks piasa.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks.