Blix says Iraq refusing U2 spy flights

HA'ARETZ ^ | January 20th, 2003

[ArcLight]

No U-2? Guess we better try B-2 instead.

[hchutch]

Nice graphic - and in time of war...

FORGET THE TREATY! SERVICE THE TARGETS!

[justshe]

In English......?

Knowing NOTHING about payloads, I can only assume this is good?

[goldylight]

Whats Aurora?

[John H K]

To elaborate on Mindbender's point, recon satellites, unlike, say, a communications or most weather satellite which is in a geostationary orbit, fly a low polar orbit. This means that they're only over a given spot on earth a couple times a day. And we only have a small number of these satellites. And each "swath" of each satellite, for high quality pics, is very narrow....

Everyone knows where they are and can easily figure out what time of day a given satellite will be over them; the satellites can maneuver some, but not enough to really surprise people, because they have limited fuel.

The Russians (and then the Serbs) got very good at moving things around BETWEEN satellite passes.

Going back to the sniper shootings one constant is that FR (and most people in general) have a greatly exaggerated notion of the effectiveness and coverage of reconnaissance satellites; it's caused by a lot of bad spy/thriller movies where technicians are calling up zoomed in movies wherever they want, whenever they want, showing people/cars/etc. moving around "from a satellite." This gives people the ridiculous idea that the US with satellites can look at a real time movie with detail to read a license plate everywhere in the world, 24 hours a day.

[prairiebreeze]

every day that passes without action is another day Saddam has to strike the first blow (I'm amazed it hasn't happened already). If we don't get the show on the road within days after the Jan. 27th UN report then I wouldn't be suprised if the whole shebang gets scuttled altogether.


Eyup---been worried about all that myself.

[js1138]

The type of technology it uses is basically 1950s...

The U-2 is an aircraft. If you believe it would carry 1950s style sensors over Iraq, I have a bridge to sell you. I suspect that any attempt to shoot down a U-2 would be met by some resistance, to put it mildly.

[RightWhale]

Rush had a couple of good insights today. His suggestion that the demonstrators are anti-American rather than anti-war seems reasonable. While the demonstrators aren't all reds, most are fellow travellers whether they realize it or not.

[Nick Danger]

oh, goodness, i hope iraq doesn't refuse to allow bombing flights by B2 aircraft over its territory. gosh, we'd be in a quandary for sure. a real pickle.

Good one.

[glock rocks]

[Thane_Banquo]

[SamAdams76]

We need to continue the U2 flights because we "Still Haven't Found What We're Looking For."

And once we do find what we're looking for, it's "Bullet The Blue Sky."

[Poohbah]

Blix says Iraq refusing U2 spy flights

"But I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (So I'll Fly Over Baghdad and Mosul)"

"Where the Streets Have No Name ('Cuz We Bombed 'em All)"

"The Unforgettable Fire (That Baby Milk Factory Blowed Up REAL Good)"

Any other warped song titles?

[Chad Fairbanks]

U2? And I stiiiiiill havn't found, what I'm looking for...

[John H K]

Aurora is a semi-mythological US "Black" project that is supposedly a hypersonic replacement for the SR-71.

http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery/aurora.htm

There's quite a bit of evidence that it exists or existed though it's not clear the program is still going, if there ever was one.

It's as mythological as the Stealth Fighter was before the Stealth was revealed to the public; the US has demonstrated a fairly good ability to hide such a black project, or at least the details (the Stealth rumors had the wrong designation..F-19...and a completely wrong "design guess"....artist's concepts had a curved aircraft, not the actual boxy F-117."

[pulaskibush]

Well I guess that's material breach #340573405. Time for WAR!

[N. Theknow]

I'm feeling dumb here. Do we have a plane called the U2? I thought Gary Powers got shot down in one of those 40 years ago. Wasn't the U2 replaced by the SR-71? Are those still flying?

Gary Powers was shot down in a U2. We are still flying the U2. SR-71 has officially been retired. We do not....um....no, really we don't.....um ....have anything to take the place of the SR-71 Blackbird. Seriously, no we don't have anything to take the place of the SR-71, it was retired as soon as we came out with "stealth" technology, so we really don't have a thing. Nope. Not us. Unh-unh. No way. Not a thing. Nosireee. Not like when we came up with the SR-71 and didn't reveal it until it had been in use for several years.

[glock rocks]

oh, yes, is good.

[hchutch]

Drew a black - but check out glock rock's post #24.

Those B-1s carry a lot of stuff - 14 external, 24 internal. Lotta JDAMs.

[PhiKapMom]

I liked that part too. I couldn't believe the list of organizations that supported these rallies either -- Anti-American sure seem to fit most of them. Also liked the part that they (except for the Greens) have their own Party -- The DemocRAT Party. Rush said exactly what I have been thinking!

Clinton goes around the world and it seems to me is trying to undermine this Administration with world leaders. He and Carter are scum IMHO!