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The United States views with "serious concern" Syria's expanding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities and its continued state sponsorship of terrorism, the State Department's top arms control official says.Testifying September 16 before a House International Relations subcommittee, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said Syria also has taken "a series of hostile actions" toward Coalition forces in Iraq.He said Syria allowed military equipment to flow into Iraq on the eve of and during the war, and has "permitted volunteers to pass into Iraq to attack and kill our service members during the...

5:00 p.m. Monday (9/8) Eastern TimeIt is now 6:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 9, 2003 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Under rainy skies and with a current temperature of 70 degrees F, 95% humidity, slight breeze, with expected thunderstorms today in Pyongyang. Many FReepers and others are taking close note of today. Sunrise will occur in 12 minutes. And then, within a few hours, something rather noteworthy, historic and perhaps stunning is expected in the capital of the D.P.R.K. (North Korea).SBS-TV (S. Korea) today has obtained photographs of a new and provocative 15.5 meter-tall Nodong version missile, capable of attacking the...

First of two articlesNEW DELHI -- Tae Min Hun, the dour captain of the North Korean freighter Kuwolsan, glared icily from the bridge as tempers around him soared in the midday heat. On June 30, 1999, as customs agents in India's northwestern port city of Kandla waited impatiently to board the vessel, Tae received urgent instructions from Pyongyang: At all cost, let no one open the cargo boxes.The Indians tried to look anyway, and a melee erupted. Tae and his crew rained blows on inspectors and barricaded the doors with their bodies, according to witness accounts and video footage of...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Taiwan boards N Korean ship Taiwan boards N Korean ship Taiwanese customs officers have boarded a North Korean freighter at the request of US intelligence authorities, reports say. The Taiwanese Central News Agency reports the US as saying the ship could be transporting illegal chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Officials from Taiwan's Ministry of Finance and Customs Bureau (MFKCB) subsequently boarded the ship, which arrived in Kaohsiung Harbour on Thursday from Bangkok, Thailand. The Taiwanese newspaper Lien Ho Pao reported the US had urged Taiwan's National Security Council...

CANBERRA, Australia, May 09, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Elite Australian special forces charged with knocking out Scud missile bases entered deep into Iraq two days before the opening salvo of the war, defense officials said Friday. Releasing details on the role of Australia's 150 Special Air Services troops in Iraq for the first time, defense officials said a large contingent of Australian special forces went into Iraq the night of March 18. The commandos were mainly charged with reconnaissance and "shoot and scoot" missions tracking key military targets and destroying them, either with their own weapons or...

CAMP DOHA, KUWAIT -- All but two of nine U.S. and Kuwaiti Patriot intercepts of Iraqi missiles over a 13-day period beginning March 20 were performed by Guidance Enhanced Missiles, or GEMs, introduced into the fleet seven years ago, according to Army Brig. Gen. Howard Bromberg, commanding general of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. Just two rockets Iraq launched were shot down by brand new Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles. Most engaged missiles were Al-Samoud and Ababil-100 surface-to-surface rockets fired from southern Iraq towards Kuwait, often operating on the outer limits of their approximately 90-mile maximum range,...

NEW YORK - A number of Scuds that could be within striking distance of Israel are still believed to be in western Iraq, Time magazine says in an exclusive report today. "Washington has pointed to the capture of two airfields in western Iraq as a blow to Saddam's ability to menace Israel with Scud missiles, as he did in the 1991 war," the magazine writes. "But the U.S. has what it considers credible intelligence that some Scuds have eluded detection in western Iraq, within striking distance of Israel." A senior U.S. intelligence official told Time: "We are not out of...

The Air Force is readying the first airborne laser weapon, which could be used to intercept Scud missiles. Mark Farmer takes you inside the project. In a starkly sanitized clean room, a stocky Lockheed Martin engineer wearing a shower cap and laboratory smock scuttles in and about black plastic curtains, talking with near-manic intensity and flashing his bright eyes and wry smile. "Want to see something really cool?" asks Paul Shattuck as he yanks back the curtains, revealing a maze of psychedelically colored optics and black anodized metal hardware. "This," he says, "is what they call the Wall of...

While watching the lastest "update" and subsequent "comments" by the Sky news journos, I couldn't help but wonder at their intelligence. (I know, I know... they are journos after all :o)) "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" "They haven't found any weapons of mass destruction yet, have they?" And the "expert" seemed at a loss to answer. Tap. Tap. Tap. Is this brain on? Chinese missiles? Scuds? Don't they count? And if not, fine. The other explanation is simple... "Sod Him, He's Insane" is not mental enough to give his precious WMDs to a bunch of soldiers/conscripts he knows...

<p>March 21, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix yesterday said Iraq violated its agreement with the United Nations if the missiles it fired at American troops were Scuds.</p> <p>"I'm very interested to know whether they used Scuds," Blix said in an interview with the Fox News Channel. "If they're firing [Scuds], of course that shows that there's a violation," he said.</p>

IN THE KUWAITI DESERT — Iraq fired missiles into Kuwait in a series of apparently ineffectual counterattacks against U.S. troops and Kuwaiti civilians Thursday, forcing American soldiers to put on gas masks and chemical protective suits. Fox News has learned from Coalition Defense officials that at least one of the missiles fired was a Scud.

US Marines had a near miss when one of several Iraqi missiles fired at Kuwait landed near their camp in the Gulf Arab state's northern desert. "An unidentified missile struck outside Camp Commando at approximately 10.28 (0728 GMT) this morning," a statement by the US Marine Corps First Marine Expeditionary Force said."Initial reports cited that soldiers from the UK and (US) Marines sighted a grey missile land just outside the compound."Iraq retaliated after US missiles rained down on Baghdad - by firing four missiles on targets in Kuwait.Washington insisted the missiles were scuds but Baghdad insisted it did not...

Iraq Destroys Prohibited Scud Missile Rip Rowan Thu 20 Mar 2003 Today in Kuwait, Iraq destroyed one of its prohibited Scud missiles during the first day of a US-led disarmament program. The Scud, which was destroyed with the help of US weapons experts, was the first Scud destroyed in Iraq since the mid-1990's. "This act represents real disarmament on the part of Iraq," said UN weapons inspector Hans Blix. "We support Iraq's decision to disarm itself of these dangerous prohibited weapons." "Already in the first day of a US-led disarmament effort, we have seen more progress on the issue of...

Iraqi Scud intercepted by US Patriot in the north of Kuwait Iraqi Scud was intercepted Thursday afternoon by an anti-missile missile Patriot of the American army in the north of Kuwait, announced the official agency Kuna.Une source of safety, quoted by the agency, specified that the shooting of the Iraqi missile was at the origin of the alarm given a little earlier to Koweit.Deux other ground-to-ground missiles Iraqi of average carried had fallen down before in the desert of the north of Kuwait without making victim, according to the ministry koweitien of Defense, pushing the soldiers koweitiens and American...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The probability of an Iraqi attack on Israel is "very, very, very low," Israel's army chief said in an interview published Friday, noting that he has seen no evidence that Saddam Hussein has moved Scud missiles into striking range of Israel. Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, told the Maariv daily that an Israeli spy satellite had not picked up any sign of Scuds in the area and that the probability of a missile strike appeared slim. "The probability is very, very, very low," Yaalon told the paper. "The director of military intelligence has said...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Dec 12, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The ship found to be carrying Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen this past week was registered in Cambodia, U.S. and Cambodian officials said Thursday. The United States on Wednesday reluctantly permitted the cargo to proceed to Yemen after having first stopped and searched the ship as part of an interdiction operation in the war on terrorism. According to U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Heidi Bronke in Phnom Penh, "the government has confirmed the claim from the ship's master that the ship was registered in Cambodia as the Pan Hope."...

<p>05:35 PST CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The missiles and other sophisticated military equipment found on a North Korean ship off the tip of the Arabian peninsula belong to the Yemeni government, the pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday.</p> <p>Al-Jazeera did not name its sources, but attributed the claim to Yemeni government officials. Yemen and North Korea completed a deal for the equipment several months ago, the station said.</p>

Seized N.Korean Scud Ship Bound for Mideast -Spain MADRID (Reuters) - A North Korean ship carrying hidden Scud missiles and about 85 drums of chemicals was bound for a Middle East port when it was intercepted in the Arabian Sea by Spanish warships, Spain said on Wednesday. Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo told a news conference the ship, carrying 15 Scuds and the drums of unidentified chemicals, was headed for an unidentified site in the Middle East. It had now been placed under the control of the United States as the leader of an international coalition to fight "terrorism" and...

MADRID (Reuters) - A North Korean ship carrying hidden Scud missiles and about 85 drums of chemicals was bound for a Middle East port when it was intercepted in the Arabian Sea by Spanish warships, Spain says. Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo told a news conference on Wednesday that the ship, carrying 15 Scuds and the drums of unidentified chemicals, was headed for an unidentified site in the Middle East. It had now been placed under the control of the United States as the leader of an international coalition to fight "terrorism" and would be taken to Diego Garcia, an...

The U.S. Navy plans to deploy an Aegis-class destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean by January to help guard Israel against an attack by Iraqi Scud missiles. U.S. officials said a program of six tests of the Aegis will be conducted to develop an emergency deployment sea-based ballistic missile defense against short- to medium-range ballistic missiles. The first test was scheduled for Thursday and took place in the Pacific Ocean, according to Middle East Newsline. The officials said in January the destroyer will participate in an exercise with Israeli air defense and its air force in an effort to bolster missile...