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<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 an interview with FoxNews Senior Correspondent Eric Shawn, Hans Blix expressed surprise that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had any functioning Scud missiles. When asked if he thought Saddam might use chemical or biological weapons, he said "We don't speculate -- we were engaged to inspect."

Two Iraqi missiles hit Kuwait desert KUWAIT, March 20 (Reuters) - Two Iraqi missiles hit the northern Kuwait desert on Thursday, prompting U.S. and British military units to don chemical protection suits and gas masks, Kuwaiti defence ministry and other sources said. An interior ministry official told Reuters that investigations so far had shown the missiles were not carrying chemical or biological materials. Kuwait state television said the missiles were three-tonne, medium-range rockets. There were no immediate reports of injuries. "It looks like a Chinese-made surface-to-surface missile, porobably fired from (Iraq's) al-Faw peninsula," one of the Kuwaiti officials told Reuters....

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. by Mark Farmer March 2003 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...

West seeks to verify murder of waverer By David Wastell, Julian Coman Washington March 3 2003 Western intelligence agencies are investigating claims that Saddam Hussein ordered the murder of a senior Iraqi missile engineer to prevent him from passing vital information to United Nations weapons inspectors. General Muhammad Sa'id al-Darraj, in charge of Iraq's mobile Scud missiles until three months ago, died 24 hours after talks with President Saddam's officials, according to Arab newspaper reports. The officials wanted to discuss how the general would conceal his knowledge if he were called for interview by the UN. The London-based Al-Zaman newspaper...

SADDAM Hussein’s top missile expert has been murdered to stop him blabbing to the UN. General Muhammad Sa’id al Darraj died on Thursday after Saddam’s men poisoned his drink. Relatives say he was ordered to hide details of Iraqi Scuds from the UN — but devious Saddam did not trust him. The revelation came as President Bush warned war was imminent. He said Saddam would be forced to give up his weapons — whatever the UN decided. He added: “If he had any intention of disarming, he would have disarmed. We will disarm him now.” Bush called war the “last...

Feb. 11, 2003 US hits ballistic missile system in southern Iraq By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS US planes attaked a ballistic missile system in southern Iraq Tuesday, the Pentagon announced, marking the first attack on Iraqi missiles meant to attack ground targets instead of aircraft or ships at sea. The American pilots attacked the Iraqi missile system near the southern city of Basra at about 1700GMT Tuesday, according to a statement from the US Central Command. The statement said the Iraqis had moved the missile system into the southern no-fly zone. US warplanes also attacked a mobile surface-to-air missile system near...

Summary/quick translation by AIT in Tokyo (from original Japanese language for Free Republic):From Yomiuri Shimbun Daily News (25 January 2003) Japan's Minister of Defense has made comments today in Parliament to the effect that Japan should study and be prepared to launch a pre-emptive defensive attack upon North Korea if they observe any evidence of North Korea loading their long range missiles with fuel in advance of an anticipated launch toward Japan.He stated in the Diet committee today under testimony that "North Korea has threatened us and promised to turn Tokyo into a so-called "sea of fire". Therefore, if...

From Japan (based on Kyodo News reports in Japanese from Beijing, China), report on statement by North Korean Ambassador to China regarding additional threats toward the United States, this time on resumption of missile testing and launch (photo, above, of DPRK Ambassador to China Che Jin Su, making provocative threat on Saturday at press conference).Synopsis from Japanese text by AIT:DPRK Ambassador to China Mr. Che Jin Su States: "We Will Now Resume Missile Launches, and Further, We Will Take Nuclear Measures On Our Own to Protect Against US Nuclear Threats"Ambassador to China from North Korea Che Jin Su gave...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under its new chairman, Richard Lugar, should make its first order of business an inquiry into President Bush's maladroit and shortsighted decision-making in the So San affair. Our National Security Agency, to its credit, spotted the movement of 15 Scud missiles and 85 drums of chemicals from a factory in North Korea to its secret loading aboard the freighter So San, and tracked the unflagged ship around the world to the Arabian Sea. The C.I.A. was unable to determine the customer of these offensive weapons, unreliable in military combat but useful in striking terror into...

TOKYO: Japan said Thursday it might consider freezing economic aid to Yemen to protest North Korea's shipment of Scud missiles to the Middle Eastern country. "As a matter of course, our country for its part believes that such things as weapons of mass destruction, which could become the cause of conflicts, should not proliferate," top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda said. Fukuda told reporters the Japanese foreign ministry was preparing to convey to the Yemeni government "what may be something close to a protest" over the missile shipment. "I don't know what it contains or how it will be expressed," Fukuda...

<p>Calls plan to hide scuds under bags of cement 'boneheaded'</p> <p>North Korea, still smarting from having one of its vessels interdicted in the Arabian Sea with several poorly hidden Scud missiles on board, today fired its Minister of Weapon-Hiding, the North Korean government announced.</p>

First, a question. What makes the news? As of Wednesday morning, the top story pretty much everywhere was the interception by Spanish warships and American inspectors of a North Korean vessel, 600 miles east of the Horn of Africa. It was carrying a dozen or so Scud missiles, apparently bound for Yemen. But what is the story here, exactly? After all (and I quote), "this is not exactly a development that is new". Whom do I quote? None other than US Deputy Secretary of State Dick Armitage, as he arrived for talks in Beijing - which will doubtless include how...

A ship operated by a North Korean crew carrying 12 disassembled Scud missiles bound for Yemen has been boarded and seized by Spanish and U.S. military forces in the Arabian Sea, Pentagon and administration officials said yesterday. U.S. intelligence satellites and Navy ships had been tracking the ship, the So San, since it left North Korea in the middle of last month, the officials said. It was boarded early Monday about 600 miles southeast of Yemen -- far out to sea and so unquestionably in international waters, a U.S. official said. The decision to take over the ship was approved...

The U.S. plans to station special forces in Jordan in case of a war with Iraq, in order to hunt down missile launchers aimed at Israel in the western Iraqi desert, American sources said this week. These sources, who are familiar with the operational plans being developed for the war, added that Jordan wants to help the U.S. war effort, but prefers to maintain a low profile. Thus, instead of posting regular troops in the kingdom, which would require massive logistical support, the U.S. has decided on special forces. Their job will be to move into the Iraqi desert to...

War Diary: Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002Nov 19, 2002 Monday, Nov. 18, was the day that U.N. inspectors returned to Iraq to begin Security Council-mandated weapons inspections. It was also a day in which extraordinarily different understandings of the inspections process and timeline were expressed by some key parties. Mohamed el Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and one of the senior inspectors, said, "It will take at least six months to one year before we finish our work on Iraq. I therefore ask the international community to be patient and wait until we finish our work comprehensively."...

RIJEKA, Croatia (Reuters) - A ship seized at sea by Croatia this week was bound for Iraq from Yugoslavia carrying what appeared to be material used in the ignition of Scud missiles, according to sources in Croatia on Thursday. "There is evidence that the military equipment on the seized ship was headed for Iraq," a police source told Reuters after 14 containers were unloaded from the freighter Boka Star in the port of Rijeka on Croatia's Adriatic coast. Another source close to the investigation said there were "four containers opened so far containing a powdered substance we believe is used...

Early this month, Major-General Amos Yaron, director-general of Israel's Defence Ministry, flew in secretly twice to meet his counterparts in New Delhi. Yaron's visits were in response to urgent Indian requests for a spy satellite and an anti-missile system. Yaron, says a recent issue of Jane's Foreign Report, had to turn down both requests. Jane's reported that India wanted to "buy or borrow" Israel's newly-launched Ofek-5 spy satellite. Yaron said Israel needed to keep it on an Iran-Syria-Iraq orbit, that it could not, even temporarily, be sent over Kashmir at the present time — as New Delhi wanted. Yaron also...