Free Republic

'Iraqis did have Scuds' Ciar Byrne Wednesday June 11, 2003 Channel 4 News diplomatic correspondent Lindsey Hilsum has admitted that she "self-censored" her reports from Baghdad and did not tell viewers that Saddam Hussein's regime was hiding Scud missile launchers in residential areas, because she did not want to be thrown out of the city. Hilsum saw a missile launcher in a back street of Baghdad after losing her way when driving to the scene of the first marketplace bombing in the city, in which 14 people were killed. Although Channel 4 News was not censored by Saddam's secret police,...

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...

The biggest threat posed by Saddam Hussein is his continued ability to generate biological and chemical weapons - and to conceal this in a giant web of deception. There is a real threat from chemical weapons, and a longer term one from nuclear bombs and missiles, but these are not the prime worry for London and Washington. Iraq's forces still have potent weapons for delivering biological and chemical warheads such as the Scud B missiles used against Saudi Arabia and Israel during Desert Storm in 1991 and the longer range Al Hussain missile fired against Iran in the Gulf war...

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,...

Pentagon-AP -- There's a suggestion that some Scud missiles might have been found in Iraq. That would be a first -- and a key goal for the coalition -- since Scud missiles were one of the banned weapons for the Saddam Hussein regime. The word came from the the commander of all naval forces in the Iraq war. Admiral Timothy Keating says that "some Scuds" have been spotted on the ground by U-S and British troops. Later, his spokesman tried to change that by saying Keating should have said "surface-to-surface missiles" had been discovered. However, Keating was clear in discussing...

Scuds hidden at site in Al Qa'im? By Douglas Jehl The New York Times WASHINGTON -- Out of sight of television cameras, some of the heaviest and most prolonged fighting in Iraq has been raging for nearly three weeks near the town of Al Qa'im on the Syrian border. There, British commandos and U.S. special forces have been attacking units of Iraq's Special Republican Guards and Special Security Services, according to senior military and defense officials. The Iraqi forces in the area, along the Euphrates River, have been defending a large compound that includes phosphate fertilizer and water treatment plants....

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea shipped about 10 Scud-B ballistic missiles to Pakistan in February in what could have been part of a deal to pay for nuclear technology from Islamabad, a Japanese daily reported on Wednesday. Quoting unidentified U.S. security sources, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper said a Pakistani freighter with about 10 Scud-B missile on board returned home in late February after loading them at a North Korean port earlier the same month. The shipment of the ballistic missiles, which have a range of 190 miles, was spotted by U.S. satellites as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, it...

Brig.-Gen. Yosef Kupperwasser, head of the Intelligence Corps research and assessment branch, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that Iraq might have hidden its long-range surface-to-surface missiles in Syria. Kupperwasser added that Iraq may have done the same with some of its weapons of mass destruction, reports Army Radio. In December, Prime Minster Ariel Sharon referred to the possibility that Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, ordered his regime's chemical and biological weapons to be smuggled to neighboring Syria to hide them from UN weapons inspectors. Sharon said that Israel had intelligence pointing to this possibility, however the intelligence...

HAIFA, Israel - The Pentagon's clandestine efforts to persuade senior Iraqi officials to turn on Saddam Hussein may be the last hope of avoiding a bloody urban battle in Baghdad. While the reward is so great that the strategy is worth pursing, nobody should hold out much hope for success. The Iraqi dictator constructed his military and political system precisely for this kind of worst-case scenario. Consider the Republican Guard. Since 1988 it has been under the direct command of the presidential palace rather than the army. Because of this, its soldiers have received the best equipment and training, and...

The ongoing search by U.S. and allied forces for Saddam Hussein's remaining arsenal of Scud missiles is not limited to western Iraq, a hotbed of missile firings during the 1991 Gulf War, according to a senior U.S. Central Command official. No Scud firings have been reported in this conflict, but the United States and its allies remain vigilant.In 1991, Iraq launched 39 Scud missiles against Israel from its western desert -- launches that bedeviled U.S. commanders because a large amount of air and special operations assets had to be diverted to hunt them, in part to assure Israel the United...

Just in on sky news! They believe that Iraq just fired a scud, the closest yet to Kuwait City. The Kuwait defense system is thought to have intercepted the missile!

Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalon has paid tribute to the role Australian Special Air Services (SAS) troops are playing in eliminating the risk of an Iraqi Scud missile attack on his country. Mr Shalom has phoned Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to personally express his gratitude. A statement issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the action of Australian Defence Forces was aimed at eliminating the risk of Scuds from western Iraq. During the last Gulf War in 1991, 39 missiles were fired at Israel leaving two people dead and hundreds injured. Since the current attack on Iraq has begun, the...

Iraq fires 3 missiles into Kuwait, Patriots hit 2 KUWAIT, March 24 (Reuters) - Iraq launched three missiles into Kuwait on Monday, two of which were destroyed by a U.S. Patriot battery and one left to land in a northern desert area. A Kuwaiti defence ministry spokesman said a fourth missile was launched from north Iraq southwards but did not enter Kuwaiti airspace. "Two bright orange flashes were seen over Kuwait as the engaging Patriot missile destroyed the Iraqi tactical ballistic missile. It is unknown at this time what type of munitions the Iraqi missile was carrying," said a U.S....

With Iraq throwing Israel into the mix of the US-led war on Iraq, and American soldiers unable to fully control the "Scud box" in western Iraq, the threat to the country could actually be rising, military sources said Sunday. After the discovery that American missiles were made in Israel, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Sunday fingered Israel for joining the fray, calling it "aggression against Iraq." Israel is "sending missiles, we found a missile, an Israeli missile, in Baghdad," he told reporters. "We are now set in the middle of the war picture, and with Iraq under pressure, and...

<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...