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June 11, 2004
UN: Saddam Shipped WMD's Out of Iraq Before, During, and After War
Turn Whitesnake up 11:
The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.
The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program.
The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite image of the same location in February 2004, in which facilities had disappeared.
...
The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters – the latter required for the production of chemical and biological warheads.
"It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for," Ewen Buchanan, Perricos's spokesman, said. "You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax."
...
In April, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohammed El Baradei said material from Iraqi nuclear facilities were being smuggled out of the country.
He said that?
Funny, I don't remember reading about that. I honestly don't.
You'd almost think there was, I don't know, what shall we call it?, some sort of a "liberal media bias" embargoing news that cuts in favor of the War in Iraq.
I know that sounds crazy, but what else can explain it?
The whole article is worth reading, but copyright rules prevent me from "excerpting" it all.
Update: AP's take. El Baradei's mention of nuke-components is, strangely enough, omitted.