Where Have All the Weapons Gone?

Very interesting story in The New York Times. Apparently, there was a highly organized effort to remove materials from Iraq's key weapons installations immediately after the fall of Baghdad. These were not guys running down the streets, carrying TVs, but cranes and trucks removing equipment from about 90 key sites in Iraq.

This comes from an analysis of satellite photography by two United Nations commissions--the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Monitoring, Verfication and Inspection Commission (so cannot be branded by the left as 'more Bush lies').

Dr. Sami al-Araji, the Iraqi deputy ministery of industry, said that the missing material included:

...equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's dormant program on unconventional weapons.

and then later in the article:

The first wave came for the machines. The second wave, cables and cranes. The third wave came for the bricks.

The NYT article goes on to say...

In its most recent report to the United Nations Security Council, in October, the agency said it "continues to be concerned about the widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program."

Agency inspectors, in visiting other countries, have discovered tons of industrial scrap, some radioactively contaminated, from Iraq, the report noted. It added, however, that the agency had been unable to track down any of the high-quality, dual-use equipment or materials.

The disappearance of such equipment," the report emphasized, "may be of proliferation significance."

The monitoring commission has filed regular reports to the Security Council since raising alarms last May about looting in Iraq, the dismantlement of important weapons installations and the export of dangerous materials to foreign states.

Read the article here. So, why isn't this front-page news? And how many folks do you think will be lining up to apologize to President Bush when we find out that Saddam DID have WMD??? (Don't hold your breath--it could be hazardous to your health!!!)