U.N. Team Still Looking for Iraq's Arsenal

[cal04]

Source: Washington Post

Though Work Is Seen as Irrelevant, Security Council Can't Agree to End It
More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan's East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. They scour the international news media for stories on Hussein's deadly arsenal. They consult foreign intelligence agencies on the status of Iraqi weapons. And they maintain a cadre of about 300 weapons experts from 50 countries and prepare them for inspections in Iraq -- inspections they will almost certainly never conduct, in search of weapons that few believe exist.

The inspectors acknowledge that their chief task -- disarming Iraq -- was largely fulfilled long ago. But, they say, their masters at the U.N. Security Council have been unable to agree to either shut down their effort or revise their mandate to make their work more relevant. Russia insists that Iraq's disarmament must be formally confirmed by the inspectors, while the United States vehemently opposes a U.N. role in Iraq, saying coalition inspectors have already done the job.

"I recognize this is unhealthy," said Dimitri Perricos, a Greek weapons expert who runs the team, known as the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and manages its $10 million annual budget. But, he added, "we are not the ones who are holding the purse; the one who is holding the purse is the council."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102358.html?hpid=topnews

[mike_c]

1. welcome to bizarro world....

You're getting very sleepy. When I snap my fingers, this will all seem normal and sensible....

[acmavm]

2. Hmmmm. What to think about this?

<snip>

The inspectors acknowledge that their chief task -- disarming Iraq -- was largely fulfilled long ago. But, they say, their masters at the U.N. Security Council have been unable to agree to either shut down their effort or revise their mandate to make their work more relevant. Russia insists that Iraq's disarmament must be formally confirmed by the inspectors, while the United States vehemently opposes a U.N. role in Iraq, saying coalition inspectors have already done the job.


Are these people just wasting time and money? Why does Russia insist that inspectors go into Iraq again? Do they really believe it's Saddam's WMDs?

Is this important?

[Kagemusha]

3. Probably just Russia wanting a way to keep tabs on the US in Iraq.

These types of programs are massively infiltrated (the US used that against Saddam for a long time and is surely trying to use it against Iran now).

[LynnTheDem]

6. Because the UN resolution very specifically calls for the UN to certify

Iraq as being WMD-free.

The same UN resolution bush tried to use as his excuse for invading Iraq.

George W. bUsh said Iraq had to be invaded as they were not complying with the US-written UN resolution to disarm; then George bUsh kicked the UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq. Now George bUsh refuses to comply with the very same UN resolution he used as his excuse for illegally invading Iraq, by refusing to allow the UN to certify Iraq as being WMD-free. The US hypocrisy is stunning, and it isn't just Russia who knows it and is demanding the UN resolution be fully complied with.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Follow the yellow brick road... Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road

Making the Iraqis pay to search for non-existing WMD is the ultimate insult to that tragic country.

[LynnTheDem]

7. No it isn't.

The ultimate insult is that George bUsh invaded Iraq using the UN resolution as his bullshit excuse for invading.

George bUsh then and since refuses to comply with that very same UN resolution that says the UN must certify Iraq as being WMD-free.

[LynnTheDem]

5. The US-written UN Resolution demands the UN certify Iraq beiong WMD-free.

The same UN resolution George bUsh tried to use as his excuse for invading Iraq.

Funny thing is, bush kicked the UN inspectors out of Iraq and bush refuses to allow the UN to fulfill the Resolution's requirements to certify Iraq as WMD-free.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Aren't we back to trying to prove a negative?

In order to prove that Iraq no longer has WMD, one has to compare present-day Iraq to when it had WMD. Unfortunately, Iraq did not have WMD when the US invaded, so there is no evidence that something was removed that did not exist in the first place.

Compounding that, Iraq is now too dangerous for UN inspectors to return to look for their version of Big Foot.

Unless the UN rescinds their idiotic Iraq resolutions, we could have a situation in which UN sanctions remain in effect until WMD are removed, on a country that does not have WMD, and whose government is kept in power by the guns of the same country that wrote the UN resolution that keeps the sanctions in place.

[ohio2007]

9. .."Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan's East Side "...

$nif
$nif

I $mell pork comming from Manhatten$ Ea$t $ide.

[struggle4progress]

11. No: the US has refused to allow the team to return to Iraq so ...

... they have to do their work from outside the country.

[bamacrat]

10. Even more reason to IMPEAH these bastards.

Its been 4 years and nothing has been found.

[Heidi]

12. Kick.

:kick:

[Barrett808]

13. U.N. still on WMDs hunt

Source: Washington Post

U.N. still on WMDs hunt
Critics say search is irrelevant
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post

UNITED NATIONS – More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan’s East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. They scour the international news media for stories on Saddam’s deadly arsenal. They consult foreign intelligence agencies on the status of Iraqi weapons. And they maintain a cadre of about 300 weapons experts from 50 countries and prepare them for inspections in Iraq – inspections they will almost certainly never conduct, in search of weapons that few believe exist.

The inspectors acknowledge that their chief task – disarming Iraq – was largely fulfilled long ago. But, they say, their masters at the U.N. Security Council have been unable to agree to either shut down their effort or revise their mandate to make their work more relevant.

Russia insists that Iraq’s disarmament must be formally confirmed, while the United States vehemently opposes a U.N. role in Iraq, saying coalition inspectors have already done the job.

“I recognize this is unhealthy,” said Dimitri Perricos, a Greek weapons expert who runs the team, known as the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and manages its $10 million annual budget. But, he added, “we are not the ones who are holding the purse; the one who is holding the purse is the council.”

Read more: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/17314697.htm?source=rss&channel=journalgazette_news

[Gregorian]

14. Hint: try Pakistan.

Idiots.