So let me get this right about Al Qaqaa and the explosives.

[Wat_Tyler]

US Satellites can see WMD installations that aren't there and it's considered good enough reason to go to war, but the same satellites cannot confirm that 380 tons of high explosives were removed from a site? These are very selective satellites, aren't they?

[shaolinmonkey]

1. I've been wondering the same thing.

Just what the hell are we paying all this money to the Pentagon for? Where is this money going? None of this shit works and it's never anyone's fault.

This is bullshit.

[elehhhhna]

13. "We know where the weapons are" (pre-invasion statement) go figure.

[displacedtexan]

2. Remember Powell's UN presentation? Here's a reprise...

Powell also showed a satellite image of a new missile test stand, ''larger than anything it has ever had.'' He said the exhaust vent on the large stand was five times larger than one nearby used in the launching of short-range missiles. Iraq is allowed to produce missiles that fly only 150 kilometers; the new test stand, he said, was intended for missiles that have a range of 1,200 kilometers.

Analysts said the secretary of state also made the first reference to Iraq possessing dry, storable biological weapons, which can be 100 times more lethal than Iraq's previously known wet agents. Powell also discussed for the first time live human experiments of deadly chemical agents on 1,600 Iraqi death-row prisoners.

Observers, though, said Powell's strongest pieces of information were two satellite images of decontamination trucks outside what were believed to be chemical munition plants. One was next to the al-Mussayyib facility in May 2002. A followup image of the site in July 2002 shows all the topsoil removed. ''The Iraqis literally removed the crust of the earth from large portions of this site in order to conceal chemical weapons evidence,'' Powell said.

Patrick Garrett, a defense analyst at globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based firm that specializes in satellite imagery, said Powell ''hit a home run'' with the photos.

''You don't have a chemical decontamination truck present at a location unless there are chemical weapons there,'' Garrett said. ''That is as much of a smoking gun as you can get.''

Other analysts noted that the image of the decontamination truck appeared to have been made fuzzy deliberately. ''They have better imagery, but you can't give the best methods away,'' said Jay C. Farrar, a former senior Defense Department official. ''Their imagery allows them to read the license plates on the trucks.''

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030206-unpowell06.htm

[Wat_Tyler]

4. So, if they can indentify the roles of individual trucks

surely they can identify the forty or so trucks needed to remove the explosives, regardless of the time period. Right?

[mirandaod]

3. Well said.

They're lying, of course. They just walked away from the site in April of 2003, with all the explosives still there.

[baldguy]

5. And the weapons inspecters TOLD US THEY WERE THERE!

"Make sure you put some guards on al Qaqaa, there's a shitload of high explosives there!"

[Wat_Tyler]

6. This story has legs. How could they not know where the explosives are?

[Wat_Tyler]

7. kick.

[MacDo]

8. This story

....just like Memogate is going to cost us votes. When will learn not to jump on the right wing media bandwagon every time a story breaks?
Ever consider this was Repuke Fishing to see if we'd bite, hook, line and sinker?

[Wat_Tyler]

9. Why will it cost us votes?

[MacDo]

10. The debunking

has already started by the media. It's too late to start putting any doubt in the swing voters.

[Wat_Tyler]

12. Only if that becomes the dominant meme. I'm not convinced it will.

[MacDo]

14. I hope you're right. n/t

[milkyway]

11. And they can't say they didn't know it was so important. See this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=934107&mesg_id=934107

[realFedUp]

15. Those stubborn satellite photos...

you can't tell me that while Colin was waving
around the photo of the two water distilling trucks, the
gov. didn't have a satellite photo of this weapon
cache? It's not like this is country is a jungle, jane.

Lies upon lies leads to one big yucca mountain.