Friday, October 29, 2004

October Surprise #1 - Did the Russians Move Explosives Out of Iraq?

This past week it was revealed that hundreds of tons of explosives were missing from an Iraqi weapons facility. Then it was reported by the Washington Post that these explosives may have been moved out of Iraq with Russia’s help. All this stuff was supposedly shipped off to Syria, Lebanon, and maybe even Iran. It is possible that these materials were removed prior to the US invasion in March 2003. UN weapons inspectors confirmed their presence in January 2003, and were at the site on March 15, just five days before the war broke out. Removing the material would have required dozens of heavy trucks, and that would have been nearly impossible during the weeks before and weeks after the site was captured by US forces as the roads and highways in the area were constantly occupied by US military vehicles. And by the way, some of the missing stuff is used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Well isn’t that special?
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Supposing this is all true, me thinks this poses even more questions. What did the Russians know and when did they know it? What else is missing in Iraq? Where is it now? It is believed that Russia provided Iraq with the bulk of its military hardware between the two wars, and they needed to get in and wipe out any trace that they had any arms deal with Iraq.
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This looks real fishy to me, and it only underscores that the primary reason for going to war against Iraq – because they possessed WMD (weapons of mass destruction) – was justified. Many – including those who oppose the war now – believed then that there were WMD in Iraq. Those who dismiss the reports of WMD now have yet to give a plausible explanation as to why all of a sudden Iraq didn’t have WMD. Just because we haven’t found them in massive quantities doesn’t mean they’re not there. If a deliberate effort was made to conceal them prior to the US invasion, they could be anywhere – even out of the country. All we need is a smoking gun. Perhaps we’ve found one.

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