US weapons team quits Iraq
 

US weapons team quits Iraq
January 8, 2004

A 400-strong US military team that has been searching for illicit weapons in Iraq has been withdrawn after finding nothing of substance, although a separate group looking for weapons of mass destruction still remains in the country, The New York Times reported today.

"They picked up everything that was worth picking up," one US official told the daily, referring to the Joint Captured Material Exploitation Group, made up of technical experts headed by an unidentified Australian brigadier.

The team's task included searching weapons depots and other sites for missile launchers that might have been used with illicit weapons, another also unidentified Defence Department official was quoted as saying.

The withdrawal of the 400-member military team was seen by some military officials as a sign that the US government may no longer expect to uncover chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, the daily said.

A separate military team tasked with disposing of chemical or biological weapons in Iraq remains part of the 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group that has been searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown, a member of the survey group said.

However he told the paper that the group in question, known as Task Force D/E, for disablement and elimination, was "still waiting for something to dispose of."

In October, an interim report by Iraq Survey Group leader David Kay said his search had yielded no weapons of mass destruction, which President George W Bush had cited as justification for war against Iraq.

Kay, however, said documents found in Iraq indicated that Saddam intended to develop illicit weapons and may have retained the capacity to do so. Kay has yet to announce when he will turn in his final report on the matter.

The Washington Post yesterday said interviews with Iraqi scientists and investigators indicate that Saddam's regime concealed arms research that never went beyond the planning stage, although it engaged in "abundant deception" about its ambitions.

"The broad picture emerging from the investigation to date," said the Post, "suggests that, whatever its desire, Iraq did not possess the wherewithal to build a forbidden armory on anything like the scale it had before the 1991 Persian Gulf War."



well, who would have thought !!:RE: Link

sigh...some people still fail to grasp how much things have changed after 9-11, going after Saddam wasn't about getting his possible WMD's (which btw every country on the planet is sure he had) it was about stopping him before he was a further danger, in fact Bush specifically said he wasn't an imminent threat, 9-11 showed that sitting around being reactive to threats and dangers is disasterous, i think all the plans showing he was ready to re-start as soon as the sanctions/and or inspections were over shows that wasn't going to stop being a beligerant asshole to the rest of the world.

start lefty trolling......NOW!

I give up------ Who?


So, what you think we should do? Put Saddam back in Power?, or Maybe AUS would like to have him. He could be a member of your government, or maybe we could invent a time machine, go back 6 months. We will re-write history, I saw it in a movie once.


Anyhow, To the Anti-war group, Are you just against this war and will find everything and anything to try and sway the masses who disagree with you? Or Do you just Hate the USA and GWB? And use this War to try and Prove the USA is Evil?

Maybe this war was the start for a new ideology for the new century.

EDIT---Before people go off the deep end......What is done is done, no point finger pointing and saying Ha Ha I told you so. Question is, How do we try and not let something like this happen again? I still believe the War was or is justified tho.

One of these days, hopefully, you'll figure out that exposing, or at least considering the hype, misdirection and outright deceit of your own government is a form of patriotism, and a necessary form of participation--without shrieking "SADDAM LOVER" in that shrill nasal tone.

I can't speak for people in other countries, but I assume people everywhere know that bullshit stinks.

gotta give credit where its due, the war mongers have done a fine job of shifting the focus from one point to another. if they had just came out from the start and said they have a lot of oil and Israel told us to, well it would suck, but at least it would be honest. but the grand scale of backpeddeling on wmds is laffable. now hurry up and impose the draft, so you can be soundly defeated by Dean, or whoever it is.

heh it's all dem dirty jooooos fault eh?

you sound like a typical jihadist, and you wonder why some label you and your ilk as traitorous.

i dident say jooooos, nice try, and unlike many i dont equate the zionists in Israel with the rest of the jews. even though they try as hard as they can to confuse the issue.

ramona's link - this worked better for me.

“The country really was flattened by the Gulf War, by the bombing of 1998 and by the 10 years of sanctions, and simply didn’t have capabilities it had before.” - Barton Gellman

- js.

meanwhile, in related news:

f$%&ing aye:tu:

of course the fact that the CEIP is a liberal think tank that opposed the war has nothing to do with that report :RE:

yup. i was struck by that, too....they're liberal and they're right - amazing, no?

My observations: the people in this forum that opposed the war are still fighting it, 'fishin' for warmongers.' Granted, both sides are responsible for the unrest here, but when you pick a fight with the pro-war types what do expect to happen?

i expect them to cry, bitch, whine and distort the truth. fun isnt it.

pot meet keetle, keetle this is pot

ahhahahahha, hey thats my analogy

:spin:
at the end of every pbs news hour
i see dead people...

some time i go to change the channel...but i just cant..finger stays poised over the channel changer..but just cant do it...
almost happens every time
(dr who starts right after):)

bloody hell theres some beautiful kids coming back dead...brave souls that they are..

:(

these kids should be out enjoying life
and not dying like this ..doing crack deals...or dying in an OD..maybe..
fast car..bungee accident..?

anything..
WAR SUCKS !

:rofl:

what a load of shit :rofl:

you can take your fake sympathy and shove it up your ass, the majority of troops actually think what they're doing is a good thing, not everyone is a bleeding heart tree hugger like you and Greedy, especially not people who volunteer to train in the ways of killing people.

I'm not against war.
I think it's a great population control for a species that has no natural predators.

I'd just rather be told the reason for having a war, and when the reasons change not be told that the original reasons weren't the reasons at all.

A little optimistic maybe. I fully expect my govermental leaders to lie to the world and at times to their own people. But I'd rather not be treated like an idiot when they do it.

you were told, and the reason never changed