AL-SAMOUD II: Blair's Lies
Repostman | 13.02.2003 16:30
Tony Blair's claims that today's al-Samoud II missile 'revelations' are a 'smoking gun' justifying their murderous assault is another Downing Street lie: these were declared by the Iraqis in December and confirm the successes of the inspection process
It would perhaps be useful if people were made aware of the inaccuracies surrounding today's al-Samoud II missile 'revelations'
Tony Blair claims that this is a 'smoking gun' discovery which uncovers further Iraqi deception. In fact this information about the excessive range of the rocket (33 km beyond the UN limit, which takes it slightly further into neighbouring countries but not far enough to hit, for example, Israel) derives from test information offered up by the Iraqi government *themselves* in their Dec 7th declaration. Hans Blix commented on this on December 19:
"In the missile area, Iraq has declared the development of a missile known as the Al Samoud, which uses components from an imported surface-to-air missile. A variant of the Al Samoud, with a larger diameter (760 mm) than the standard version (500 mm) has been declared. [...] In the latest update of the semi-annual monitoring declarations, Iraq has declared that in 13 flight tests of the Al Samoud the missile has exceeded the permitted range. The greatest range achieved was 183 kilometres."
Hans Blix, notes for briefing the Security Council of 19 December 2002 (
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/international/middleeast/20BFULL-TXT.html)
In other words, this 'discovery' is an instance of the inspections and declaration 'working' i.e. an instance of compliance, not non-compliance. This has been raked up and re-presented as a 'new' smoking gun. Compare this to Tony Blair's statement about it today:
"Reports that UN inspectors have discovered a missile in Iraq with a range of 112 miles are "extremely serious", Tony Blair has said. The prime minister said an undeclared missile of that sort would demonstrate the futility of giving the inspectors more time. At a joint news conference with Australian counterpart John Howard, Mr Blair said: "If these reports are correct it is very serious because it would be not just a failure to disclose information but a breach of resolution 1441." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2756413.stm
The argument about the futility of inspectors is thus not borne out by the fact that this minor infringement was declared and subsequently verified by the inspections process. Mr Blair's description of it as "undeclared" is a straightforward lie.
You may wish to forward this to others.
Tony Blair claims that this is a 'smoking gun' discovery which uncovers further Iraqi deception. In fact this information about the excessive range of the rocket (33 km beyond the UN limit, which takes it slightly further into neighbouring countries but not far enough to hit, for example, Israel) derives from test information offered up by the Iraqi government *themselves* in their Dec 7th declaration. Hans Blix commented on this on December 19:
"In the missile area, Iraq has declared the development of a missile known as the Al Samoud, which uses components from an imported surface-to-air missile. A variant of the Al Samoud, with a larger diameter (760 mm) than the standard version (500 mm) has been declared. [...] In the latest update of the semi-annual monitoring declarations, Iraq has declared that in 13 flight tests of the Al Samoud the missile has exceeded the permitted range. The greatest range achieved was 183 kilometres."
Hans Blix, notes for briefing the Security Council of 19 December 2002 (
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/international/middleeast/20BFULL-TXT.html) In other words, this 'discovery' is an instance of the inspections and declaration 'working' i.e. an instance of compliance, not non-compliance. This has been raked up and re-presented as a 'new' smoking gun. Compare this to Tony Blair's statement about it today:
"Reports that UN inspectors have discovered a missile in Iraq with a range of 112 miles are "extremely serious", Tony Blair has said. The prime minister said an undeclared missile of that sort would demonstrate the futility of giving the inspectors more time. At a joint news conference with Australian counterpart John Howard, Mr Blair said: "If these reports are correct it is very serious because it would be not just a failure to disclose information but a breach of resolution 1441."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2756413.stm The argument about the futility of inspectors is thus not borne out by the fact that this minor infringement was declared and subsequently verified by the inspections process. Mr Blair's description of it as "undeclared" is a straightforward lie.
You may wish to forward this to others.
Repostman