NO WMD's in Iraq? Not According to the Hague!

There has been many comments made in all the various media sources stating emphatically that Iraq never had Weapons of Mass Destruction. This was in spite of the fact that many of these same news sources reported the use of chemical weapons used during the Iran-Iraq war which lasted from 1980-1988.
Now the Hague has convicted and sentences one Dutchman to 15 years in prison for selling the chemicals that Iraq needed to make mustard gas which the Iraqi's used against the Iranians. The 15 year sentence is the maximum that the law allows and the presiding judge stated that this sentence was not enough.
Frans van Anraat, was also accused of genocide, but he was aquitted of this charge.
Dutchman jailed over Iraq poison gas

Yes, the allied forces that are presently in Iraq have not been able to locate WMD's in Iraq but there are many who beleive that these weapons were moved into Syria weeks before the US led forces attacked Iraq in 2003.

Court: Kurd deaths were genocide
Saddam's 'Dutch link'
Eyewitness: Halabja gas attack

[edit on 23-12-2005 by kenshiro2012]

Originally posted by kenshiro2012
There has been many comments made in all the various media sources stating emphatically that Iraq never had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

- Really?
Since when?
Which media?

You'd have to be really uninformed, blind or in total denial to believe that considering the UN documented those activities very well after gulf war mk1 in the mid 1990's.

This is IMO just part of the 'shell game' currently being played.
Iran, Iraq.
'They' had WMDs, they don't now have WMDs.
'They' violated internation law/UN resolutions.
'They' threw out the UN inspectors etc etc.

Grist for the war-machines' mill.

there are many who beleive that these weapons were moved into Syria weeks before the US led forces attacked Iraq in 2003.

- That's as maybe.

There are people who will scrabble around for any seemingly plausible 'reason' as to why they have been proved spectacularly wrong on this one.

.......and I do wish folks would make their minds up on this.

One minute the claim is 'everything' went in a super-duper ultra secret convoy to a super-duper ultra secret place in Syria (despite Syria being such great mates with the US right now to act as a venue for the current US torture program, er, sorry 'extrordinary rendition' program).
The next the claim is they went to Iran.

As someone once said, you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but the ones you can fool some of the time will do just nicely for now.

Hang on , i thought the gas was sold to them by the CIA in the early 80`s??

Old information, discussed many times previously and totally ignored by the U.S.-Haters. The best you will get is, "Who do you think gave Saddam the weapons in the first place?" while totally ignoring the countries who sold him the most crap.

Enjoy yourself, though.

Ask and you shall recieve
News24.com

Saddam Hussein told his American interrogators that Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction, claiming that they were an invention of the US government to justify an invasion, it was reported last night.

NewsCenter.com

In 2002, Ritter stated that, as of 1998, 90–95% of Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical capabilities, and long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering such weapons, had been verified as destroyed. Technical 100% verification was not possible, said Ritter, not because Iraq still had any hidden weapons, but because Iraq had preemptively destroyed some stockpiles and claimed they had never existed.

Wiki

www.austhink.org...

And sminkeypinkey

You'd have to be really uninformed, blind or in total denial to believe that considering the UN documented those activities very well after gulf war mk1 in the mid 1990's.

Much appreciated

[edit on 23-12-2005 by kenshiro2012]

There's little real question that Iraq did have WMD's up till 1991, nor that they used them in the Iran Iraq War.

The question is whether they had them in 2003, and the answer seems to be a solid "no".

The title of the thread ignores this fact and is deliberately deceptive.

Yes, the allied forces that are presently in Iraq have not been able to locate WMD's in Iraq but there are many who beleive that these weapons were moved into Syria weeks before the US led forces attacked Iraq in 2003.

There are plenty that believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy too, but belief without evidence is useless in a debate. All the "WMD's traced to Syria" stories seem to trace back to Debka, which is a propaganda outlet for the Israeli far-right, not a news organization.

[edit on 12/23/05 by xmotex]

Ignoring the FACT that they were moved out of the country in the days leading up to the last war, and were moved to Syria, seems to be the favorite sport of the U.S.-Haters. We see it continuing.

Excuse me while I go to the concession stand for a large cola and a Hambuger Grande with everything. Fill me in if there are any innovative moves used on the playing field.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Old information, discussed many times previously and totally ignored by the U.S.-Haters. The best you will get is, "Who do you think gave Saddam the weapons in the first place?" while totally ignoring the countries who sold him the most crap.

Enjoy yourself, though.

The good news is that most people arn`t blinded by the flag or deafened by the oath that can `deny ignorance` and bring the truth to the masses.

U.S.-Haters

have you considered , just for a moment that its the current foreign policy and administration that people don`t like and not the country as a whole??

Ignoring the FACT that they were moved out of the country in the days leading up to the last war, and were moved to Syria

FACT?

And your proof of this "fact" is where exactly?

I could reference the FACT of the existence of Santa Claus, but my claims dont make it so.

As far as I know not even the US government has ever made this claim officially, or presented any evidence for it. It's hard to imagine such a massive logistical undertaking going completely undetected by US surveillance in the weeks leading up to a war, when the US would be examining goings on in Iraq with particular care.

If anything appears clear at this point, it is that the WMD stockpiles were destroyed at the close of the first Gulf War for fear of a US nuclear attack, and that Iraq attempted to keep that fact ambigious enough to bluff Iran by playing games with the inspectors.

[edit on 12/23/05 by xmotex]

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Ignoring the FACT that they were moved out of the country in the days leading up to the last war, and were moved to Syria

- That isn't a "fact" TC.
It has not a "fact" verified in any way whatsoever.

The 'fact' that some trucks in convoy moved between Syria and Iraq proves nothing, there have been huge convoys of trucks moving everyday for the last umteen decades and they still do.

Just as they do and have done with all of Iraq's neighbours including Turkey and Iran.

Did you ever see the film of the sanction-busting trading between Turkey and Iraq?
There were vast convoys of tankers and articulated 32 tonne+ lorries as far as the eye could see.

Day in day out, year in year out.

seems to be the favorite sport of the U.S.-Haters.

- Oh come on.
What "U.S. -Haters"?

That seems to just be a bit of silly name-calling.

If it helps I can tell you that in my own case I have many members of my own family that are American, I don't hate them and I don't hold hate for Americans in general either.

I don't have much time for the current direction in US politics, I will happily agree with that.

Fill me in if there are any innovative moves used on the playing field.

- I did think your denial in the US involvement in assisting Saddam was hardly "innovative".

Surely you are aware that with the US covertly supplying Iran with spares and weapons they could not be seen to arm Iraq too (now that would have been just a tad too obvious).
Hence Reagan supplied Saddam with the funding he went out to buy his military kit in Europe, Russia and China with, as was intended all along.

But even so, have you never seen the large list of US companies that dealt with Saddam?

[edit on 23-12-2005 by sminkeypinkey]

'They' threw out the UN inspectors etc etc.

Another Media Fairy Tale.

Clinton ordered the UN inspectors to get out of Iraq before Operation Desert Fox.

Under former President Bill Clinton, Washington ordered the inspectors removed from Iraq on the eve of Operation Desert Fox, a unilateral 72-hour aerial bombardment of Iraq conducted without the approval of, or even in consultation with, the UN Security Council, which —in theory at least—was the organization overseeing the work of UNSCOM.

Continued....

the inspectors were withdrawn at Bill Clinton's behest in December 1998 in order to carry out the Desert Fox bombing campaign.

Continued....

For example: those who follow the news understand that none of Saddam's antiaircraft batteries can ever reach the altitude from which US and British jets are bombing Iraq and so Rumsfeld's statement that bombing is in response to radar contact is pure baloney. Rumsford repeated several times the canard that Saddam threw the UN inspectors out when the truth is Clinton ordered them out to protect them from his "desert Fox" bombing. Our Secretary stated that Saddam " intended to invade Saudi Arabia," but aerial photographs of Iraqi military vehicles on the ground in Kuwait never showed any of the equipment that would have been necessary to transport an army 325 miles across desert sands into Riyhad. Another lie.

Continued....

Plenty more sources if you care to Google.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
U.S.-Haters

Whoa there hoss, that sounds dangerously close to a stereotype to me. It's called Dissent, learn to live with it as it is one of the most basic foundations of American Idealologies.
I love this country, and I suspect alot of folks you would so readily classify as "U.S.-Haters" probably do as well. There is also a big difference between patriotism and nationalism, and if you put any faith in the words of our forefathers, it is the duty of a patriot to resist corruption, not to hide behind it. We not only allowed the credits, and sold them the chemical precursors for chemical weapons, we sold them the Bell Crop Spraying helicopters to disperse those chemical agents, funded and supported the Kurdish Uprising, funded and supported Iran, and used the money we made off those deals to illegally support the Sandanistas in South America. That isn't speculation, that isn't hate talking, it is a matter of public record. If pointing that out seems like US Hating, then I'm sorry that you have such a twisted idea of what America stands for. America isn't what it could be, isn't what it should be, and it isn't always right, in this case particularly. As hard as it might be to understand that, corruption is inherent in a Republic, and it is the duty of any citizen who loves his country to resist this corruption, to fix it, change it, or get rid of it. Not to promote it through denial of the obvious, or demonizing opposition to it.
US Haters... Give me a freaking break.
Here's a quote for you to mull over...
"There were no weapons of mass destruction."
-G W Bush
2004 Televised Presidential Debates