THE HIDDEN FACTS
Geoff Metcalf
March 10, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
“Without seeking, truth
cannot be known at all. It can neither be declared from pulpits, nor set
down in articles, nor in any wise prepared and sold in packages ready
for use, Truth must be ground for every man by itself out of its husk,
with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern labor of his
own.” --John Ruskin
Chief UN weapons
inspector Hans Blix has proven himself to be a disingenuous, duplicitous
slug, and reportedly US officials are p.o.-ed about his fictional
objectivity.
Blix
apparently didn’t bother to inform the Security Council about an Iraqi
remotely piloted drone in his oral presentation to Foreign Ministers.
Rather, a report declassified by the UN recently contained the
hidden bombshell of omission. Buried
in a 173-page single-spaced epic is the epiphany that
inspectors had recently found an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of
7.45m.
What’s
the big whoop? It suggests an
illegal range that could threaten Iraq’s neighbors with chemical and
biological weapons.
US officials were irate that Blix did
not inform the Security Council about the drone and apparently tried to
sequester the report in the 173-page single spaced tome.
Honoré De Balzac once said, “A
flow of words is a sure sign of duplicity.”
According to the report, “Recent
inspections have also revealed the existence of a drone with a wingspan of
7.45m that has not been declared by Iraq.”
Although they don’t report the capabilities or specifications of
the drones, Iraq is restricted from having them by the same UN rules as
missiles (which limit range to about 92-miles).
In February Secretary of State Colin
Powell told the Security Council Washington had evidence that Iraq had
test-flown a drone in a race-track pattern for 500km non-stop.
Blix documented the claim but didn’t feel compelled to tell
anyone.
So what you ask?
Connect the dots. Elsewhere
in the labyrinth of words inspectors give warning that Iraq still has
spraying devices and drop tanks that could be used in dispersing chemical
and biological agents from aircraft. “A large number of drop tanks of
various types, both imported and locally manufactured, are available and
could be modified,” it says. Gosh-oh-gee-golly….and
Hans didn’t think that sufficiently salient to articulate to the
Security Council when he spoke to them?
“The truths we accept are so
multiple that honesty becomes little more than a strategy by which you
manage your tendencies toward duplicity.” noted cultural scholar Ann
Douglas.
The report also details the possible
chemical and biological arsenal that British and US Forces could face in
an invasion of Iraq. Reportedly,
·
Iraq has
huge stockpiles of anthrax
·
May be
developing long-range missiles
·
Could
possess chemical and biological R400 aerial bombs
·
Scud
missiles,
·
And even
smallpox.
Any non-French, German or Iraqi
member of the Security Council would probably find those facts
significant.
General
Powell was compelled to resort to reading passages from the paper out loud
in the Council chamber. He pointed out that it chronicled
- Nearly
30 times when Iraq had failed to provide credible evidence to
substantiate its claims
- 17
instances when inspectors uncovered evidence that contradicted those
claims.
- However,
Powell’s draft copy (from a meeting of the inspectors’ advisory
board last week) did not contain the crucial passage about the new
drone.
The Blix decision to declassify the
internal report is the first time the UN has made public its suspicions
about Iraq’s banned weapons programs, rather than what it has been able
to actually confirm.
An obvious questions is why
declassify a report that (when the details were read) would come back and
bite him so hard?
·
“Unmovic
has credible information that the total quantity of biological warfare
agent in bombs, warheads and in bulk at the time of the Gulf War was 7,000
liters more than declared by Iraq.”
·
This
additional agent was most likely all anthrax,” it says.
·
There is
“credible information” indicating that 21,000 liters of biological
warfare agent
·
Including
some 10,000 liters of anthrax, was stored in bulk at locations
around the country during the war
·
And was never destroyed.
·
“Some” reassurance about Iraq’s missing botulinum toxin
which Unmovic believed is “unlikely to
retain much, if any, of its potency” if it has been stockpiled since
1991.
John Ruskin once
observed, “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.”
Recently
a well intended friend was asking why go after Iraq when North Korea is
rattling nuclear sabers so loudly? My
response was and is; we should have already finished with Iraq and now be
engaged in dulling the North Korean sabers before they fuel their nuclear
arsenal.
© 2003 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights
Reserved
Geoff is a veteran
media performer. He has had an eclectic professional background covering
a wide spectrum of radio, television,
magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and retired
Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Metcalf has hosted
his radio talk show on the ABC/Disney
owned and operated KSFO and in worldwide
syndication. www.geoffmetcalf.com
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