UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after.

UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and
after.

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Friday, June 11, 2004 (Archive)
The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein
shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well
as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and
after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission briefed the Security Council on new
findings that could help trace the whereabouts of
Saddam's missile and WMD program.

The briefing contained satellite photographs that
demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled
his missile and WMD sites before and during the war.
Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic
missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw
a satellite image of the same location in February
2004, in which facilities had disappeared.

UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos
told the council on June 9 that "the only controls at
the borders are for the weight of the scrap metal, and
to check whether there are any explosive or
radioactive materials within the scrap," Middle East
Newsline reported.

"It's being exported," Perricos said after the
briefing. "It's being traded out. And there is a large
variety of scrap metal from very new to very old, and
slowly, it seems the country is depleted of metal."

"The removal of these materials from Iraq raises
concerns with regard to proliferation risks," Perricos
told the council. Perricos also reported that
inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components
shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection
tags.

He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent
both to Europe and around the Middle East. at the rate
of about 1,000 tons of metal a month. Destinations
included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey.