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In any case, what really IS, or is NOT, a “Weapon of Mass Destruction”? And what is simply “Mass Destruction”? A chemical bomb or explosive carried in a suitcase, nowadays, can in certain cases be used to instantly destroy half a thousand people — and terribly maim a great many more of its victims. A small explosive charge, properly located, can be used as a mere TRIGGER to explode a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank in Boston harbor or elsewhere, which in turn could conceivably kill and maim thousands of people and destroy a great wealth of property.

Why would Saddam Hussein have shipped out the things that are ACTUALLY mentioned in this article? He might well have done so — and probably did do so — merely to limit the in-war destruction — by Allied bombing or confiscation — of his or Iraq’s (perfectly legal, since by the Allies and U.N. already known and tolerated) costly property, with the intent of having it shipped back after the war; in other words, to prevent needless waste and save money.

To sell it short for needed dough? To give it to terrorists for charity, or at a discount? To use it himself outside Iraq, during or after the war? Perhaps he wished to prevent it from being mis-targeted by the Allies during the war, or from possibly being used by the Allies for propaganda or — by their misrepresenting its real nature postbellum — to mislead the world or their own countrymen, or to prevent the Allies and U.N. from using it to impose heavier postwar sanctions, penalties, terms of peace, rights to occupy or administer chunks of Iraq, etc?

It is also worthy of note that before and during the war UNMOVIC — or concerned nations — did not speak loudly of these now suddenly and balefully mention “WMD components and missiles”. Evidently they were not at the time judged or classified as being of pertinent concern, or as representing any adequate, legal, or meaningfully slight justification for the war — just as they have no INTRINSIC significance, or meritable ability to justify an illegitimate war and occupation, in retrospect or on this very day!

In any case, I am afraid that it is all too easy to imagine how this newspaper story — or, what is far more to the point, the new United Nations report itself, or the “new findings” that UNMOVIC has provided the Security Council (irrespective of whether these official conclusions do in fact correspond to the implications, or purposefully or carelessly misreadable implications, of the World Tribune story) — may at once, and for a great long while to come, be misquoted, misrepresented, misunderstood, and exploited in a profoundly misleading and irresponsible way by interested and dishonest political parties, their advertising agencies, and journalists, in America, Britain, and elsewhere.

The only real effect of this article and the U.N. report may be to reinforce ignorance, misimpressions, illusions, stupidity, and a pattern of grossly improper interference in the affairs of what is, or had been and ought to allowed to be once again, a sovereign state — or anachronistic international conduct that violates world law and ought to be punished by the law.

— Patrick Gunkel

• “UN inspectors:

Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after”

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM, June 11, 2004

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. Destionations included Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters — the latter required for the production of chemical and biological warheads.

“It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for,” Ewen Buchanan, Perricos’s spokesman, said. “You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax.”

The UNMOVIC report said Iraqi missiles were dismantled and exported to such countries as Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, an SA-2 surface-to-air missile, one of at least 12, was discovered in a junk yard, replete with UN tags. In Jordan, UN inspectors found 20 SA-2 engines as well as components for solid-fuel for missiles.

“The problem for us is that we don’t know what may have passed through these yards and other yards elsewhere,” Buchanan said. “We can’t really assess the significance and don’t know the full extent of activity that could be going on there or with others of Iraq’s neighbors.”

UN inspectors have assessed that the SA-2 and the short-range Al Samoud surface-to-surface missile were shipped abroad by agents of the Saddam regime. Buchanan said UNMOVIC plans to inspect other sites, including in Turkey.