spyder
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Content Count
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Joined
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Last visited
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Posts posted by spyder
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Having to work.
Not getting enough money.
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Bindings? On a snowmobile?
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Silk in Nagano is just not on. It just doesn't go, highly unrecommended. Just don't do it. All right?
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Sounds disgusting
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I'm in Osaka
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Overview
Iraq has "military plans" for the use of chemical and biological weapons, even against its own population
Saddam is one or two years off building a nuclear weapon if he manages to obtain weapons-grade material from abroad
Chemical and nuclear programmes are "well funded" through illicit earnings of up to $3 billion
Iraq has "tried covertly to acquire technology and materials which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons"
Iraq is preparing to conceal evidence of weapons and incriminating documents from weapons inspectors in the future
Saddam regards the possession of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles as the basis of Iraq's regional power
Saddam practises torture, execution and coercion against enemies within Iraq
Tony Blair writes in the dossier: "I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that he has made progress on weapons of mass destruction and that he has to be stopped"
Nuclear programme
Iraq is five years away from producing a nuclear weapon on its own
Iraq has constructed engine test equipment for a missile capable of striking British military bases in Cyprus, Nato members Greece and Turkey and Iraq's Gulf neighbours and Israel
Saddam has tried to acquire "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa despite having no civil programme that could need it
Iraq's nuclear programme is "almost certainly" seeking an ability to enrich to weapons quality uranium mined in Iraq
Approach is based on a process known as gas centrifuge uranium enrichment, but he lacks certain key pieces of equipment
Specialists have been recalled to work on a nuclear programme
Chemical and biological weapons
Iraq has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons
Some weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them
It retainssome such weapons from pre-Gulf War stocks
Saddam also retains the capability to produce the mass-casualty chemical agents mustard gas, tabun, sarin, cyclosarin and VX
Iraq has developed mobile laboratories for military use
Missile programmes
Iraq has retained up to 20 al-Hussein missiles, with a range of 650km, capable of carrying chemical or biological warheads
It has started deploying its al-Samoud liquid propellant missile and extended its range to at least 200km, beyond the 150km UN limit
Iraq has started producing the solid-propellant Ababil-100 and is trying to extend its range to 200km
Latest intelligence reports suggest Iraq has begun developing missiles with a range of more than 1,000km, and if sanctions remained effective it would be able to produce such weapons by 2007
Saddam's power
Saddam has retained authority over command and control arrangements to use chemical and biological weapons
Intelligence reports say he may have delegated authority to his son Qusai
Saddam does not regard weapons of mass destruction as a last resort
Funding
Chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile programmes are "well funded"
Iraq generates income outside UN control to an estimated $3bn in 2002
Illicit earnings are used to maintain Iraq's armed forces and to develop or acquire military equipment including chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic programmes
Illicit earnings have increased from around $1bn in 1999 to $3bn in 2002
Iraq under Saddam
Saddam uses patronage and violence to motivate supporters and control or eliminate opposition
He pursues a long-term programme of persecution against Iraqi Kurds, including the use of chemical weapons
People are arrested and detained for alleged political or religious activities
Executions carried out without due process of law with thousands of prisoners executed
Women prisoners at Mahjar are routinely raped by guards
Prisoners at Qurtiyya Prison in Baghdad and elsewhere left in metal boxes to die if they do not confess
Penalties for criminal offences include amputation, branding, cutting off ears and mutilation
"Slander" against Saddam results in having tongues removed
Some 40 Saddam relatives, including women and children, killed
UN weapons inspections
April 1991 first resolutions passed to enable UN to dismantle Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes
These programmes were in contravention of Iraq's treaty commitments
Iraq has "persistently" obstructed UN weapons inspectors
It has been state policy to retain all weapons programmes despite agreements to do otherwise
Weapons inspectors banned from going to eight "presidential" sites
Iraq has admitted to having a system for hiding proscribed material from inspectors
Weapons inspectors have been intimidated by Iraqi officials
Forged documents used to account for proscribed materials for the growth of anthrax and botulinum toxin
Iraq has destroyed weapons unilaterally to stop the UN being able to account for them
Blair's view
In the dossier, the prime minister says that although gathering intelligence inside Iraq is not easy he and other ministers are satisfied with the authority of the information
He says it is "unprecedented for the government to publish a document of this kind"
He says he has become "increasingly alarmed" in recent months by evidence that Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction in contravention of UN resolutions
He says: "I am quite clear that Saddam will go to extreme lengths, indeed has already done so, to hide these weapons and avoid giving them up."
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Buying beers
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
Great find, look at all those snacks... mmmmm!