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Israeli Vulture Suspected of Spying Returned
New submitter red crab writes: BBC reports that a griffon vulture with GPS tracking device attached to its leg that was part of conservation program at Tel Aviv University was captured in Lebanon after it was suspected to be a Israeli spy. UN Liaison forces helped secure the release of the bird after holding talks with Lebanese and Israeli officials.
There's an entire Wikipedia article about this phenomenon.
*COUGH!* Boy, that line of yours just never gets old, does it?
Iraq's 'hidden' chemical weapons: US 'covered up' discovery of chemical weapons after 2003 invasion – with many are now in Isis’s hands
“'Nothing of significance' is what I was ordered to say,” said Jarrod Lampier, a recently retired Army major who was present when more than 2,400 nerve-agent rockets were found in a single compound in 2006.
Jarrod Taylor, a former Army sergeant who witnessed the disposal of mustard shells that burned two members of his company, told the Times the public has been misled for a decade. “I love it when I hear, ‘Oh there weren’t any chemical weapons in Iraq,’ ” he said. “There were plenty.”
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
You left out the nerve gases Tabun and Sarin, which Saddam had in quantity, and VX nerve gas, which he secretly disposed of by dumping large amounts of it in the dessert. You also left out biological weapons which Saddam also developed.
Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction
The Bush administration was NOT adamant that "Saddam had a bomb." They were adamant that he not GET a bomb.
The West didn't sell Saddam chemical agents, Iraq manufactured them by itself. Any state that can produce modern insecticides can produce nerve gas. Mustard gas is less demanding, if a country has a chemical industry it can make it.
Below is a link to the text of Powell speech. He seems to mention chemical weapons a lot, with some mention of biological, and of nuclear program information.
Full text of Colin Powell's speech
Powell wasn't setup, at least not deliberately. Most intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMDs, but not everyone thought it was worth going after him. It was very unfortunate in many ways that the Bush administration didn't make the information public. At the end of the day Powell was not responsible for the information he presented, that was the responsibility of the intelligence agencies. His job as the US chief diplomat was to make the US case.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
As the line goes, the West already had proof of those older weapons because they'd kept the receipts.
It's a dishonest line, Iraq manufactured the chemical agents it used by itself, although it did partner with Egypt earlier to develop the capability.
They were not evidence of any renewed domestic weapons program, as claimed by the Neocons.
Iraq was not allowed to have any WMD and long range missiles. He still had WMD and was developing long range missiles, and clearly wanted to resume production of WMDs as soon as possible (minus the inspection and sanctions regimes which he was buying his way out of).
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell