Polish troops find new French missiles in Iraq

[L@mplighterM]

Friday October 3, 3:26 pm ET
By Pawel Kozlowski


(Adds details, French reaction)
WARSAW, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Polish troops in Iraq have found four French-built advanced anti-aircraft missiles which were built this year, a Polish Defence Ministry spokesman told Reuters on Friday.


France strongly denied having sold any such missiles to Iraq for nearly two decades, and said it was impossible that its newest missiles should turn up in Iraq.

"Polish troops discovered an ammunition depot on September 29 near the region of Hilla and there were four French-made Roland-type missiles," Defence Ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak said.

"It is not the first time Polish troops found ammunition in Iraq but to our surprise these missiles were produced in 2003."

The Roland anti-aircraft system is a short-range air defence missile in service with at least 10 countries, including France and Germany.

They are fired from a mobile launcher vehicle and defence experts say the missiles are highly effective against aircraft attacking at low and medium altitude.

Under a strict trade embargo imposed by the United Nations, Iraq was barred from importing arms after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Among others, Russia, Britain and France all sold arms to Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s. In Iraq's arsenal were Soviet-built Scud missiles, British Chieftain tanks and French Mirage fighters.

But Iraq managed to circumvent the arms trade ban in the 1990s through shadowy deals with various arms traders and kept its military equipment functioning.

"NO MILITARY EXPORTS"

"Since July 1990, France has not authorised a single shipment of military equipment to Iraq," a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Similar accusations were made in the U.S. media in April, she said.

In 1980-81, 13 Roland-1 missile systems were shipped to Iraq and from 1983 to 1986, 100 Roland-2 missile systems. The Roland-3 has never been exported to Iraq, she said.

"It is not credible to say that the Roland missiles found a few days ago were produced in 2003 and delivered just before the Anglo-American intervention," the spokeswoman said.

"Let's be absolutely clear about this: no military exports to Iraq were licensed after July 1990."

It was unlikely that the missiles could be used 17-18 years after their delivery, she added.

Mleczak said Polish troops were notified about the missiles by a local Iraqi, who received a reward for the information.

"The ammunition depot was neutralised," said Mleczak. Polish television pictures showed missiles placed in a shallow trench and a huge explosion when the Poles blew up munitions at the site.

Since early September, Poland, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, has led a multinational force in one of four so-called stabilisation zones, in central Iraq.

In the run-up to the outbreak of the 2003 Iraq war, American and British combat pilots struck Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries repeatedly as they patrolled no-fly zones in the north and south of the country.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/031003/iraq_...issiles_2.html


Oh my! Would the snail eaters really do that?

[TDidier]

"The ammunition depot was neutralised," said Mleczak. Polish television pictures showed missiles placed in a shallow trench and a huge explosion when the Poles blew up munitions at the site.

Is that a joke, I really hope that for Poland! ! !

Just a day after the discovering of a traffic on missile boosters between Polish firms (+some US firms) and Irak ! ! !

They accuse France and quickly burn the proofs : they are lost in EU ! ! !

Maybe some french fresh imported weapons would be discover in Irak (the proof is that with polish connection some US firms participeted) by some maffia organisation but this story is simply ridiculous they don't regard on the version of missile that Irak was able to use. . .

I really hope that is a joke for the polish (or they don't burn all proofs)

[MGB8]

TD..please post your source for the Polish Weapons.

As for your denials of the French weapons...you may be right, it might be a set up, but its unlikely.

[Londoner]

Thank you L@mplighterM for this news.

Regards

[TDidier]

Sorry for my affirmation, as I said I heard that at the radio and I'm not able to found it on the net...

Maybe further...

SeeU, Didier

[mimil]

It's been a while, and I am still very busy ... Hello to all.

as for this topic:

Poland: French Missile Report Was Wrong
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...nch_missiles_4

Poland Apologizes for French Missiles Report
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._missiles_dc_5

[takeo]

unfortunately France didn't deliver any advanced weapons or rockets to Iraq since 1990, if not Iraq would have been in a better position to defend itself against the us-brittish aggression of some months ago. unfortunately we observed the embargo the us and GB maintained with their unreasonable veto based on the lie that Iraq would still possess WMD, an obvious lie responsible for the starvation of many 100's of 1000's of Iraqi civilians and for the breakdown of the Iraqi defense-system.


I recommand any country to accelerate delivery to syria, since that country appears to be next on the Sharon--bush agenda. I'm sure Russia is already doing so secretly.

[Mediocrates]

Reports published on CSIS.org note that at least 25% of the Syrian 'dual-use' pharma-chemical industry is directly French owned and operated. France has their own agenda in Syria.

[Mil]

I recommand any country to accelerate delivery to syria, since that country appears to be next on the Sharon--bush agenda. I'm sure Russia is already doing so secretly.


Apparently Russia delivered GPS jammers to Hussein - yet for some reason those did not work as expected. In any case the Russian chose to quite it out during the last vote on Israeli strike on Syria which sort of makes you wander.... - should we have our mouth shut during those last pesky Chechen elections. Russia spit on France at the end it will be France alone hence nobody follows a weakling.

[takeo]

Reports published on CSIS.org note that at least 25% of the Syrian 'dual-use' pharma-chemical industry is directly French owned and operated. France has their own agenda in Syria.

yes, and that's the right policy unlike the french policy concerning Iraq, Syria needs a better defense against such powerfull ennemies. I'm also sure Syria gets weapons from Russia and China as well.
I also think they are already preparing some kind of defense like in Iraq today, for the case Israel or the us would invade syria. I think it would be a giant mistake since syria would be seen in the entire world as the direct link between us and israeli imperialism, and attracts scores of muslim-militants from all over the world.

Apparently Russia delivered GPS jammers to Hussein - yet for some reason those did not work as expected. In any case the Russian chose to quite it out during the last vote on Israeli strike on Syria which sort of makes you wander.... - should we have our mouth shut during those last pesky Chechen elections. Russia spit on France at the end it will be France alone hence nobody follows a weakling.

Russia plays a double game, it always did by the way (as the us, a remnant of the cold war). Officially the us and Russia are great friends, but Russia still gives military support to the us ennemies, such as north-korea, Iran, cuba and syria. china does the same. the us does the same the other way round, officially it condamns chechen terrorists, but it's no secret that the us, via Turkey, has quite good bilateral contacts with the terrorist pseudo-government of Aslan Maskhadov.

[Mediocrates]

I hope you're right. I hope Syria openly develops and attempts to use chemical weapons on someone. Turkey and Israel need the parking space.

[TDidier]

What's that "dual-use" !?
Pharma-chemical is an industry which produce elements to build what you want with that. In this case it is for pharmaceutic aplications and call that a "dual-use" is only to justify some over barbaric agression act...
And all you atemp to put france in your racist "axe-of-your-dream" have failed, don't you think that it is time for you to take a break and to rest.

SeeU, Didier.

[Mil]

Posted by Takeo:


Russia plays a double game, it always did by the way (as the us, a remnant of the cold war).


What's the double game?


Officially the us and Russia are great friends, but Russia still gives military support to the us ennemies, such as north-korea, Iran, cuba and syria. china does the same.

So?

the us does the same the other way round, officially it condamns chechen terrorists, but it's no secret that the us, via Turkey, has quite good bilateral contacts with the terrorist pseudo-government of Aslan Maskhadov.

US also has very good relations with Szevornadze, who is no secret, is very opposed to Russian politics in Chechnya. Listen without Russia there was no vote on UN which sort of says that Syria is pretty much abondanded giving Israel and US whatever they want to do in terms of pushing Assad against the wall. Not just pushing but slamming. Israel is also slowly abondaning the prisoner exchanges with Hizbullah, Iran is slowly giving in to international pressure - me thinks that ME is slowly changing. The time of Assad is coming very soon I ponder.

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by TDidier
What's that "dual-use" !?
Pharma-chemical is an industry which produce elements to build what you want with that. In this case it is for pharmaceutic aplications and call that a "dual-use" is only to justify some over barbaric agression act...
And all you atemp to put france in your racist "axe-of-your-dream" have failed, don't you think that it is time for you to take a break and to rest.

SeeU, Didier.

Really and where did you hear this? On "Killalltheinfidels.com"?

Dual use means, from a chemical process engineering perspective the ability to make constituent components for weaponized chemicals that also serves some other purpose such as pesticides or agrichemical products or more commonly a scale of production that is an order of magnitude out of whack. If Syria suddenly announced it needed 10x more chemical fertilizer components then its own agriculture could absorb you can bet that there is a cadre of French engineers standing behind them making chemical weapons.

Try reading something other than your party rag once in a while.

[TDidier]

All sort of industry are "dual-use", this word is empty of sens and is just a "spin-doctor-tool" of propaganda to justify anything and the rest too.

Nothing about nothing as usual... Only racism.

SeeU, Didier.

Originally posted by Mediocrates
Really and where did you hear this? On "Killalltheinfidels.com"?

Dual use means, from a chemical process engineering perspective the ability to make constituent components for weaponized chemicals that also serves some other purpose such as pesticides or agrichemical products or more commonly a scale of production that is an order of magnitude out of whack. If Syria suddenly announced it needed 10x more chemical fertilizer components then its own agriculture could absorb you can bet that there is a cadre of French engineers standing behind them making chemical weapons.

Try reading something other than your party rag once in a while.