Mysterious Iraqi trailers may have had innocent use

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/6493259.htm

WASHINGTON - Engineering experts from the Defense Intelligence Agency have come to believe that the most likely use for the two mysterious trailers found in Iraq was to produce hydrogen for weather balloons rather than to make biological weapons, government officials say.

...

The engineering teams' findings, which officials from the Defense Department and other agencies would discuss only on the condition of anonymity, add a new layer to disputes within the intelligence community about the trailers found by allied forces in Iraq in April and May.

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The fact that American and British intelligence analysts with direct access to the evidence were disputing the claims included in the CIA white paper was first reported in June, along with the analysts' concern that the evaluation of the mobile units had been marred by a rush to judgment.

But it had not previously been known that a majority of the Defense Intelligence Agency's engineering team had come to disagree with the central finding of the white paper: That the trailers were used for making biological weapons.

...

This one was discredited pretty quickly, then it was again when Bush referred to those trailers when he said "we found the WMD", and now yet again.

I find myself repeatedly surprised to hear something discredited which I already knew was a lie. Like the uranium lie, there were doubts in the fall, then doubts after the SOTU, then the IAEA declared it a forgery. So when Wilson came forward, I was not really expecting anything to come of it, who knows why it did?

With this one, who still believes those were mobile labs? Who doesn't realize "we found the WMD" was a total lie?

From http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,973196,00.html :

<snip>
Instead The Observer has established that it is increasingly likely that the units were designed to be used for hydrogen production to fill artillery balloons, part of a system originally sold to Saddam by Britain in 1987.
/<snip>

So the Observer is the source of this claim, quite funny to read in this Freerepublic thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/929883/posts
how they try to discredit the sources of the first article :-)
The source, The Observer, is the weekly newspaper (ahem) who hired CNN's Peter Arnett. Pretty credible guy but what about the newspaper ... I'm not sure how this issue ended up, I didn't find any more mainstream source...

What is sure, is that the pumped-up phrases of Bush and Blair, trying to scare the world into war, were not based on solid facts. If it isn't treason, it's gross incompetence !

Will Hannnity, Rush, FOX et al., admit they were wrong????

Will the WH hold a press conference to announce this??

Will Powell now resign in disgrace????

nope....

The burden of proof is on those who said the trailers were in no uncertain terms bio weapons labs. Are we to just assume that every beaker we find was for bioweapons unless proved otherwise?

and today's scant investigative reporting. But with so many reporters on the planet and plenty of players interested in debunking junk like this I really see not why this isn't as blown a scam as the "uranium from Africa", wherein, once the forgeries (copies, I'd guess) were available to IAEA, they were indisputably exposed with a couple of hours of informed googling. (cf. jillions in US intel assets)

I marvel that only "a majority" (20 to 1?) "of the Defense Intelligence Agency's engineering team" sees these trucks as hydrogen-making facilities, unless their internal process has a high school debate team's approach, as in "You drew the affirmative side on issue X; develop the best case and argue it.". Even then, once the dust of that debate settles, sometimes circumstances allow an actual CONCLUSION to be reached, as the forgeries allowed.

As I understand from open sources, these trucks were probably made by the British and sold to Iraq in the 80's as components of artillery systems. Surely any average reporter could:

* Search Jaynes' sites or books and find Brit arty packages from 80's, or even interview Jaynes' experts or others. (pictures, footage)

* Review recent/current pics/footage/reports of these "captured" mysteries, or actually see and touch them; or at least, get an answer on the record as to why no access, why no government release of pics/analysis etc. If accessible, pop the hoods on those suckers and get some names and numbers from parts, id markings, etc. Brit?

* If the Brits provided these, that deal would have to be cleared by their Ministry of Defence, or whatever, so check sources. This might even have been an "in-the-clear", publicly reported event; check the morgue, check trade pubs.

* Whatever British company (or it's subcontractors) manufactured these items surely has employees, ex-employees, and/or competitors who are specifically familiar with the systems, and could be interviewed. Do they perceive any difference between the Brit systems and these?

Simple, basic investigative reporting would reveal conclusively either that these are the unmodified, nonthreatening Brit systems, or they are some other critter (or the Brit system dangerously modified).

If this is as it obviously appears, hype based on zilch, then proper, unbiased, objective reporting would drive another nail in the coffin of these usurpers.

I know, "proper, unbiased, objective reporting" is rare lately, but it does exist even in these trying times. It should be used here to make it's Constitutional contribution to the protection of our republic and freedom as our Founders envisioned. I shall remain hopeful, at least for a few more days.

Please continue here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=58088&mesg_id=58088



Thanks,
UMCWB
DU LBN Moderator