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| Iraq |
| Poland says regrets report on French missiles, but.... |
| 2003-10-04 |
| updated, still not clear... WARSAW, Oct. 4 — Poland's defence ministry expressed regret on Saturday over its report that Polish troops had found advanced French-made missiles in Iraq that had been produced this year. The ministry's brief statement did not explicitly retract the words of spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak, who said on Friday that the Roland-type missiles found near the Iraqi town of Hilla in a zone controlled by the Polish-led military force. ''Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski expresses regret concerning the information on the alleged date of the production of these missiles,'' the statement said. Mleczak said the missiles were produced this year, prompting strong denials by France, an outspoken opponent of the U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Polish ministry said it had ordered an investigation into the issue. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #13 Excuse me but am I only the one to notice that these inspection tags were written in latin instead of Arabic script? Funny if they were made by Iraquis, to be read by Iraquis. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-10-5 4:54:32 AM |
| #12 The Poles found missiles bearing the marking: 07-01 KND 2003 Newsweek in April quoted the marking: 05/11 KND 2002 It pretty much looks like an Iraqi inspection tag. Rolands definitely don't come with these kinds of producer's tags. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-10-5 12:51:49 AM |
| #11 "These were but tiny missiles, I tell you!" |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-10-4 11:59:56 PM |
| #10 "Quelle idee!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-4 7:13:24 PM |
| #9 "Moi?" |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-10-4 5:56:57 PM |
| #8 But TGA, the BBC just published a denial by Chirac himself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3164458.stm What more proof do we need? :-) Also, someone needs to run a caption contest on the photo of Chirac that accompanies the denial. |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-10-4 5:27:28 PM |
| #7 This pretty much confirms what I said yesterday. My take is: Roland 2 with Iraqi inspection plates, like the ones reported in April by Newsweek. I guess the soldiers just looked at the 2003 and got all excited. Roland 2, if maintained very well, could still work. And due to the embargo I guess everything they had was maintained very well. Btw these missiles are completely useless without the launching system. Without it all you could do with the missiles is to throw them at your enemy ;-) Newsweek had reported that a charred Roland 3 launching system had been found. A rather bold statement given the fact that the Roland 2 and Roland 3 launching systems barely differ at all except for the software. I still regret that the Poles destroyed the missiles. I'd really like to know why they thought that these were Roland 3. It is possible that they were (just the 2003 date is wrong). France has said that Roland 3 were never exported to Iraq. So if Iraq had Roland 3 it would be interesting to know how they got there. You can tell a Roland 2 from a Roland 3 missile, you couldn't distinguish between the launching systems easily though without checking the software. The Russian Kornets mentioned yesterday are a different story, but they could have easily been bought on the black market. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-10-4 5:22:09 PM |
| #6 The AP report is much clearer than the Reuters report. Pictures were apparently taken of the missiles before destruction. Here is that report. |
| Posted by: Nick 2003-10-4 4:47:41 PM |
| #5 According to Polish press reports, Chirac demanded an apology that Polish officials did not consult with their French counterparts prior to the information about the missiles being released. Aparently this info was released, or leaked rather, without the permission of the Polish defence ministry or chief of staff. Nothing else seems clear about this issue yet, except that someone must have been very eager to embarass the French. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-10-4 4:41:21 PM |
| #4 Well let's them have AK47s for wedding ceremonies. But only allow blank cartridges. :-) |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-10-4 4:04:07 PM |
| #3 Dar, They had to destroy the missiles because there is some crazy journalist running around the damn country trying to make SAM's into junggle gyms. I think you posted the story. Truthfully, I wouldn't want to stand guard on a rack of missiles in Iraq. Too many clowns with RPG's running amok. I don't agree with much that Not Michael Moore posts, but I do agree that RPG posession ought to bring serious consequences - possibly death. AK-47's are different. They are an obvious cultural requirement for any wedding ceremony. This is not all that different from practices in rural Kentucky. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-4 3:42:23 PM |
| #2 What upsets me is that, if I infer from yesterday's story correctly, the missiles were destroyed, so now anything they say can be considered a claim rather than a provable fact. I do hope they pulled off some manufacturer's plates, stampings, and serial numbers and got plenty of video before they blasted the rest of it to hell. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-10-4 2:14:52 PM |
| #1 So basically the Defence Minister was sorry about this year's production date on the missiles. Pretty genteel chap. I'm sure that there are others sorry (for getting caught) about this year's production date on the nameplates. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-10-4 12:38:03 PM |