UN unmoved by UNMOVIC's demise

The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was the creature created by UNSC resolution 1284 of 17 December 1999. It replaced the older UNSCOM and all its direct staff were all UN employees - except for the various spies / agents of the Coalition of Potential Aggressors. It was mandated to verify Iraq's compliance with its obligation to be rid of its weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological weapons and missiles with a range of more than 150 km), and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to ascertain that Iraq does not reacquire the same weapons prohibited to it by the Security Council.
The precise but publicity happy Dr. Hans Blix of Sweden was the first Executive Chairman -1st March 2000 to 30 June 2003. On 1 July 2003, Mr. Demetrius Perricos (now aged 71 was asked by Kofi Annan to take on the job for 6 months) as Acting Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC by the UN Secretary General.

UNMOVIC inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq in March 2003 - their most recent report (The 29th Qtly report - and probably their last) was presented on 29th May 2007. (PDF alert!) They are now down to 17 staff in new York and 2 local staff in Baghdad ( who “continue to perform routine maintenance on the office support equipment” - dusting the typewriters ? ) and the only activity reported is that 2 technical staff visited the Cyprus field office at the UK Sovereogn base in Larnaca in March to inspect equipment held there.

Therefore it is no surprise that the NYT reports today that the US and UK Governments have proposed to “terminate immediately the mandates” of the UNMOVIC weapons inspectors.A draft resolution is circulating which does not accept retaining any staff or resources. Apparently this has been accepted by Security Council Members (including Russia) and staff meetings on the latest proposal have already taken place.

Any decision about the commission’s future will need to deal with the disposition of the large, unusual and significant archive - containing no doubt detailed information that some Government quarters who traded with Saddam might wish to be incinerated / destroyed.

So far the Belgian ambassador, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, has scheduled more debate for the end of the month. At the same time the commission says it will release a 1,200-page compendium on Iraq’s illicit weapons program that could be the final word from the group.

So, what was effectively a vehicle to allow spying on Saddam, by the likes of Scott Ritter and Dr David Kelly will be quietly wound up and their records - 1,500 feet of paper files and a terabyte of electronic records will be trashed.

Nobody wants any future (or present) academics poking around in that lot.

It is worth remembering exactly what happened about the evidence of WMD's...

"Richard Dearlove, the Head of MI6, told Hoon and others at the war council on July 23, 2002:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Hoon says nothing however about the July 23, 2002 war council whose deliberations are recorded in the Downing Street Memo. In fact, he has the gall to pretend that we don't know what he was told at that meeting......

Mr Hoon also expressed regret over the government's claim in the run-up to war that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which, he now accepts, turned out to be false. He said he had "gradually come to the acceptance" the weapons did not exist. But he insisted the government had acted in good faith.

He still does not understand why the intelligence proved to be false. "I've been present at a number of meetings where the intelligence community was fixed, and looked in the eye and asked are you absolutely sure about this? And the answer came back 'Yes, absolutely sure'."

Mr Hoon added: "I saw intelligence from the first time I came into office, in May 1999 - week in, week out - that said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction ... I have real difficulty in understanding why it was, over such a long period of time, we were told this and, moreover, why we acted upon it."

It is also worthwhile remembering what Hans Blix had repeatedly reported before the illegal invasion...

"U.N. reports submitted to the Security Council before the war by Hans Blix, former chief U.N. arms inspector, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, have been largely validated by U.S. weapons teams. The common findings:

Iraq's nuclear weapons program was dormant.

No evidence was found to suggest Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons. U.N. officials believe the weapons were destroyed by U.N. inspectors or Iraqi officials in the years after the 1991 Gulf War."

Of course ...nobody wants to keep any records about that.

If you want to read how the current Baghdad Gubment raidied the UNMOVIC piggy Bank to buy a new UN office (nearer to the UN) whilst holding onto their prime piece of Manhattan real estate go to Max News Iraqis Use U.N. Money to Enhance NYC Real Estate Portfolio

Hercules crashes in Maysan. £16 Mn plane torched because of threat from insurgents/terrist/Al Quaeda/ Badr army/Mahdi Army / Toon Army / Barmy Army

BBC Online report that an RAF Hercules C130K landed 20 km north of Al-Amarah (capital of the Maysan province) yesterday evening ( 2010 local time (1710GMT)) and the plane was "significantly damaged" during landing. The plane was subsequently "safely" destroyed by multinational forces because of the "potential risk involved in recovery".

The plane had been carrying passengers on a routine re-supply journey and 2 were injured

"It was concluded that the aircraft could not be recovered without exposing our personnel to undue risk," he said.

Jane Corbin for Panorama reported from Al Amarah in March 2006 (BBCOnline) which she described as -" Al Amarah is the capital of Maysan province, a wild and lawless tribal area on the border with Iran. Rival Shia militias, many of them allied to political parties in Iraq's new democracy, vie for power here with the British holding the ring and often bearing the brunt of casualties."

Nonetheless ;

"The British are increasingly leaving it to the new provincial council and to Iraqi security forces, trained by the coalition, to keep the peace."

Her report on the gradual handover was downbeat and ended ...

There is simply too much at stake to allow British casualties to affect the process of handover as John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence admits....

"Despite all the blemishes we have to deal with the reality as it is in Iraq today and it is a far better reality than it was only a few years ago,"

"The truth is the British believe they have gone as far as they can in Maysan, a province that even Saddam never tamed and it is "good enough", as one British army officer put it, for troops to start leaving soon. "

In November dour, dumb, Des Browne Minister at the War Office (BBC Online) restated Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's assertion that British-controlled Maysan province could transfer to Iraqi control in January, followed by Basra shortly afterwards. (Independent)

A C130K crash landed at Lashkar Gar in May last year when a new UK Ambassador Stephen Evans, (now replaced) was on Board ... "The RAF is now facing a major transport problem after losing four Hercules in the past decade - including two highly specialised aircraft used to deliver SAS troops in the past 18 months."

The Daily Torygraph report of 20th May 2006 went on ... "The crash is likely to put further strain on the RAF Hercules transport fleet, operating at maximum capacity for the Government's overseas expeditions." ....oooh .. er

UPDATE

At the end of January this year, on the 1st anniversary of the shootdown of the Hercules XV179 over Iraq in which ten crew members died, The Swindon Advertiser asked the MOD how many Hercules had been retro-fitted with fire-retardant foam into their wings. The MoD wouldn't say but it is believd to be no more than 3 with the 1st arriving in the Middle East in the next few weeks.

Sarah Chapman, the sister of Sgt Bob O'Connor, who died in the crash, talks of a constant battle to find out information.

"It's a tough time for all the families at the moment, especially two years on, but it feels like there is still no progress.

"There has still not been an inquest, although we have been told there will soon be a pre-inquest hearing about it, because of the complexity of the case.
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"It sometimes feels like the MoD just wants to sweep it all away."

Ms Chapman and family members of the crew handed a petition to 10 Downing Street to ask the government to push forward with installing fire-retardant foam into the wings of the Hercules aircraft. - it didn't receive the publicity that road pricing petitions do.

UPDATE

The BBC Online story is now (2200 GMT) saying ... "The MoD stressed the aircraft had been making "a routine landing on a tactical landing zone" and the plane had not been shot down.

UPDATE 10/4/07

For those arriving from http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=67709 the commentator is spot on about the pic source.... it was not stated to be the Herc. that was torched. Purely decorative.