Digitus Impudicus

Here It Comes

(pregnant pause)

In a story only a contortionist could admire, the New York Times has attempted a preemptive strike on something that is gaining more prominence in the news. In a story that tries to "shape" the public perception of the (more and more likely) upcoming revelations about the Iraqi WMDs, they mischaracterize the disappearance of the WMD-making equipment, and possibly stockpiles, as having been done by "looters," a word they use (and it's variants) many, many times. As if we need to be spoon-fed their propaganda.

I have a boatload of quotes for you from the story. But, as always, I would prefer that you read the original as well. So light the incense and feel the karma of what the Grey Lady is trying to get you to "feel" about the gestalt of the penumbra of the implications of the story. Or, read what they're really tacitly admitting out of fear of being scooped (again). The choice is yours.

One thought before I lay it all on you, man: can you steal something that was not there in the first place? Oh, wait, man, I have another thought (this is heavy!): picture a looter in your mind. What do you see? Some guy running out of an appliance store clutching a TV? Me too.

Okay, here it comes: (the ellipses [...] separate individual quotes from the article)

In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting.

...

"They came in with the cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," Dr. Araji said. "They knew what they were doing; they knew what they want. This was sophisticated looting."

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For nearly a year, the two agencies have sent regular reports to the United Nations Security Council detailing evidence of the dismantlement of Iraqi military installations and, in a few cases, the movement of Iraqi gear to other countries.

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The disclosures by the Iraqi ministry, however, added new information about the thefts, detailing the timing, the material taken and the apparent skill shown by the thieves.

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Dr. Araji said he had no evidence regarding where the equipment had gone. But his account raises the possibility that the specialized machinery from the arms establishment that the war was aimed at neutralizing had made its way to the black market or was in the hands of foreign governments.

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The peak of the organized looting, Dr. Araji estimates, occurred in four weeks from mid-April to mid-May of 2003 as teams with flatbed trucks and other heavy equipment moved systematically from site to site. That operation was followed by rounds of less discriminating thievery.

"The first wave came for the machines," Dr. Araji said. "The second wave, cables and cranes. The third wave came for the bricks."

...

Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.

David Albright, an authority on nuclear weaponry who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said that Syria and Iran were the countries most likely to be in the market for the kind of equipment that Mr. Hussein purchased, at great cost, when he was secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon in the 1980's.

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Al Qaqaa, with some 1,100 structures, manufactured powerful explosives that could be used for conventional missile warheads and for setting off a nuclear detonation. Last fall, Iraqi government officials warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that some 377 tons of those explosives were missing after the invasion. But Al Qaqaa also contained a wide variety of weapons manufacturing machinery, including 800 pieces of chemical equipment.

The kinds of machinery at the various sites included equipment that could be used to make missile parts, chemical weapons or centrifuges essential for enriching uranium for atom bombs.

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The diplomat added that the atomic energy agency's reconnaissance team found that Al Radwan was "significantly dismantled" and that Al Qadisiya had almost vanished. At the sprawling Hatteen base, he said, "parts are untouched, and parts are 100 percent gone."

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Officials at the United Nations monitoring agency said some areas of the sprawling Qaqaa installation involved in chemical processing had been wrecked by fire and possible extensive looting. Unknown is the fate of such equipment there like separators, heat exchangers, mixers and chemical reactors, all of which can be used in making chemical weapons.

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In its most recent report to the United Nations Security Council, in October, the [atomic energy agency] agency said it "continues to be concerned about the widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program."

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Agency inspectors, in visiting other countries, have discovered tons of industrial scrap, some radioactively contaminated, from Iraq, the report noted. It added, however, that the agency had been unable to track down any of the high-quality, dual-use equipment or materials.

Now, ask yourself this: how many "looters" come equipped with cranes and trucks? How many "looters" have sophisticated knowledge of what's important (and what's not) in a nuclear/biological/chemical weapons facility, much less "8 or 10" of them? How many "looters" know exactly, in vast complexes of buildings, where to find it? How many "looters" have the organization to strike almost a dozen sites just in the cusp of war? What kind of "looters" have the ability to conceal and transport large and complex equipment out of a war zone?

"Looters"? Bollix.

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Er, I meant, what we have here is the first MSM confirmation that Saddam's WMD equipment existed in Iraq not only right before the war, but weeks into it. Perhaps the stockpiles as well.

We also have what I would consider to be detailed and specific evidence that these were not "looters." They were organized teams of people trained in the specific skills of handling and transporting sophisticated nuclear/biological/chemical weapons equipment with military precisions and deportment.

Does that remind you of something I said just a few days ago? (here, let me help )

To quote one of the Web's most brilliant and insightful bloggers (ahem!):

If this pans out, if it's confirmed, then that one issue the Left has been using to (so far legitimately) beat us over the head about the Iraq war will disappear in a puff of Soviet-era diesel exhaust.

But wait! It's not proof. So, I encourage all anti-war protestors, Leftists, and George W. Bush haters to put their response down on the record here. Tell me I'm an ass. Tell us all (well, all three of us reading this), that there were no WMDs or equipment in Iraq immediately preceding the War.

What was that? You're worried that you might be proved wrong? You're concerned that the downward spiral of despair and pain you've been experiencing since the November election may just be capped off by being proved wrong about this, too?

Don't worry. I understand. After all, I am a compassionate DigiBlog. Please take advantage of the many support programs and therapists available to help you through this traumatic period of your life (Florida has many). One caution, however: you must never, ever relinquish your control of the Democratic Party. The rest of us need you right (oops, ah, "just") where you are, manning the battlements and defending the Faith.

Final thought: when you finally reach the point where you, in desperation, conclude that the only thing left is to hope for some kind of calamity to finally, once and for all, prove that DumYa is a complete and dangerously moronic bumpkin, understand that you've not just reached the edge, you've gone over and are picking up speed.