kansascity.com
Iraq shows drone Powell called dangerous
Iraq took journalists to see the drone on Wednesday, and there appeared to be little in the aircraft to inspire awe or fear. Made mostly of balsa wood and held together with screws and duct tape, it had two small propellors attached to what looked like the engines of a weed whacker.
Officials of the Ibn Firnas State Company, in the al-Taji area just north of Baghdad, said the drone is a prototype designed for reconnaissance, jamming and aerial photography.
Powell told the Security Council that the drone "should be of concern to everybody."
"He's making a big mistake," said Brig. Imad Abdul Latif, the project director for the drone. "He knows very well that this aircraft is not used for what he said."
The aircraft, which has a wingspan of 24.5 feet, is guided by a controller on the ground, who has to be able to see the plane to direct it, Latif said. He said the controls have a range of five miles - a fraction of a U.N.-imposed limit of 93 miles.
Blix mentioned the drone in a 173-page written list of outstanding questions about Iraq's weapons programs last week. While small, Blix said, drones can be used to spray biological warfare agents such as anthrax. He said the drone hadn't been declared by Iraq to inspectors.
But Iraq insisted it declared the drone in a report in January, and Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the Baghdad inspectors, confirmed that. Ibn Firnas' general director, Gen. Ibrahim Hussein, said the confusion was the result of a typographical error: The declaration said the wingspan was 14.5 feet instead of 24.4 feet.
"When we discovered the mistake, we addressed an official letter correcting the wingspan," he said.
Ueki confirmed that, saying Iraq declared a drone called the RPV-30A on Jan. 15 and pointed out what it called a typo on Feb. 18 - a day after inspectors visited the airfield and saw the drone.
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LMAO
I am telling you Bush allegations look stupider and stupider every day.
This is hilarious.
I wonder if Hussein might have set Bush and Powell up knowing they would make much ado about nothing, without looking at the drone first, and look like complete fools.
This is too much
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