Coaltion troops have found French missiles in Iraq. With a datestamp of 2002 on them.
Sigh...
The assertion you made is absolutely incorrect, backed up by a number of sources including the very troops/country that found the "missiles" in the first place.
You need to stop accepting everything that supports your predetermined conclusion at face value.
1. Article: "The WASHINGTON TIMES' "French Connection" to Saddam is a Phony" - Doug Ireland, self admittedly a "radical political journalist" and democrat supporter.
"A week after Ewald's A-10 was downed, an Army team searching Iraqi weapons depots at the Baghdad airport discovered caches of French-made missiles. One anti-aircraft missile, among a cache of 51 Roland-2s from a French-German manufacturing partnership, bore a label indicating that the batch was produced just months earlier."
I e-mailed Gertz's article to my friend Claude Angeli, dean of French investigative reporters, author of a raft of books on Frrench politics and foreign policy, and the editor of the weekly Le Canard Enchaine, known for its investigative prowess. Claude rang me from Paris this morning, chuckling. He had just spoken to a senior French military officer, to whom he had forwarded Gertz's article, and this general--who was quite familiar with these old charges, which had been raised during the war and before Saddam's fall-- was laughing too. "The whole article is a tissue of inventions," Claude told me. "The general, too, laughed at the gross errors."
As to the Roland missiles Gertz claimed had been "produced just months earlier," Angeli informed me, missiles of this type had not been manufactured for 17 years. They had been sold to Iraq at the time of the Iran-Iraq war, when the U.S. was also supplying Iraq with arms, military technology, and intelligence as a result of its policy to maintain Baghdad as a counterweight to Tehran in the region. And the deterioiration of such missiles--particularly their electronic components, which require constant maintenance--would have been so great after 17 years that they would have been virtually unusable.
Moreover, while U.S. forces had discovered the number "2002" on a case containing the missiles, this was not a date of manufacture but a serial number! Angeli, who has excellent sources at the Quai d'Orsay, told me that this supposed "discovery" of Gertz's was so obviously false that it had not even been a matter of contention between the U.S. and France at the time of the war, let alone today.
2. French Government denies claims.
diplomatie.gouv.fr
Like several other western states, including the US by the way, France exported weapons to Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s: Roland 1 missiles and firing systems in 1980-81, Roland 2 missiles and firing systems in 1983-86. All deliveries, including spare parts, were broken off in the summer of 1990. France has strictly observed the embargo on weapons since then.
We confirm in particular that there was no export of Roland missiles or parts to Iraq after 1990. The marking cited by Newsweek (05/11 KND 2002) does not correspond to markings used by the French MBDA company on these missiles.
Roland 1 and 2 went out of production in 1988 and 1993 respectively. So it's impossible for a Roland 2 to have been manufactured in 2002.
[MW: Of course, you'd expect that, from those dastardly French. But wait...]
3. Poland: French Missile Report Was Wrong
Yes, Coalition partner Poland admits it made a mistake.
An aide to the Polish prime minister said an initial report that the Roland missiles found by Polish troops days ago were produced in 2003 was incorrect. France said it stopped producing any type of Roland missile in 1993.
Prime Minister Leszek Miller met with Chirac twice to explain the mistake, said the aide, Tadeusz Iwinski. The two leaders were in Rome on Saturday for a European Union summit.
``There can be no 2003 missiles since these missiles have not been made for 15 years,' Chirac told reporters in Rome. ``Polish soldiers confused things. I told ... Miller so frankly -- friendly but firmly.'
An aide to the Polish prime minister said an initial report that the Roland missiles found by Polish troops days ago were produced in 2003 was incorrect.
Full story: chron.com
So is POLAND, a "coalition of the willing" partner lying, or not?
4. History of the Euromissile/Hughes/Boeing MIM-115 Roland
astronautix.com
The Roland was much more successful with European and other international customers, though. In the mid-1980s, an improved Roland III system was developed, which included an uprated missile with range, speed and warhead improvements a well as improved launchers and tracking systems. Roland is still in service with several countries, and more than 25000 missile rounds have been built.
Thus the French claim that they stopped producing the missile over a decade ago makes perfect sense.
This matter was put to bed last year; its amusing that a Washington Post journalist put these FACTUAL ERRORS in his book anyway. And its amusing that you are still citing this as "evidence". |
