Ins0mniac
28-09-2003, 04:19 PM
"Discovery of such remnants of Iraq's drone program since U.S. forces seized Baghdad in April has left Air Force officials feeling vindicated. They argued before the Iraq war that the drones were never meant to spread toxins but to fly unarmed reconnaissance missions. The CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and other government intelligence groups disagreed with that assessment. They contended the drones, known in military jargon as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), were intended to carry biological or chemical agents and therefore posed a particular threat to Iraq's neighbors and to U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region. ... In a speech in Cincinnati last October, Bush expressed concern that 'Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States.' Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke of the same possibility in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council in February. What the Bush administration did not reveal until recently was that the government organization most knowledgeable about the United States' UAV program -- the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center -- had sharply disputed the notion that Iraq's UAVs were being designed as attack weapons. ... Air Force assessments 'all along' had cited reconnaissance -- not weapons delivery -- as the purpose of the Iraqi UAVs."
here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2013-2003Sep25.html)
here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2013-2003Sep25.html)