Yousseff Wakhian, who works at a scrapyard in Sahab, Jordan, walks past a stack of apparently new steel pipes that were shipped from Iraq.
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: May 28, 2004
AHAB, Jordan, May 26 — As the United States spends billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq's civil and military infrastructure, there is increasing evidence that parts of sensitive military equipment, seemingly brand-new components for oil rigs and water plants and whole complexes of older buildings are leaving the country on the backs of flatbed trucks.
By some estimates, at least 100 semitrailers loaded with what is billed as Iraqi scrap metal are streaming each day into Jordan, just one of six countries that share a border with Iraq.
American officials say sensitive equipment is, in fact, closely monitored and much of the rest that is leaving is legitimate removal and sale from a shattered country. But many experts say that much of what is going on amounts to a vast looting operation.
In the past several months, the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, has been closely monitoring satellite photographs of hundreds of military-industrial sites in Iraq. Initial results from that analysis are jarring, said Jacques Baute, director of the agency's Iraq nuclear verification office: entire buildings and complexes of as many as a dozen buildings have been vanishing from the photographs.
"We see sites that have totally been cleaned out," Mr. Baute said.
The agency started the program in December, after a steel vessel contaminated with uranium, probably an artifact of Saddam Hussein's pre-1991 nuclear program, turned up in a Rotterdam scrapyard. The shipment was traced to a Jordanian company that was apparently unaware that the scrap contained radioactive material.
In the last several weeks, Jordan has again caught the attention of international officials, as pieces of Iraqi metal bearing tags put in place by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, established to monitor Iraqi disarmament during Mr. Hussein's rule, have been spotted in Jordanian scrapyards. The observation of items tagged by the commission, known as Unmovic, has not been previously disclosed.
"Unmovic has been investigating the removal from Iraq of materials that may have been subject to monitoring, and that investigation is ongoing," said Jeff Allen, a spokesman for the commission. "So we've been aware of the issue," he said. "We've been apprised of the details of the Rotterdam incident and have been in touch with Jordanian officials."
Recent examinations of Jordanian scrapyards, including by a reporter for The New York Times, have turned up an astounding quantity of scrap metal and new components from Iraq's civil infrastructure, including piles of valuable copper and aluminum ingots and bars, large stacks of steel rods and water pipe and giant flanges for oil equipment — all in nearly mint condition — as well as chopped-up railroad boxcars, huge numbers of shattered Iraqi tanks and even beer kegs marked with the words "Iraqi Brewery."
"There is a gigantic salvage operation, stripping anything of perceived value out of the country," said John Hamre, president and chief executive of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan Washington research institute, which sent a team to Iraq and issued a report on reconstruction efforts at the request of the Pentagon last July.
"This is systematically plundering the country," Dr. Hamre said. "You're going to have to replace all of this stuff."
The United States contends that the prodigious Middle Eastern trade in Iraqi scrap metal is closely monitored by Iraqi government ministries to ensure that nothing crossing the border poses a security risk or siphons material from new projects. In April, L. Paul Bremer III, the occupation's senior official in Iraq, and the Iraqi Ministry of Trade established rules for licensing the export of scrap metal from the country.
The sites now being monitored by the atomic energy agency include former missile factories, warehouses, industrial plants and sites believed to contain "dual use" equipment like high-precision machine tools that could be used either for civilian purposes or for making components for nuclear and other weaponry. Mr. Baute said that the analysis had been completed at about a dozen sites and that the agency was working to prepare a report on the entire monitoring program.
posted on May 28, 2004 10:48:30 AM new
Kiara, when is the last time you posted good news from Iraq? There's a lot of it if you look. Like the other anti-Americans, you almost seem happy to find any bad news and can't wait to post it.
"I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
posted on May 28, 2004 11:08:21 AM new
ebayauctionguy, I am posting news stories about Iraq and I'm sorry if the truth hurts you.
A week or so ago I asked others who were so gung ho for this war and who say that things are going great there to post all the good news stories. So where are they? Here is your opportunity, fly at it.
Seems that all I hear from some of you is personal insults and put-downs most of the time, you never discuss about how you believe that the war was the best thing for Iraq and for the people there.
If things are going so great overall in Iraq why isn't President Bush telling everyone all the good stories? I don't hear any optimism from his camp either and I hear the news daily.
Sure, there is reconstruction going on but the country is in a mess and it's not so great that all this looting is continuing as it will get even more costly for everyone. The Iraqi people didn't deserve this.
I am definitely not anti-American because I don't believe in this war. I love America, maybe even more than you do so don't judge me and insult me.
posted on May 28, 2004 07:23:14 PM new
I deny what, Linda?
Please be more specific or is this just your way of bashing and trolling again because you realize that you can't add to any discussion without being pissy?
posted on May 28, 2004 07:49:40 PM new
Anti-American? That has got to be the strangest statement I've ever seen. Do you people not like democracy? While it is always hopeful to find a grain of good coming out of this mess, one cannot ignore reality of what's going on.
The looting and the bad things going on are a fact that one cannot ignore or dispute, its reality. One must deal with it. When one finds it on mainstream news all over the world, just because someone may not like it, it doesn't change the reality of the situation. It is what it is. You have to take the good with the bad.
If anyone has trouble dealing with reality then perhaps spend a week at Disneyworld so you can deal with fantasy.
This doesn't make anyone anti-American just because they post a news story that can be found on CNN or anywhere else.
posted on May 28, 2004 10:11:09 PM newThis doesn't make anyone anti-American just because they post a news story that can be found on CNN or anywhere else.
When is the last time they posted a pro-American story? The answer is they haven't. They want us to lose a war just so that George W. Bush will look bad. It's pretty sick if you ask me.
As much as I hated Clinton, I never hoped that the country would fail in Bosnia or Somalia just so that Clinton would look bad.
"I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
posted on May 28, 2004 10:39:44 PM newThe Iraqi people didn't deserve this.
ALL people deserve to be free....to learn what freedom is ....to form their own government....to vote for what THEY want to see for the future of their country!!!!!
The Iraqi people deserve freedom and the Bush administration have provided an opportunity for them to have just that.
posted on May 28, 2004 10:47:30 PM newWhen is the last time they posted a pro-American story?
I can ask the same of you, EAG. Most of your comments here and Linda's are only to bash and insult others and you seldom debate anything or say anything positive.
They want us to lose a war just so that George W. Bush will look bad. It's pretty sick if you ask me.
It strikes me as pretty sick that you believe that. First off, you don't seem to realize that it's not anti-American to question the policies of the Bush government and I think it would be more anti-American to not care at all. Trai seems to understand this and also what reality is.
Not everyone agrees with this war, I think more than half of the US is in disagreement about it so does that make more than half of the US anti-American?
Personally I would like to see some resolution in Iraq so more troops and innocent people aren't killed and I'm hoping that other countries get involved to help the US solve this mess before it gets worse.
posted on May 28, 2004 10:52:42 PM new
When I said the Iraqi people didn't deserve this I meant that they didn't deserve to have their country ripped apart and their families and friends killed. They didn't deserve to be abused in the prisons and they didn't deserve to have their infrastructure destroyed so badly and looted. They didn't deserve to have their country a breeding ground for insurgents and terrorists all because Bush decided to wage war without thinking two seconds into the future.
posted on May 28, 2004 10:59:32 PM new
taken from The Federalist - this week
"Setbacks and tragedy are part and parcel of war and must be accepted on the battlefield. We can and will achieve our goals in Iraq.
Waiting for war in the Saudi Arabian desert as a young corporal in 1991, I recall reading news clippings portending massive tank battles, fiery death from Saddam Hussein's 'flame trenches' and bitter defeat at the hands of the fourth-largest army in the world. My platoon was told to expect 75% casualties. Being Marines and, therefore, naturally cocky, we still felt pretty good about our abilities. The panicky predictions failed to come true... Nobody from my platoon died. Strength, ingenuity and willpower won the day. Crushing the fourth-largest army in the world in four days seemed to crush the doubts back home...
In the spring of last year, I was a Marine captain, back with the division for Operation Iraqi Freedom... I was again subjected to the panicky analyses of talking heads. There weren't enough troops to do the job, the oil fields would be destroyed, we couldn't fight in urban terrain, our offensive would grind to a halt, and we should expect more than 10,000 casualties... [However,] I knew that our tempo was keeping the enemy on his heels and that our plan would lead us to victory...
Mourning our losses quietly, the Marines drove to Baghdad, then to Tikrit, liberating the Iraqi people while losing fewer men than were lost in Desert Storm... Just weeks ago, I read that the supply lines were cut, ammunition and food were dwindling, the 'Sunni Triangle' was exploding, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was leading a widespread Shiite revolt, and the country was nearing civil war.
As I write this, the supply lines are open, there's plenty of ammunition and food, the Sunni Triangle is back to status quo, and Sadr is marginalized in Najaf.
Once again, dire predictions of failure and disaster have been dismissed by American willpower and military professionalism. War is inherently ugly and dramatic...All we ask is that Americans stand by us by supporting not just the troops, but also the mission. We'll take care of the rest."
--Major Ben Connable, Foreign-Area Officer and Intelligence Officer with the 1st Marine Division, Ramadi, Iraq
posted on May 29, 2004 04:46:32 AM new
I will continual to point out the republican lies that people like ebayauctionguy make. Its a republican LIE to say someone is anti-American or unpatriotic if they point out how Bush has failed. Lies, lies, lies are the only way republicans can try to justify Bush's failures.
posted on May 29, 2004 06:14:12 AM new "As much as I hated Clinton, I never hoped that the country would fail in Bosnia or Somalia just so that Clinton would look bad."
Ebayauctionguy, Bush is making 'himself' "look bad". In fact he has managed to fail on a level unexceeded by any president in the history of our country. When you call those who are critical of Bush "anti-Americans" you are speaking to the majority of U.S. citizens who have judged his job performance as unsatisfactory on every single issue.
posted on May 29, 2004 07:22:07 AM new"When is the last time they posted a pro-American story? The answer is they haven't. They want us to lose a war just so that George W. Bush will look bad. It's pretty sick if you ask me."
George W. Bush has defined his own incompetence. The opinion of people here and throughout Ameica is reflective of the failure of George Bush. When will you die hard supporters realize that as President of the United States, Bush should be responsible for his failure...not those who see his failure and criticize it. Your rush to defend his failure is comical at times ...for example, when you postulate that our torture is not as bad as Saddam's torture so therefore it's perfectly OK.
