'Revelation' Lacks Credibility, on All Fronts

Iraq, attempting to make Secretary of State Colin Powell look like a fool, showed doting journalists what it said was the drone Powell referred to recently, when the Secretary warned that Saddam had UAVs that could spread chemical or biological agents.

Iraq said this contraption, a 24½-foot-wingspan, fuel tank-fuselage, stick and rag machine was what Powell was warning the world about -- and the journalists ate it up.

Iraq says the machine does not have the 150+km (93+ mile) range Powell claims (which would make it "illegal"); and, in any event, Iraq says this isn't a true UAV -- it's more like a radio-control machine, requiring ground controllers to stay in sight of it, and within five miles or so. The machine apparently had no internal guidance capability.

Whether Saddam's boys are telling the truth about this particular machine, or not, there are still a number of unresolved issues surrounding it:

• Iraq says the machine was in the semi-annual report, issued in January of this year, though that declaration erroneously said the wingspan was four meters (about 13 feet). Iraq says that was a typo.
• In its release Monday of last week's report, "Unresolved Disarmament Issues, Iraq’s Proscribed Weapons Programs," UNMOVIC said this machine had not been declared by Iraq.
• Regardless later developments and reports, the drone was definitely not included in the December 8 "comprehensive declaration" submitted to the UN, the so-called, "full, final and complete accounting of weapons programs."
• Interestingly, although UN inspectors had toured the very location where the R/C airplane [tagged, RPV-30A]was shown to reporters as recently as February 10, those inspectors hadn't seen it. Their excuse: they were looking for smaller aircraft!
• Iraq says that the big machine was missed, because it is so easy to disassemble. They neglected to explain why it would have been disassembled and hidden at that time.
• In this week's oral report, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix neglected to mention the aircraft's existence.
• Iraq says it is working to answer current questions about the UAV program, and the RPV-30A in particular.

FMI: www.un.org