Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Saddam cercava un accordo con la Corea del Nord per produrre missili

For the Iraqis, a Missile Deal That Went Sour
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
NYTimes Published: December 1, 2003
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — It was Saddam Hussein's last weapons deal — and it did
not go exactly as he and his generals had imagined.
For two years before the American invasion of Iraq, Mr. Hussein's sons,
generals and front companies were engaged in lengthy negotiations with North
Korea, according to computer files discovered by international inspectors
and the accounts of Bush administration officials.
The officials now say they believe that those negotiations — mostly
conducted in neighboring Syria, apparently with the knowledge of the Syrian
government — were not merely to buy a few North Korean missiles.
Instead, the goal was to obtain a full production line to manufacture, under
an Iraqi flag, the North Korean missile system, which would be capable of
hitting American allies and bases around the region, according to the Bush
administration officials.
As war with the United States approached, though, the Iraqi files show that
Mr. Hussein discovered what American officials say they have known for
nearly a decade now: that Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is less than
a fully reliable negotiating partner.
In return for a $10 million down payment, Mr. Hussein appears to have gotten
nothing.
The trail that investigators have uncovered, partly from reading computer
hard drives found in Baghdad and partly from interviews with captured
members of Mr. Hussein's inner circle, shows that a month before the
American invasion, Iraqi officials traveled to Syria to demand that North
Korea refund $1.9 million because it had failed to meet deadlines for
delivering its first shipment of goods.
North Korea deflected the request, telling Mr. Hussein's representatives, in
the words of one investigator, that "things were too hot" to begin
delivering missile technology through Syria.
The transaction provides an interesting glimpse into the last days of the
Hussein government, and what administration officials say were Iraq's
desires for a long-term business deal for missiles and a missile production
plant.
Bush administration officials have seized on the attempted purchase of the
missiles, known as the Rodong, and a missile assembly line to buttress their
case that Mr. Hussein was violating United Nations resolutions, which
clearly prohibited missiles of the range of the Rodong.
It also establishes that Syria was a major arms-trading bazaar for the
Hussein government, in this case hiding an Iraqi effort to obtain missiles,
they say. Investigators say Syria had probably offered its ports and
territory as the surreptitious transit route for the North Korea-Iraq
missile deal, although it remains unclear what demands the government in
Damascus might have made in return. Further, according to United States
government officials and international investigators, the Iraqi official who
brokered the deal, Munir Awad, is now in Syria, apparently living under
government protection.
If it served as a middleman in this deal, as the documents suggest, Syria
was acting in violation of Security Council resolutions even as it served on
the Council and voted with the United States on the most important
resolution before the war.
In an interview in Damascus on Sunday with The New York Times, Bashar
al-Assad, the Syrian president, was asked about the deal described in the
Iraqi computer files and said, "This is the first time I have heard this
story."
He said Mr. Hussein "was never able to trust Syria, and he never tried and
we never tried to make any relation between him and any other country
because he did not trust us in the first place." For all its complaints
about arms smuggling across the Syrian-Iraq border, Mr. Assad said, the
United States had never cited specific cases, adding, "I told the Americans
if you have any evidence that there is smuggling of weapons into Iraq,
please let us know."
International inspectors note that the missile deal gone bad appears to be
the most serious violation that has been found so far.

Tutte supposizioni...

Che c'entra questo con una guerra preventiva che serviva a sventare
una minaccia molto imminente (parole di Blair). 

 For the Iraqis, a Missile Deal That Went Sour
Roba vecchia.
-Stefano

 Tutte supposizioni...
No. Fatti.
-Stefano

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:3FCB6459...@despammed.com

La novita' e' il coinvolgimento della Siria come paese di transito.


Novita' nel senso che ha fatto solo da transito ?
andrea

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:bqfsg6$214uro$
1...@ID-108333.news.uni-berlin.de

Novita' perche' finora non si era parlato di un coinvolgimento della Siria
nel traffico di armi tra Saddam e Corea del nord.

La novita' e' il coinvolgimento della Siria come paese di transito.
Mah...
-Stefano

 Novita' nel senso che ha fatto solo da transito ?
Che doveva fare da transito. La spedizione non c'e' mai stata.
-Stefano


Se lo dici tu.

e chi non avrebbe cercato di fare altrettanto per salvare la propria nazione
da un'invasione?

nazione da un'invasione?
Lo stato che era gia' stato riconosciuto colpevole di una invasione
verso un'altro stato e che doveva ancora rispettare gli accordi di
cessate il fuoco da lui stesso siglati? :)
-Stefano