The drifting WMDs and Hussein - maybe they really ARE in the same place

Or at least North Korea's WMDs and Hussein.

I posted Thursday on this issue of some armaments that found their way to Libya through an interesting incident a year ago. And I can't find anything else about it. In fact, that article was from Asia Times, talking about a Spanish El Mundo report. Apparently, this isn't news in America.

I think it might just warrant a little attention.

Asia Times   December 2003: The US government needs to explain why the missile shipment on a vessel intercepted a year ago on the high seas by the Spanish navy ended up in Libya, a spokesman from Spain's Defense Ministry said this week.   article


December 2002:

The Spanish navy, together with its American superiors in the global war on terrorism, were clearly intent on making this assault on what they believed to be an important shipment of arms to a hostile Arab force a PR success.

Unfortunately for Admiral Moreno and the defence minister, Federico Trillo, who yesterday morning bristled with pride as he recounted the "brilliant" naval action, the whole episode turned last night into a full-blown diplomatic farce.  article


The only thing I can find in current news on this besides the Al Jazeera report is from Libya News & Views:

Friday, 12 December, 2003: The U.S. government needs to publicly explain why the missile shipment on a vessel intercepted a year ago on the high seas by the Spanish navy ended up in Libya, a spokesman from Spain's Defence Ministry told IPS Tuesday. The official was referring to declarations by sources from NATO to the Madrid daily 'El Mundo' that claim 15 complete Scud missiles, a set of conventional warheads and 85 containers of chemical products -- some 20 holding nitric acid -- were ultimately delivered to Libya under a Washington decision. [IPS]
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Friday, 12 December, 2003: The episode of the missile shipment on a vessel intercepted a year ago by the Spanish navy that ended up in Libya began Dec. 5, 2002, when U.S. intelligence services informed Madrid about the route of the freighter named So San, suspected of trafficking weapons and at the time crossing a zone under Spain's authority in the Indian Ocean. Four days later, a Spanish frigate and warship intercepted the So San after ordering the captain to halt and firing warning shots. The vessel was found to be under a Cambodian flag. [IPS]
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Friday, 12 December, 2003: Yemen denied a news report claiming that it had delivered a shipment of North Korean Scud missiles to Libya, an official statement said, quoted by Yemen's official news agency. "Such reports are fabricated and baseless. That shipment of weapons belongs to the Yemeni armed forces. It is in their possession and not for any other party," the statement said. The Spanish 'El Mundo' newspaper said Tuesday that the United States allowed North Korea to deliver a shipment of Scud missiles to Libya. [Arab News]   article



There's this page titled The So San Scud Scam that has a bit from the Washington Times, which I couldn't find, from February, but everything else is old news from when the incident occurred.

Ship gets arms in and out
The North Korean ship that last year delivered Scud missiles to Yemen transferred a large shipment of chemical weapons material from Germany to North Korea recently, U.S. intelligence officials said. The ship, the Sosan, was monitored as it arrived in North Korea earlier this month carrying a shipment of sodium cyanide, a precursor chemical used in making nerve gas, said officials familiar with intelligence reports....(Washington Times, 19 Feb 03)

Yemen Unloading N. Korean Missiles
Yemen began unloading Saturday the shipment of North Korean missiles that was seized by Spanish and U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea, a port authority official said. Five Scud missiles have been unloaded, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity....(AP, 14 Dec 02)

Decision to release scuds irks Spain
Spanish military officials voiced irritation with the United States over the seizure of a ship carrying North Korean missiles to Yemen, saying in reports published Thursday that Spanish naval forces risked their lives for what proved to be a pointless exercise....The Defense Ministry sought to play down the reports in Spain's two biggest daily newspapers but said it was "surprised" by the U.S. decision to let the Scud missiles go their way after asking Spain to stop the ship Monday in the Arabian Sea....(AP, 12 Dec 02)

Yemen: US Lets N.Korea Scud Ship Sail to Yemen
Yemen said on Wednesday the United States had released a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles and that it was sailing to the Arab state...(Reuters, 11 Dec 02)

U.S. Says Yemen May Have Violated Deal
The missile shipment seized in the Arabian Sea appears to violate an agreement Yemen made with the United States not to buy such equipment from North Korea, defense officials said Wednesday. But a Yemeni official told The Associated Press in San'a that Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kerbi summoned U.S. Ambassador Edmund J. Hull to protest the seizure and ask for the return of the equipment, which was planned for "defensive purposes."...(AP, 11 Dec 02)  article

Some more information on what happened at the time from a Yemeni online article:

December 2002: The decision to release the ship came after US Vice-President Dick Cheney tried to persuade President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to give up delivery of the battlefield-range missiles, the same kind Yemen has bought from North Korea before.

Cheney then consulted with US President George Bush, and afterward the Yemeni leader - who also spoke today with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell - was told that he could have the ship's contents.

Administration officials said Saleh had agreed to keep control of the missiles and not pass them on to either Iraq or terrorist groups. The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, also said Secretary Powell had received assurances from Saleh that no more Scuds would be bought from North Korea.

Cheney's involvement underscored the sensitivity of the diplomatic task. He and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have been outspoken about the need to cut off North Korea's sources of income and highly critical of its sale of weapons to other countries.

But administration officials acknowledged that it was impossible not to yield to Yemen's request for the missiles because of its strategic location and its cooperation in the American fight against Al Qaeda.  article

The old flip-flop-who's-our-friend today bit where "terrorist supporting countries" get shuffled back and forth from the enemy to friend column fairly regularly seems to have found Yemen in the friend column at the time of the incident. At any rate, they apparently found that they had need of something from Libya more than they had need of the missiles for "defensive purposes".

The fact that the U.S. was apparently negotiating a deal with Libya to take Hussein into exile in exchange for some armaments, together with the fact that Hussein is supposedly still out there somewhere and the fact that those arms which were allowed by the U.S. to stay in the hands of the Yemeni government are now in Libya seems kind of suspicious to me. But then, I may be a bit of a conspiracy theorist nut.

Oh yeah, add to that La Hood's little quip.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.