From the UNMOVIC report.
"6. The Commission’s experts are conducting an investigation in parallel with the IAEA Iraq Nuclear Verification Office regarding the discovery of items from Iraq that are relevant to the mandates of UNMOVIC and IAEA at a scrapyard in the Netherlands. In particular, following a visit of IAEA to a scrapyard in Rotterdam to investigate increased radiation readings, it was discovered, through photographs taken at the time, that engines of SA-2 surface-to-air missiles were among the scrap (see figure below). They are the type of engines used in the Al Samoud 2 proscribed missile programme. In addition, a number of items and equipment that may also be relevant to the UNMOVIC mandate were seen among the scrap. The existence of missile engines originating in Iraq among scrap in Europe may affect the accounting of proscribed engines known to have been in Iraq’s possession in March 2003. Both IAEA and UNMOVIC have kept the Security Council informed of this matter.
7. A team of Commission experts visited the site concerned in the Netherlands and examined one missile engine that had been salvaged from the scrap metal process. By comparing the serial production number on the engine with information in the UNMOVIC database, the experts were able to confirm that the engine was one from an SA-2 missile that had been tagged by United Nations inspectors in the past and had not been declared as having been fired. Representatives of the scrapyard company indicated that a number of similar engines (5 to 12) had been seen in the scrapyard in January and February of this year. More engines could have been processed and passed through the yard unnoticed. Company staff confirmed that other items made of stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant metal alloys bearing
the inscription “Iraq” or “Baghdad” had been observed in shipments delivered from the Middle East since November 2003. A number of items were examined and sampled on-site by UNMOVIC experts with a portable metal analyser and were
determined to be composed of inconel and titanium — both dual-use materials subject to monitoring. Photographs of other materials bearing Arabic script were taken.
8. Despite the active cooperation of the Government of the Netherlands and the company concerned, it was not possible to determine how many other engines and other material previously subject to monitoring in Iraq may have passed through this
scrapyard (or others). It should also be noted that the scrapyard that was visited by UNMOVIC deals in high-quality stainless steel. Items and equipment made of dualuse materials subject to the provisions of the monitoring plan may also be coming out of Iraq to other destinations. The Commission is continuing its investigation.
9. In addition, the Commission is aware from comparative analysis of recent satellite imagery that a number of sites previously known to have contained equipment and materials subject to monitoring have been either cleaned out or destroyed. An example of such imagery is provided in the appendix to the present report. It is not known whether such equipment and materials were still present at the sites during the time of coalition action in March and April of 2003. However, it is possible that some of the materials may have been removed from Iraq by looters of sites and sold as scrap."
http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/new/documents/quarterly_reports/s-2004-435.pdf"Oh man, if true won't that be a fly in the ointment to Kerry's campaign hopes?"
I don't think so. You see before the coalition invaded UNMOVIC was monitoring the distruction of Al Samoud 2 missles.
"This brings to 40 the total number of Al Samoud 2 missiles destroyed to date."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/un/unmovic-030310.htmBut because of the invasion UNMOVIC had to pull out and the missles were no longer being monitored or secured. Apparently some (who knows how many) stolen/looted and then sold and/or transport out of Iraq.
If anything, I think this is the most glaring example of how the inspection process was succeeding in making the world an safer place, and how the invasion succeeded in making the world an unsafer place.
