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SEEING IS BELIEVING!


The Iraqi jet, an advanced
Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in
the sand after an informant tipped off
U.S.
troops.
The MiG was dug out of a
massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum
airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery
teams. The MiG was
reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi
jets buried in the sand, like hidden
treasure,
waiting to be recovered at
a later date. Contrary to what some in the
major media have reported, not all the
jets found were from the Gulf War era.
The Russian-made MiG-25
Foxbat being recovered by
U.S.
Air Force troops in the photos is an
advanced reconnaissance version never
before seen in the West and is equipped
with sophisticated electronic warfare
devices.
U.S.
Air Force recovery teams had to use large
earth-moving equipment to uncover the MiG,
which is over 70 feet long and weighs
nearly 25 tons.
The Foxbat is known to be
one of
Iraq's
top jet fighters. The advanced electronic
reconnaissance version found by the
U.S.
Air Force is currently in service with the
Russian air force. The MiG is capable of
flying at speeds of over
2,000
miles an hour, or
three times the
speed of sound,
and at altitudes of over
75,000 feet.
The recovery of the
advanced MiG fighter is considered to be
an intelligence coup by the
U.S.
Air Force.. The Foxbat may also be
equipped with advanced Russian- and
French-made electronics that were sold to
Iraq
during the 1990s in violation of a U..N.
ban on arms sales to
Baghdad.
The buried aircraft at Al
Taqqadum were covered in camouflage
netting, sealed and, in many cases, had
their wings removed before being buried
more than 10 feet beneath the Iraqi
desert.
X Marks the Spot
The discovery of the buried
Iraqi jet fighters illustrates the problem
faced by U.S.
inspection teams searching
Iraq
for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is
larger in size than California, and the
massive deserts south and west of
Baghdad
were used by Saddam Hussein to hide
weapons during the first Gulf war.
U.S.
intelligence sources have already
uncovered several mass grave burial sites
in the open deserts with an estimated
10,000 dead hidden there. In addition,
Iraq
previously hid SCUD missiles, chemical
weapons and biological warheads by burying
them under the desert sand.
U.N. inspection teams found
the weapons in the early 1990s after
detailed information of the exact
locations was obtained.
Top
U.S.
weapons inspector Dr. David Kay is known
to favor human intelligence as the primary
means to
find
Iraq's
hidden treasure trove of weapons and
secrets.
While there are rumors of
Iraqi chemical and biological weapons
being shipped to nearby
Syria,
the weapons may very well still remain
inside
Iraq
buried under the vast desert wastelands.
Some critics of the Bush
administration have claimed that the
inability of
U.S..
forces to uncover weapons of mass
destruction is proof that the President
misled the nation into the war with
Iraq.
However, in recent days the
critics have fallen silent as word quietly
leaked from Iraq that major discoveries
have already been made and are now being
documented completely. Bush administration
officials are keeping any such discoveries
secret for the moment.
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