Buried In Iraq

[soulfire78]

Interesting story...

All photos courtesy of MSGT T. Collins, USAF

Wednesday August 6, 2003

NewsMax.com has obtained exclusive photos of a buried Iraqi jet fighter being recovered by

U.S. Air Force troops. 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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[tired_dad]

I wish I could tell all I know. During my time over in the "Gulf", I was privy to a number of intel items. Suffice it to say that the US knew that the jet(s) were being buried.

I guess that it was easier to keep tabs on an object that was buried under a couple of thousand tons of sand than expose it and allow someone to take a few critical parts.

It will be interesting to continue to follow this and see exactly what is recovered.