Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk, in an interview published in the newspaper Den, appeared to suggest the missiles may have been dismantled without proper accounting, rather than stolen or sold.

RIGHT!!!

"We are looking for several hundred missiles," Marchuk was quoted as saying in Thursday's edition. "They have already been decommissioned, but we cannot find them".

Do you think Marchuk is corrupt?

Marchuk didn't specify the types of missile. Defense Ministry spokesman Kostyantyn Khivrenko told The Associated Press that he was referring to S-75 air defense missiles — also known in the West by the code-name SA-2.

SA-2's are bad JuJu.

Marchuk said the Defense Ministry hadn't observed the accounting requirements established by law until last summer, an apparent jab at his predecessors.

Cover his ass? I think so.

Hundreds of such missiles from Soviet arsenals in Warsaw Pact member countries had been brought to Ukraine for dismantling but were lost due to "accounting problems," Khivrenko said.

Do you really expext me to believe that? POS.

He said the absence of records documenting what happened to the missiles was "strange," and added that an investigation was under way.

By your own people, I'm sure.

The missiles entered service with the Soviet air defense troops in 1957. Able to shoot down targets at altitudes up to 12 1/2 miles, they have been sold to a large number of nations around the world.

It was the same type of missile that brought down a U.S. U-2 spy plane over the Ural Mountains in 1960. Its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, bailed out safely, but was captured, convicted as a spy, and held for almost two years until being traded for a KGB agent.

Like I said...these are some bad JuJu.

The S-75s played a prominent role in the Vietnam war, Mideast conflicts, and, most recently, were used in wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq.

Marchuk blamed his predecessors for not observing proper accounting standards while dealing with the missiles and other weapons.

Accounting Standards ? Give me a break!!!

"They say they were destroyed. OK, destroyed," Marchuk said. "Every such missile has gold, silver, platinum metals. Where are the results of their destruction?"

WTF does this have to do with anything?

Marchuk said that when he became minister, "no one knew what the armed forces had," and after nine months in the job he still doesn't have precise information.

Reminds me of Bill Clinton.

He said that inventories of military equipment had revealed a gaping hole equivalent to some $189 billion. In comparison, Ukraine's entire budget last year was less than $10 billion.

Like I said, reminds me of Bill Clinton.

Ukraine inherited a vast arsenal with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, including dozens of intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers and a wide array of other weapons. It shipped all its nuclear weapons to Russia in the early 1990s.

I doubt they shipped them all!!

Marchuk's statement drew renewed attention to numerous reports of military equipment leaking out of Ukraine amid the post-Soviet turmoil.

For a short time only!!

In 2002, the United States claimed Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had sanctioned the sale of a sophisticated military radar to Iraq. The allegation, which Kuchma denies, badly strained relations between Washington and Kiev.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is a POS.

More people need to read.

According to the business section of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, the reason the economy is improving, yet few new jobs have appeared yet, is because we are having a sluggish transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. The transition has begun, and it will pick up steam in the coming months. As a Liberal-Pinko-Commie (who happens to read), I believe this -- it makes sense, and we are beginning to see the effects. Of course, you have to stop, look and analyse, as opposed to just shouting that somebody sucks . . .

Also, the biggest reason I didn't jump onto either the pro- or anti-war band wagons is because of a photo I saw on an anti-war site prior to the invasion of Iraq.

Naturally, I've never been able to find it again. It was a picture of a small, remote drone plane guarded by a very fierce looking, professional Iraqi soldier.

It looked like something my kid would play with.

In fact, we have a 6" remote controlled plane. With a good tailwind behind it, we have had to chase it 2-4 miles up the road.

A Malignant Someone could probably march right through Customs with one of those drones -- "It's a toy for my kid. Isn't it cool?"

Imagine what a small amount of something chemical or biological it would take to infect a crowd at a park or outdoor festival.

Imagine the potential.

Remember, I am a Liberal-Commie-Pinko. If I can make this connection, imagine what trained DoD professionals thought of this.

Remember one of Bush's speeches, when he said Saddam was sitting on something that would change the face of warfare forever? Do these people think he was talking about Care Bears?

Now tell me about how we shouldn't have gone ahead and jumped.

Or that Clarke isn't simply trying to make a buck, Desperately Seeking the New York Times Best Seller List, and that it is sheer coincidence that one of his former aides is now working for the Kerry campaign.

Kerry Knocks Bush Over WMD Jokes
Thu Mar 25 2004 17:04:23 ET

The Following was issued by the Kerry For President campaign this evening:

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"How Out of Touch Can This President Be?

"George Bush insulted me as a veteran and as a friend to many still serving in Iraq. (BULLSHIT!) This act lowers the dialogue about weapons of mass destruction. War is the single most serious event that a President or government can carry its people into. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and that is no joke - this is for real. This cheapens the sacrifice that American soldiers and their families are dealing with every single day." -- Brad Owens (Iraqi War Veteran, US Army Reserves)

Speaking at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington last night, President George W. Bush showed a stunningly cavalier attitude toward the failed search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Administration's rush to war.

"Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere," Bush mimicked, as a slide of the President looking under furniture in the Oval Office appeared on the screen.

That's supposed to be funny?

If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought. Unfortunately for the President, this is not a joke.

Did a snowboard hit you on the head?

585 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last year, 3,354 have been wounded, and there's no end in sight. Bush Turned White House Credibility into a Joke George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. But we still haven't found them, and now he thinks that's funny?

Hey Kerry, get a platform. You are mass destructing - I like that.

"George Bush didn't tell us the truth about the economy, about job loss, about the true cost of his deceptive prescription drug plan, or about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. There's nothing funny about that."

Johnny Hanoi - admit it!!! You are a follower, not a leader. The only thing you can secure is women with daddy's money.

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END