Although this hasn’t been officially confirmed by the Pentagon, preliminary testing appears to confirm the stockpile contains “nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite.” I wonder if Hans and his merry men searched this site.
Of course, the denials should be forthcoming along with more statements that the US is not at the airport, not in Saddams palace and nowhere near Baghdad.
Early Tests Suggest Weapon ‘Cocktail’ Found in Iraq
Mon April 7, 2003 01:19 PM ET
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Preliminary tests on substances found at a military training camp in central Iraq suggest they contain a cocktail of banned chemical weapons, including deadly nerve agents, U.S. officers said on Monday.
Maj. Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division said the initial tests revealed levels of nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite, Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray reported from a U.S. military post at Kerbala.
Hamlet said a team of experts would carry out further tests as early as Tuesday on the substances, discovered at the camp in Albu Mahawish, on the Euphrates river between the central Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Hilla, site of ancient Babylon.
“If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) has the weapons we have said he has all along,” Hamlet said. “But right now we just don’t know.”
The United States invaded Iraq on March 20 to overthrow Saddam and prevent him using banned chemical weapons. Many other members of the United Nations opposed the attack, saying U.N. inspectors should be given more time to disarm Iraq.
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*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
^ You forgot the "how convenient - a WMD storage facility discovered just in time".
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Nadia: That one is a good one. Of course, the poster of that will fail to explain exactly what the discovery is "just in time" for. How about this variation of the "just in time" statement. "Don't you find the timing of the release of this information odd?" Or this, "Why did we wait until AFTER US troops were on the ground ready to take control of Baghdad before discovering this and releasing the information?"
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*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Wouldn't it be time now for the weapons inspectors to re-enter Iraq and dismantle these chemical weapons components?
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There's already a pretty good group of weapons inspectors on the ground fully capable of dismantling and destroying these weapons. I don't think Hans' track record is very good.
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*Originally posted by myvoice: *
How about this variation of the "just in time" statement. "Don't you find the timing of the release of this information odd?" Or this, "Why did we wait until AFTER US troops were on the ground ready to take control of Baghdad before discovering this and releasing the information?"
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lol :D Thank you. Those are better than mine.
>>I don't think Hans' track record is very good.<<
Perhaps that should be within the jurisdiction of Kofi Annan to decide, not George Bush or Tony Blair.
If confirmed, I for one am happy for you guys. Now the US will be able to tick off its checklist of “WMD Stocks R Us” and be able to reclaim what they sold. But to be truthful I am a little disappointed that he wasted such good stock by not using it in this war.
ok guys.. once again.. was this about WMD's again?? I mean whatever happened to the liberation pitch?? oh ok.. we'd continue that if we find out that it's from '91 and Sarin becomes ineffective after 5 years.
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*Originally posted by PakistaniAbroad: *
we'd continue that if we find out that it's from '91 and Sarin becomes ineffective after 5 years.
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thanx. thats exactly what i meant by "good stock".
If they do find these biological agents, more work needs to be done to figure out who provided the technology for sad-damn to build these weapons. I would suspect Russia, no wonder Putin was so against any action.
"In what appeared to be a separate incident, U.S. National Public Radio reported U.S. forces near Baghdad found a cache of 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical warheads.
Citing a top official with the 1st Marine Division, NPR said the BM-21 missiles were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were “ready to fire.”
U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment on the NPR report."
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*Originally posted by PakistaniAbroad: *
ok guys.. once again.. was this about WMD's again?? I mean whatever happened to the liberation pitch?? oh ok.. we'd continue that if we find out that it's from '91 and Sarin becomes ineffective after 5 years.
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PakistaniAbroad,
I don't think it matters if they are expired or not. Fact would still be that Saddam did not fully cooperate with inspectors and neglected to declare these items.
That justifies bombing the crap out of 1000's and laying a country to waste. Famine and cholera alone will most probably kill more Iraqi's than any chemical/bological weapons could have.