Oops, is that WMD we just Found in Iraq????????

by Leolaia 72 Replies latest social current

• 

  Corvin

  A small amount of the nerve agent sarin was found in a shell that exploded in Iraq, the U.S. army said Monday in the first announcement of discovery of any of the weapons on which Washington made its case for war.

  Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference the substance had been found in an artillery shell inside a bag discovered by a U.S. convoy a few days ago. The round had exploded, causing a small release of the substance, he said.

  "The Iraq Survey Group has confirmed today that a 155 (mm) artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) that was discovered by a U.S. force convoy," he said.

  You mean to tell me that all this for "a round" of ordinance? Hey President Bush! Mr. Blair! What would you do for a Clondike Bar?

  Corvin
• 

  dubla

  simon-

  So, no ... it's not a WoMD find and not the evidence to justify the war.

  i see you bolded the fact that the weapon (which would indeed fall under the category of wmd, as even abaddon admitted above) dated back to the iran-iraq war. why do you find this significant? it doesnt matter how far back any weapons date, what matters is that saddam specifically denied having ANY stocks left over. thats ZERO, meaning finding even one proves (even further) his non-compliance with the u.n. resolutions.

  bold/italic mine:

  Kimmitt said the artillery round was of an old style that Saddam Hussein's regime had declared it no longer possessed after the Persian Gulf War..............

  The general said the Iraqi Survey Group, headed by Charles Duelfer, would determine if the shell's discovery indicated Saddam possessed chemical weapons before the U.S. invasion last year. Officials in Washington said another shell -- this one containing mustard gas -- was found 10 days ago in Iraq.

  http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/17/iraq.main/index.html

  i think we need more details before declaring these two finds the official smoking gun...but they certianly seem signficant. trying to immediately downplay any finds of this nature only reeks of an agenda.

  aa
• 

  dubla

  heres some clips from another interesting bbc article:

  But if this shell is what it seems - a filled chemical munition - where did it come from? And how many more shells might there be?

  Iraq was supposed to have destroyed all such munitions under United Nations supervision in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War.

  Iraq had large stocks of 155mm shells containing mustard gas.

  But it claimed only to have filled a small number of such shells with binary nerve agent as an experimental project, which the Iraqis said, never entered full-scale production.

  Nobody knows how many such shells were manufactured or how many may exist today.

  One shell clearly does not make a chemical arsenal.

  But if Iraqi insurgents knew where to find this one, there is the disturbing possibility for the US-led coalition that other similar munitions may have fallen into their hands.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3722855.stm

  aa
• 

  Valis

  hmmm...I'm wondering if any of the agencies that recorded Iraq's use of those weapons on the Kurds and other insurgents, tested for the ecaxct makeup of the gases used ? Maybe they could compare those found now with what they used then? I don't know that that is even possible, but just an idea. Like the speculation of one of the terrorists on the Berg tape speaking Russian, speculation that weapons, bombs, and chemicals coming from outside might not be too far off the mark.

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
• 

  Simon

  Tell me, is the US government in possession of and responsible for any of the chemicals, arms and other weopons that it has "lost" ?

  This is *one* shell. Perhaps it is the "imminent threat" that we were told about. I mean, if they'd fired that they could have had someone's eye out.
• 

  Corvin

  This is *one* shell. Perhaps it is the "imminent threat" that we were told about. I mean, if they'd fired that they could have had someone's eye out

  LOL, Simon. It seems as though they are grasping at straws. Further examination of the shell will reveal that it merely contains Saddam's favorite laxitive. I use to store drugs in a Coke can with a false bottom. [edited to say] They weren't my drugs; I was holding them for a friend.
• 

  dubla

  LOL, Simon. It seems as though they are grasping at straws.

  how exactly is reporting on a bomb that actually exploded in iraq "grasping at straws"? who is "grasping", the reporters who broke the story?

  aa
• 

  SixofNine

  think we need more details before declaring these two finds the official smoking gun...but they certianly seem signficant. trying to immediately downplay any finds of this nature only reeks of an agenda.

  I think what's likely to happen, is that more of this will be found, and people desperate to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear will do so, w/o regard to the fact that a silk purse made from a pig bathed daily in blood, fed glop made from human bodies, is not worth the cost.

  Someone coming across an old cache of loaded weaponry does not a case for this war make. And the case against this war is not weakened one iota by finding weapons that were likely squirreled away so effectively Saddam Hussien himself couldn't have called them to action, and in fact didn't.
• 

  wasasister

  But if Iraqi insurgents knew where to find this one, there is the disturbing possibility for the US-led coalition that other similar munitions may have fallen into their hands.

  CNN is reporting that the shell casing is not marked in any way that would indicate the presence of nerve gas contained therein. It is likely the insurgents did not know what they had.

  It's way too early to tell if this incident has any significance as to whether or not there were WMD and by extrapolation- justification for invasion. All this agruing is futile and only serves to further divide the board along already stronly drawn politcal lines.

  I'm disappointed that both Simon and Yeru jumped at this.
• 

  Simon

  wasasister. Far from "jumping" on anything I simply reported the facts as presented in the news releases and also echoed the analysis that I have heard from every news source - that this is NO proof of WoMD and is just a left-over shell.