On Tue, 18 May 2004 23:48:07 -0400, JDG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > At 08:21 PM 5/18/2004 -0700 Gautam Mukunda wrote > >I don't know, it's just possible that the fact that > >the Iraqis _actually had chemical weapons_ is little > >more significant. Or is that not important? > > I have no way of judging this blogger's credibility, but here is certainly > an interesting take on it..... > > http://www.overpressure.com/archives/week_2004_05_16.html#23000816 > <http://www.overpressure.com/archives/week_2004_05_16.html#23000816> > > It's Huge News > The discovery of a chemical round in Iraq is getting some small amount of > coverage. It is just a single round. Did we invade Iraq for one artillery > shell? > No, of course not. However, this is still a tremendous revelation, because > of conclusions not yet drawn from what has been reported. This is what BG > Kimmit had to say about the round that was found: > The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter > artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had > been rigged as an IED, which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy. A > detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This > produced a very small dispersal of agent. The round was an old binary type > requiring the mixing of two chemical components in separate sections of the > cell before the deadly agent is produced. The cell is designed to work after > being fired from an artillery piece. Mixing and dispersal of the agent from > such a projectile as an IED is very limited. The former regime had declared > all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War. Two explosive ordnance > team members were minor exposure to nerve agent as a result of the partial > detonation of the round. > What BG Kimmit is describing is a "mix in flight" binary round. While he > says that the Iraqs had declared all such rounds destroyed prior to the 1991 > Gulf War, that isn't entirely true. The truth is the Iraqis said they > [i]never[/i] had such rounds. The Iraqis never claimed to have them. The > United States never thought they had the capability > <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15854> : > The U.S. Defense Department's "Militarily Critical Technologies > List" (MCTL) is "a detailed compendium of technologies" that the department > advocates as "critical to maintaining superior US military > capabilities. It applies to all mission areas, especially > counter-proliferation." Written in 1998, it was recently re-published with > updates for 2002. > .... > There was some talk shortly before the first Gulf War that the > Iraqis had been creating binary chemical weapons, in which the relatively > non-toxic ingredients of the agent remain unmixed until just before the > weapon is used; this allows the user to bypass any worry about shelf life or > toxicity. But according to the MCTL , "The Iraqis had a small number of > bastardized binary munitions in which some unfortunate individual was to > pour one ingredient into the other from a Jerry can prior to use" - an > action few soldiers were willing to perform. > Note that the referenced article is from Alternet, and it is saying that the > US, Ritter, and the UN "knew" that there was no binary weapons capability in > Iraq. We know that they didn't have these prior to the Gulf War, and the UN > says that they never developed or weaponized any WMD after the Gulf War, > under the inspection regime. > So where did this round come from? If it is Iraqi, it is certainly a new > development - right under the noses of the UN inspectors. It is not an old > round from the Iran-Iraq war, or from shelling of Kurds or Shi'ites after > the Gulf War. And this is not the sort of thing that someone put a single > one together in the lab - it came off of a production line somewhere. > Even more troubling, if it isn't Iraqi, where did it come from? If it came > from another country, then certainly the people who planted the IED knew > what was in it. > This is huge, HUGE news. > > >
I will look into it but doubt it is huge news. Wolf has been cried too many times before. Gary #1 on Google for liberal news
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