WMD Found in Iraq, or, Bush Right Again

Look, its even on the communist news network:


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/01/10/sprj.irq.chemicals/index.html

Suspicious shells found in southern Iraq

Mortars thought to hold blister agent left over from war with Iran
Sunday, January 11, 2004 Posted: 12:15 AM EST (0515 GMT)



The Danish army says it found these mortar shells in southern Iraq.


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Danish troops have found suspicious mortar shells in southern Iraq that officials believe contain blister agents, the United States and Denmark announced Saturday.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. Army spokesman, said Saturday that the 120 mm mortars were filled with liquid.

The shells are at least 10 years old, and a U.S. Army official said he suspects the ordnance was surplus from the Iran-Iraq war in the mid-1980s. Blister agents are used in chemical weapons.

A release on the Danish army operational command Web site said that in a routine collection of old ammunition, the 36 heavy mortar grenades were found in a dried-up marsh Friday. They were buried and packed in plastic.

"Most were wrapped in plastic bags, and some were leaking," Kimmitt said.

The shells were found 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the city of Qurnah by Danish engineers and Icelandic munitions experts.

Several hundred Danish soldiers are working with a British-led multinational force responsible for security in southern Iraq.

Both the U.S. and British governments cited the threat of illicit weapons of mass destruction as a main reason for launching the Iraq war. However, no such weapons have been found so far.

The U.S. pulled 400 weapons-disposal experts from Iraq this month in what The New York Times called "a sign that [the] administration might have lowered its sights." The move raised suspicions that weapons are unlikely to be found.

The White House played down the move, saying the group focused on hunting weapons was remaining in Iraq.

Whoop-de-doo.

I can't wait for Rumsfeld to hold up those thirty-odd rusty, leaky mortar shells and triumphantly proclaim that these were the reason we invested 80 billion and 500-odd lives into Iraq.

Were these Great War-tech mortar shells the ones that were ready to strike the US at 45 minutes' notice? :confused:

I can't wait for Rumsfeld to hold up those thirty-odd rusty, leaky mortar shells and triumphantly proclaim that these were the reason we invested 80 billion and 500-odd lives into Iraq.

But I seriously doubt this was Uncle Saddam's Olde Fashioned Oatmeal Cookie mobile factory:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraqi_mobile_plants/images/reported_plants_to_found_trailers.jpg

These are old and not likely to have been a focus of the Bush administration.

I thought that the best theory was one put forward by Oliver North. He said that all of the WMD probably could have been loaded and transported by three semi tractor/trailers. These would have been driven into the desert where a hole forty foot deep was dug with a sloped ramp entrance. All associated with the burial of these trucks would have been killed and the only ones that would have known where to dig were Saddam's sons...and they ain't talk'n. Maybe time will tell.

But they were indeed a focus of the Bush administration, to include the folks in DC who officially don't exist. ;)

it hasn't even been confirmed that these are indeed WMD

A handful of 120mm mortar shells stuffed with what may or may not be mustard gas is indeed kinda stretching the "mass destruction" part of WMD. ;)

Gewehr98:

I don't understand your remarks. My point was that I don't think that buried ten year old mortar shells were what they were worried about. I got the impression in the pre-war days that they were worried about current production WMDs.

The blister agent artillery shells pale in comparison. Those fermenter pressure vessels, water chillers, and one-of-a-kind plumbing sent a shiver up the spines of the folks who investigated them. Not that I'd volunteer to get a good sample of the fluid that was still inside the fermenter vessel... :what:

Maybe the trucks are actually mobile beer breweries? Gives a new meaning to the word "beer truck".

OT

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