Breaking Story: Loaded WMD Missles Found

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dev_null

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47645-2003Apr7.html

Report: U.S. Finds Missiles with Chemical Weapons

Monday, April 7, 2003; 10:25 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio reported on Monday.

NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not just trace elements."

It said the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport.

U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment.

The United States and Britain launched the war against Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons.
 
Reuters is also reporting this - not only missles but a possible storage site as well.

- Gabe


U.S. Say It May Have Found Iraqi WMD Storage Site

Mon April 7, 2003 11:43 AM ET

NEAR BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. biological and chemical weapons experts believe they may have found an Iraqi storage site for chemical weapons, a U.S. officer told Reuters on Monday.
A military source who declined to be identified said there were unconfirmed reports there could be sarin -- a highly lethal nerve agent that causes death by suffocation -- at the site.

Iraq is believed to have used sarin against Kurdish Iraqis in the 1980s.

"Our detectors have indicated something," said Major Ross Coffman, a public affairs officer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry.

"We're talking about finding a site of possible WMD storage. This is an initial report, but it could be a smoking gun," he said, adding that the site was south of the central Iraqi town of Hindiyah.

"It is not as if there is a cloud of gas hanging everywhere endangering soldiers lives. We're talking about a facility," Coffman added.

Military sources said experts were looking at three 50-gallon barrels and 11 25-gallon barrels found at the site. As well as sarin, they may also have found phosgene, a choking agent that causes fluid buildup in the lungs, he said.

Brigadier General Vicent Brooks at U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar said he knew of no discoveries of weapons of mass destruction, but said that didn't mean they weren't waiting to be found.

The U.S. news station National Public Radio, reporting what appeared to be a separate discovery, said U.S. forces found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons.

NPR said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire."

It said the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport.

Officers from the 101st Division were unable to confirm the report and U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment.

The United States and Britain launched the war against Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction Iraqi President Saddam Hussein denies having.

U.N. weapons inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year absence in November to look for banned chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Inspectors had not found any such weapons when their search abruptly ended when U.S.-led troops attacked Iraq on March 20.

On Saturday, a U.S. officer said first tests of a suspicious white powder and liquid found on Friday in thousands of boxes south of Baghdad indicated it was not a chemical weapon.

Over the weekend, U.S. Marines in the central Iraqi town of Aziziyah began digging up a suspected chemical weapons hiding place at a girl's school.

"We have always expected that this regime has chemical weapons and also possesses the will and means to use it," Brooks told a news conference at Central Command.

He said the U.S.-led forces' advance inside the country had removed some of the means and its blizzard of leaflets and messages warning Iraqi commanders not to use weapons of mass destruction had removed much of the will.

There had also been strikes early on in the campaign, he added, against Iraqi missile capabilities -- such as al Samouds -- which could have delivered chemical or even biological weapons into neighboring countries.

"That work continues but there's also still capability," he said. "While it hasn't been found we're reminded that because we haven't found it it's still there. That's the approach we take."
 
Impossible!!!!!!

We are not even near Baghdad and U.S. Forces hold no place, and we all know that Iraq has NO WMD. This has been reported many, many times by the Information Minister.

I'm going to Snoopes.com to check this bogus story out for myself.

:D

ehenz

BTW: It is about time!!
 
I'm keeping this one open, closing the rest. It has actual cites and stuff.

Mike
 
Gee, if we'd just let the inspection process work another few decades, it wouldn't have mattered...

monkeytrio.jpg

Hans Blix, Jaques Chirac, and Vladimir Putin meet for high-level talks at the United Nations.

- pdmoderator
 
Interesting thing is that according to the Washington Post website, this even has not happened as of a few minutes ago.

They've got absolutely NOTHING on the subject.

Even the "US forces against a wall, losing badly, Iraqi army triumphant as Saddam leads them on a white horse" New York Times is reporting the find.
 
I think it would be more prudent to wait until definite testing has been performed before making the, 'see, I told you so' comments. All of the articles seem to originate from one NPR report at this time.
 
See?

It's just like the U.N. said: More inspectors were the key. (That's why we decided to send 70,000+ more inspectors! :D )
 
Uh, the barrels seem to be filled with pesticide, according to a Brig. Gen with the 101st. Also, (hello Reuters...) apparently there are actually no Marines under his command. :rolleyes:
 
To recap:

There are MULTIPLE separate potential finds concerning Iraqi WMD that just came out today (and shouldn't be confused with earlier "maybe-sorta" reports):

1. Sarin and Mustard gas warheads for BM-21 rockets. These were found in a warehouse near Baghdad international airport, reported from the scene by NPR.
2. An "agricultural" site with several barrels that two tests confirmed had chemical weapons... Sarin, Tabun and Lewisite. This site was near Karbala, reported by an NBC reporter named Dana Lewis.
3. A captured BMP that contained Sarin and Mustard gas, this was reported by the Wall Street Journal, but was vague.
4. Some suspicious material was found near Hindiyah. Tests at this site were inconsistent; some tests were negative, and some were positive for Sarin and Mustard. This was reported by a Knight-Ridder News Service journalist named Tom Lasseter.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/895392.asp?0sl=-11
 
isnt it all just "pesticides", i mean really come on, you use it on whatever is pestering you! bugs, rodents, liberals, infidels, you name it!


:evil:
 
Sean:

Even the Centcom HQ said they didn't have anything to say this morning on the subject. The reports are still early, based on preliminary info. And just because the same story appears in multiple news publications doesn't necessarily mean it didn't come from the same place in the field.

I'm hopeful that the reports will pan out. But I think we won't know for sure for a bit.
 
M1911,

The reports are from different reporters from different agencies at different locations. The reporters were the ones on the scene, not the guy at the desk. Some of them could still be bogus, of course, but they aren't just one story from one guy repeated by everybody, either.
 
DUHHHHH

This one goes in the "DUHHH!" file. The Iraqi's used chems against the Kurds as well as the Iranians in that war. The US knew all about it and didn't say anything because we wanted Iran punished for the hostage situation. This is really old news. The only WMD anybody with a living brain cell ever argued about was the unsupported claims that Iraq was nearing the detonation of a nuclear device. Not one Intel source in the world has given any credence to that and they have not found even the most rudimentary equipment used for the enrichment of U-235 to U-238. Find some U-238, and I will join the ranks who say we needed to be there. Ain't gonna happen.
 
I doubt the rockets are loaded with pesticide. However the barrels could be full of anything since legal pesticide and illegal nerve gas are similar and react similarly to the basic field tests the army uses to determine threat. Looks promising though.
 
bountyhunter

Well, how long was Dr. Hans there? He found nothing save a few rockets. I bet Saddam made that find possible because he was missing some kind of critical part needed to make them function.

We have been there 18 DAYS and there have been a few distractions but we have started finding things Blix said he could not find.

How long was he there again?

How much are you willing to bet our troops will not find evidence of WMD, including nuke weapon development?
Just a matter of time.
The significant stuff will be located over the next 60 days. Especially when things settle down and we start paying the Iraqis for intel. If you were a smart Iraqi General, you buried your WMD so you could sell them later to the Brits and Americans.
S-
 
Do you know why photos of Hans Blix are always show above-the-waist? It's because his pants are always wet due to an inability to find his zipper.
 
Sean:

The field tests that they use are known for lots of false positives -- pesticides are quite similar to nerve agents because, well, they are nerve agents.

And at least one of the supposed finds is at an agricultural school.

I'm sorry, but I still believe it is premature to say we've found WMD.
 
The field tests that they use are known for lots of false positives -- pesticides are quite similar to nerve agents because, well, they are nerve agents.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Tabun and Sarin were both developed by German "pesticide researchers" if memory serves. I think the defining question is: did they really find loaded warheads?
 
Ita all just media spin. Sarin and Mustard Gas both kill insects. Hence, they are pesticides.
 
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