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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 12:33 am Post subject: Suspected Chemical Weapons Plant Uncovered In Mosul |
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Washington Post
| Quote: | Suspected Chemical Weapons Plant Uncovered In Mosul
Military Believes Insurgents Intended to Use Dangerous Agents Against U.S., Iraqi Forces
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 13, 2005; 2:09 PM
BAGHDAD, Aug. 13 -- U.S. troops raiding a warehouse in the northern city of Mosul uncovered a suspected chemical-weapons factory containing 1,500 gallons of chemicals believed destined for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces and civilians, military officials said Saturday.
Monday's early morning raid found 11 precursor agents, "some of them quite dangerous by themselves," a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan, said in Baghdad.
Combined, the chemicals would yield an agent capable of "lingering hazards" for those exposed to it, Boylan said. The likely targets would have been "coalition and Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civilians," in part owing to the difficulty anyone deploying the chemicals would have had in keeping the agents from spreading out over a wide area, he said.
Military officials did not immediately identify either the precursors or the agent they could have produced. "We don't want to speculate on any possibilities until our analysis is complete," Col. Henry Franke, a nuclear, biological and chemical defense officer, was quoted as saying in a military statement.
Investigators still were trying to determine which group was responsible for the alleged lab and whether the expertise came from foreign fighters or members of Saddam Hussein's former security apparatus, the military said.
"They're looking into it," Boylan said. "They've got to go through it -- there's a lot of stuff there."
U.S. military photos of the alleged lab showed a bare concrete-walled room scattered with stacks of plastic containers, coiled tubing, hoses and a stand holding a large metal device that looked like a distillery. Black rubber boots lay among the gear.
The operation was the biggest suspected chemical-weapon lab found so far in Iraq, Boylan said. A lab discovered last year in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah contained a how-to book for chemical weapons and an unspecified amount of chemicals.
The spokesman said the operation was new, not dating from before the U.S.-led invasion. The Bush administration used allegations that Hussein's government was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the invasion. No such weapons or factories were found.
Chemical weapons are divided into the categories of "persistent" agents that wreak damage for hours, such as blistering agents or the oily VX nerve agent, and "nonpersistent," such as chlorine gas or sarin nerve gas, which dissipate quickly.
Iraqi forces under Hussein used chemical agents both on enemy forces in the 1980s war with Iran and on Iraqi Kurdish villagers in 1988. Traces of a variety of killing agents -- mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX -- were detected by investigators after the 1988 attack.
No chemical weapons are known to have been used so far in Iraq's insurgency. Al Qaeda announced after the 2001 attacks on the United States it was looking into acquiring biological, radiological and chemical weapons. The next year, CNN obtained and aired al Qaeda videotapes showing the killings of three dogs with what were believed to be nerve agents. |
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:30 am Post subject: |
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No way! There aren't any chem/bio/nukes in Iraq!
None! None, I tell you!!!!! :::stomping feet:::
Did I say that out loud?
Sorry, was channeling leftist screed there for a minit. 
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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dusty
Admiral
Joined: 27 Aug 2004
Posts: 1264
Location: East Texas
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:23 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The spokesman said the operation was new, not dating from before the U.S.-led invasion. The Bush administration used allegations that Hussein's government was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the invasion. No such weapons or factories were found. |
Except of course for the 'mobile labs' that they know were intended for Chem and Bio use.
Except for this report;
| Quote: | Friday, June 25, 2004 11:36 a.m. EDT
Iraq Survey Chief: More WMD Found
The head of the U.S. team conducting the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq announced on Thursday that his group has uncovered at least ten more artillery shells filled with banned chemical weapons and is finding new WMD evidence "almost every day."
"We've found ten or twelve Sarin and Mustard rounds," said Charles Duelfer, who replaced David Kay as head of the Iraq survey group earlier this year after Kay concluded that WMDs were unlikely to be found.
Story Continues Below
Miramax Films
"We're not sure how many more are out there that we haven't found," Duelfer added, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Channel's Brit Hume. "There are still surprises out there. We're finding things and we're getting reports of hidden caches almost every day which we have to investigate."
Last month, the Pentagon confirmed that the first of the Iraq WMD findings - two shells suspected of containing deadly chemical weapons - were indeed filled with Sarin and Mustard gas.
Still, despite the mounting tally of confirmed WMD findings, administration critics continue to insist that "Bush lied" about the presence of such weapons in Iraq before the war.
Duelfer told Fox that even if the shells had degraded over time, they were still capable of killing "dozens" of people. He warned that both soldiers and civilians in Iraq should carry gas masks and have access to chem-bio suits.
Before joining the U.S. team, Duelfer was a U.N. weapons inspector and was among the few who had investigated Saddam's top secret terrorist training camp Salman Pak.
In 2001 he confirmed that elite Fedayeen troops were conducting airplane hijacking drills aboard a parked Boeing 707, dismissing claims from Iraqi officials that what he saw was "counterterrorism training."
"Of course we automatically took out the word 'counter'," Duelfer told the London Observer. "I'm surprised that people seem to be shocked that there should be terror camps in Iraq." |
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/6/25/114037.shtml
There are more 'excepts' out there but I think these should be sufficient to counter these claims that 'Bush lied' and there were NO wmd's in Iraq.
There damn sure were.
Dusty
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:49 am Post subject: |
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All we heard from the MSM when the Duelfer Report came out was "THERE'S NO WMD IN IRAQ".
Well, here's what the MSM did NOT report in Duelfer's own words re Chemical Weapons. (before Operation Iraqi Freedom)
From Duelfer's report to Congress, March 30, 2004
Biological and Chemical Weapons
The ISG has developed new information regarding Iraq’s dual-use facilities and ongoing research suitable for a capability to produce biological or chemical agents on short notice. Iraq did have facilities suitable for the production of biological and chemical agents needed for weapons. It had plans to improve and expand and even build new facilities.
For example, the Tuwaitha Agricultural and Biological Research Center has equipment suitable for the production of biological agents. While it conducts civilian research, ISG has also determined that it was conducting research that would be important for a biological weapons program. For example, we are continuing to examine research on Bacillus thuringiensis that was conducted until March 2003. This material is a commercial biopesticide, but it also can be used as a surrogate for the anthrax bacterium for production and weapons development purposes. Work continued on single cell proteins at Tuwaitha as well. Single cell protein research previously had been used as the cover activity for BW production at al-Hakam. We are now focusing on what such activities meant.
With respect to chemical production, Iraq was working up to March 2003 to construct new facilities for the production of chemicals. There were plans under the direction of a leading nuclear scientist/WMD program manager to construct plants capable of making a variety of chemicals and producing a year’s supply of any chemical in a month. This was a crash program. Most of the chemicals specified in this program were conventional commercial chemicals, but a few are considered “dual use.” One we are examining, commonly called DCC (N,N-Dicyclohexyl carbodiimide), was used by Iraq before 1991 as a stabilizing agent for the nerve agent VX. Iraq had plans before OIF for large-scale production of this chemical. Again, what do these activities mean?
SOURCE
It is amazing that the MSM could so misconstrue his testimony. Most people (including me) never actually read his testimony.
I think Duelfer made it perfectly clear what Saddam's INTENTIONS WERE right up to the time we invaded Iraq!!
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:23 am Post subject: |
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Hey Iraq is a big country, so what if DueFus missed a few spots. It is difficult to find the nasty stuff when you can't venture outside the Green Zone in Baghdad.
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Retired AF E-8
Independent that leans right of center. |
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