US worried over Gaddafi's mustard gas

[Turborama]

Source: SAPA

2011-03-21 07:20

Washington - The United States is wary of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's stockpiles of mustard gas but there is no sign he intends to deploy chemical weapons, the top US military officer said on Sunday.

"It's something we're watching very closely," Admiral Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS's Face the Nation programme.

"He does have (a) store of that, a significant quantity," Mullen said when asked if Libya had stockpiles of the dangerous chemical agent. "It's something he could do a lot of damage with."

Mullen made his remarks as an international coalition concluded the initial part of a military operation to halt an offensive by Gaddafi's forces on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Read more: http://www.news24.com/World/News/US-worried-over-Gaddafis-mustard-gas-20110320

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Suffice it to say

if you are going to make any chemical agent, this is a very easy one to create and weaponize.

I just think WMDs have become a real bubaboo these days...

(Oh and if they have it, we do not have the receipts and bombing the site preemptively is not exactly a good idea)

But unlike other chemical munitions, you too can accidentally make a low grade of this crap in your home... and any artillery shell will do.

[Javaman]

8. Gas is a tricky thing...

While it's easy to make, it's not as easy to deliver via a shell as it sounds.

If they don't have the correct tech, the gas can burn up in delivery. The heating of the exterior of the shell from firing and friction during flight can dampen the effect of gas to almost nil.

But then again, they probably bought the gas from us anyway.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. This is WW I tech

they have the technology.

[Javaman]

11. Yes and no...

the delivery of gas is still very tricky.

I have a brother-in-law that was a US Army Major. He was in Artillery.

He would train with dumbed ordinance from time to time to simulate an attack.

He stated at best, that any gas shells still only have a 50/50 percent chance of being an effective ordinance. This is not even taking into wind direction.

While the tech has improved since WWI, it hasn't improved much when it involves gas. It has improved greatly with blister agents, but not a whole lot with the "traditional" types of gas.

He stated that anyone still using gas such as mustard or the like is pretty dumb. Your own army is as much at risk as is the enemy. The blister agent ordinance are not usually subject to the kind of dispersal that gas is, since it's a bit heavier.

On edit: I will state this, the use of gas certainly has a massive psychological effect on those it is fired upon. That maybe si all that gaddafi is after.

But never the less, I hope nothing of the like is ever used.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I know mustard gas puts everybody at risk

as you said, it is far more in the psychological...

[Night Crawler]

2. Ya know, it's almost like someome opened a desk drawer in

the Oval Office and pulled out an old script.

[JanDutchy]

5. Indeed, instaed they where worried at the moment they should be worried:

the moment that Bush stoled the elections and later - earlier behind curtains - Ghadaffi was 'the friend of his friend'

[Mojorabbit]

15. That is the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title. nt

[Scottybeamer70]

3. Sounds terribly familar

from eight years past.

[freshwest]

9. Sure does. Now all we have to do is check the reciepts...

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Good thing we're not sending ground troops. nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

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[dipsydoodle]

13. Meanwhile

'We must keep smallpox stocks' US and Russia tells World Health Organisation

At a meeting beginning today, the World Health Organisation will propose eradicating the American and Russian samples, which are kept in high-security facilities in Atlanta and Novosibirsk, fearing that they could be stolen or unleashed in an accident.

"Our position is that we need to have the virus collections maintained for the foreseeable future," a US official said.

Once the most deadly virus in the world, smallpox killed about a third of those who contracted it and wiped out more than half the indigenous populations of North and South America when first introduced by African slaves.

The WHO declared the virus eradicated in 1980 after the most successful vaccination scheme the world has seen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8267370/We-must-keep-smallpox-stocks-US-and-Russia-tells-World-Health-Organisation.html

Anything capable of wiping out half the indigenous populations of North and South America even at that period in time when the total population was lower ain't worth keeping.

[RedCloud]

14. So do we have to "catch up" on mustard now?