Republican lawmakers cite shells as WMD proof

[sabra]

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060710-123909-1428r.htm

Republican lawmakers cite shells as WMD proof

Congressional Republicans are at odds with Democrats -- and the Bush administration -- over the significance of 500 munitions found in Iraq since 2003 and recently disclosed by the Pentagon.

The rocket and artillery shells hold deadly sarin and mustard gas, a small part of the vast weapons of mass destruction (WMD) arsenal that Saddam Hussein built in the 1980s.

...

The resolution "didn't say pre-'91 chemical weapons," said Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican. "It didn't say post-'91 chemical weapons. It said chemical weapons. Saddam Hussein violated this resolution and others like it. ... In part because of such violations, we voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq."

...

To the consternation of congressional Republicans, including Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, the Democrats are getting support from the administration.


Fourty vials of suspected Sarin gas are seen in a brief case where U.S Marines found them while searching a house last November in Fallujah, Iraq.

[rubberducky]

1. Why is the sarin pkg written in english??

[rooboy]

14. I don't think it surprising to see the labels in English...

just as pilots communicate with air traffic control in English - I would assume this is an international convention that's followed.

[sutz12]

24. Because they bought them from us.... nt

[unda cova brutha]

27. because it was planted by the US militray.

and they forget to remove the english lables.

[JDPriestly]

2. Where were these vials manufactured?

What's with the English writing? If the Iraqis manufactured them, why don't they have Arabic letters on them? Maybe both Arabic and English?

[wakeme2008]

3. gee I like the instructions on thoses

I wonder where in the US they were made... :banghead:

[Doctor_J]

4. Last November?

like Rove wouldn't have had these on every TV station for the last 8 months...

[Ian David]

5. They were made and sold to Saddam by The Carlylse Group...

who now also owns Dunkin' Donuts, along with Romney's Bain Capitol.

[KKKarl is an idiot]

6. Sarin gas

I read that we have more dangerous stuff sitting under our kitchen sink than these vials are.

[PRETZEL]

7. US and Europeans sold to Iraq

alot of the technology and equipment necessary to produce CW during the mid to late 80's. Thus we have the infamous Rumsfeld-Saddaam handshake photo.

[midnight]

16. Maybe that's exactly how the media should explain

this evidence of WMD.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Probably what was given to them

by the USA to fight the Iranians. That may be why the admistration doesn't want the matter pursued - thay don;t want the origin traced.

[merwin]

9. Weapons of Minor Discomfort

[geomon666]

10. So let me get this straight.

We sent 2500 Americans to their deaths for useless buried mustard gas?! Is that what these fucking people are telling me?!

The forty vials in that picture, if it exploded in someone's face, maybe, the gas will kill them if the glass shards don't first.

What about the hordes of chemical labs and rockets in position and the Iraqi Red Line of DOOM! Assholes!

[rodeodance]

15. you got it!!

.........We sent 2500 Americans to their deaths for useless buried mustard gas?! Is that what these fucking people are telling me?!.........

[underpants]

Funny how the House monkeys want to fling poo and the WH says

"STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!" They don't want anyone reminded of the selling point on this war. They have of course changed history by saying that it was about freedom...not that W wanted they to vote or anything.

[underpants]

11. Funny how the House monkeys want to fling poo and the WH says

"STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!" They don't want anyone reminded of the selling point on this war. They have of course changed history by saying that it was about freedom...not that W wanted they to vote or anything.

[Teaser]

12. These weapons are expired!

weldon is an ass.

[MGD]

17. Not if they're US manufactured

US chemical weapons have a much longer shelf life than Iraqi chemical weapons. one common belief is that the Iraqis were trying to overcome this shelf life problem with stabilizers and binary components.

[Teaser]

19. The report itself lists them as degraded.

nt

[MGD]

23. Not to be confrontational friend but no it doesn't

It says: "The ISG believes that any remaining chemical munitions in Iraq do not pose a militarily significant threat to coalition forces because the agent and munitions are degraded and there are not enough extant to cause mass casualties," Mr. Duelfer wrote.

[MGD]

13. Those don't look anything like rockets &/or howitzer shells to me.

They look a lot like glass vials of US nerve agent actually. Even Rove would have a hard time spinning that one favorably. It kind of nullifies the whole WMD production facility arguments made in the run up. Setting politics aside for a moment, those vials were probably still quite deadly due to the superior processing of US chemical wepaons. The Iraqi Sarin production methods left excessive isomeric impurities which caused a much more rapid degradation of the end product. The sarin attack in Japan was probably leaden with such impurities. Had that been pure sarin, there would have been very few survivors. As it was, it was probably no more or even less deadly than concentrated bugspray mixed with DMSO. Iraqi manufactured munitions would be equaly unviable as WMDs but would still incite a nice expensive panic as we saw in Japan.

[acmavm]

18. These guys are soooooo desperate they're sweating WMDs.

[LeftHander]

20. Good Old USA WMD's prototypes ala Rumsfeld....

Keep it up Grand Old Panty you are digging your own grave pursuing WMD's in Iraq.

[Omaha Steve]

21. made in the 80's, so....

Shouldn't W's Dad have found them or gone after Saddam during Desert Storm????? Any thoughts?

[baldguy]

22. GOP definitions:

soup:



bullets:



eggs:



WMD:

[RadiDem]

25. More LIES ! That photo is of Sarin test kits ! Documented MONTHS ago !

google sarin + vials + test.

[MGD]

29. There you go

1.) There still appears to be no WMD production facilities or nuclear programs or massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction or missile components or anything else that was used to justify this war.

2.) A few scattered chemical rounds that are about as dangerous as household insecticide appear to be the justification. Frankly, I don't see those munitions as even being desirable to a terorist organization. They would be dangerous to handle/transport and even harder to employ and nigh impossible to gauge their potential effectiveness and; thus, would introduce too much uncertainty into the outcome of their use. Conventional wepaons would be better by far.

3.) Furthermore, I don't think these chemical weapons constitute WMDs at all. WMD need to be capable of effectively killing many thousands of people and these things do not meet such a criteria for the reason I already stated. They are bordering on useless as far as weapons go. They may technicaly be called chemical weapons but it is a stretch to call them weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear wepaons are considered weapons of mass destruction.

4.) I honestly don't see these things as being a reasonable justification for this war and its incalculable expenses. It's more like a legal technicality that gets a murderer off the hook but leaves everybody sickened at the end of the trial.

[NickB79]

26. A sarin-filled bomb was used two years ago as an IED in Iraq

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120268,00.html

"The artillery shell was being used as an improvised roadside bomb, the U.S. military said Monday. The 155-mm shell exploded before it could be rendered inoperable, and two U.S. soldiers were treated for minor exposure to the nerve agent."

Result? The soldiers were exposed to several LITERS of sarin (pretty big amount) and were only sickened for a few days. They then returned to active duty. Wow, how fucking lethal these WMD's are, huh? :sarcasm:

[baldguy]

28. "Sarin has a relatively short shelf life,"

"...and will degrade after a period of several weeks to several months. The shelf life may be greatly shortened by impurities in precursor materials. According to the CIA <1>, in 1989 the Iraqis destroyed 40 or more tons of sarin that had decomposed, and that some Iraqi sarin had a shelf life of only a few weeks owing mostly to impure precursors"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin

Take a bottle of milk, bury it in the hot desert sand for twelve years, and it will be about as good as a can of sarin treated the same way.

[pinniped]

30. Well, if this is true, then we are not really there....

to free the Iraqis!:crazy:

[stepnw1f]

31. What an Outrageously Desperate Act

the GOP is in BIG TROUBLE!

[jpak]

32. Forty vials of sarin laboratory standards = WMD?????

Are they worth 2500+ dead GI's, 100,000 dead Iraqis and $300 billion in taxes that our grandchildren will have to pay?

The GOP thinks so...

[daleo]

33. They were found in a dump (one or two at a time)

And they were badly decomposed. Hussein was supposed to get rid of them, clearly he did. They were no more a threat than an old can of drano.

The Republicans are grasping at straws again.