Last year, what was the deal w/ the 3,000 chemical weapons suits in Iraq?

[PeaceForever]

This is just a quick question about a mystery from last year. In the early days of the TV coverage of the war, Marines found chemical weapons suits and nerve gas antidote in a hospital.

However, Iraq in fact did not have any significant quantities of chemical weapons. So what was the true story behind those chemical weapons suits? Has that been explained yet?

[DixieDem]

1. Maybe they were afraid that WE'D use chemical weapons?

[PeaceForever]

4. That's what I remember thinking at the time.

Because Rumsfeld stated before the war that the US would be using "non-lethal" weapons like knock-out gas.

[jean]

2. No - also, DNA test results for Saddam's sons have not been reported

[htuttle]

3. Yes, they were old

From the Iran/Iraq war, IIRC. As far as having nerve gas antidote on hand in a hospital --that SHOULD be common practice -- at least I hope it is.

[PeaceForever]

6. Good point.

When I read your post, I realized that I took the military's word at face value when it announced the suits were new. It could have been that they were OLD suits from the last war that were simply UNUSED.

It would make sense for an Iraqi hospital to have nerve gas antidote since the Iran-Iraq war used that kind of thing.

[Inland]

5. Afraid someone else would use them--same reason WE have chem suits

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Chemical weapons suits aren't Chemical Weapons.

Having the suits doesn't mean you have the weapons. The suits and the antidote are standard issue when you are facing the possibility of a chemical attack. Armies, even third world armies like to be prepared for all contingencies.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. What does Iraq's neighbor have... and what has Iraq's neighbor used in

the past specifically against Iraqis.. potentially at Halabja??

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1148.htm
>>And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.<<

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/helms.html
>>The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent — that is, a cyanide-based gas — which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.<<

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/2003/02/000294.html