Weapons Of Mass Destruction Found In Iraq?

[Alpha]

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers found a roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent in Baghdad, the military said Monday. The device, which partially detonated, was apparently a leftover from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s arsenals. It was unclear whether more such weapons were in the hands of insurgents.

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.. Above, The Army used red smoke to warn people from approaching the area.

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Soldiers who removed the bomb experienced symptoms consistent with low-level nerve agent exposure, U.S. officials said. No one was wounded in the partial blast Saturday, and the dispersal of sarin from the bomb was very limited, the military said.

 

If confirmed in subsequent testing, the discovery would be the first evidence of a banned weapon in Iraq (news - web sites) since the war began. The Bush administration based its case for the war on the existence of such weapons.

 

Earlier this month, some trace residue of mustard agent, an older type of chemical weapon, was detected in an artillery shell found in a Baghdad street, a U.S. official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The shell was believed to be from one of Saddam's old stockpiles and was not regarded as evidence of recent weapons of mass destruction production in Iraq.

 

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cautioned that the sarin results were from a field test, which can be imperfect and more analysis needed to be done.

 

"We have to be careful," he told an audience in Washington Monday afternoon. Rumsfeld said it many take some time to determine precisely what the chemical was, what its presence means in terms of risks to U.S. forces and other implications.

 

U.S. troops have announced the discovery of other chemical weapons before, only to see them disproved by later tests. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said "the jury is still out" on whether chemical or other weapons of mass destruction remained in Iraq.

 

The former top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, said it was possible the shell was an old relic overlooked when Saddam said he had destroyed such weapons in the mid-1990s.

 

Kay, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said he doubted the shell or the nerve agent came from a hidden stockpile, although he didn't rule out that possibility.

 

Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, speaking to the AP in Sweden, agreed the shell was likely a stray weapon scavenged from a dump and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles.

 

Numerous arsenals and weapons depots were looted in the turmoil following the collapse of the regime last April. Some depots are still only lightly guarded. Many of the materials used for roadside bombs were believed to have been looted.

 

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said he believed that insurgents who planted the explosive did not know it contained the nerve agent. The 155-mm shell did not have markings to indicate it contained a chemical agent, a U.S. official said.

 

He said a U.S. military convoy discovered the round, which had been rigged as an explosive device. A detonation took place before soldiers could make the bomb inoperable, producing "a very small dispersal of agent."

 

U.S. officials believe, based on evidence, that the shell was an experimental munition produced before the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), called a binary type — a bomb carrying two separate chemicals that when combined in an explosion, produce sarin.

 

Dispersal would be far more effective if a shell containing nerve agent were fired from an artillery piece, Kimmitt said.

 

Even so, it appears that two components in the shell that exploded Saturday did not properly mix upon detonation, the U.S. official said.

 

Blix, whose inspection team didn't make any significant weapons finds during months of searching Iraq before the war, said he and his team found 16 warheads that were tagged as used for containing sarin but were empty.

 

Saddam's government had disclosed binary sarin testing and production after the 1995 defection of Iraqi weapons chief Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam's son-in-law. But Saddam's government never declared that any sarin or sarin-filled shells still remained.

 

Iraq used the chemical during its war with Iran in the 1980s and is believed to have used it against Kurdish Iraqi civilians. According to U.N. weapons inspectors, sarin-type agents constituted a significant part of Iraq's chemical weapons arsenal — about 20 percent of all chemical weapons agents that Saddam's government declared it had produced.

 

Nerve gases inhibit key enzymes in the nervous system, blocking their transmission. In large enough doses, sarin causes convulsions, paralysis, loss of consciousness and potentially fatal respiratory failure. Small exposures can be treated with antidotes, if administered quickly.

 

In 1995, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed sarin gas in Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and sickening thousands. In February of this year, Japanese courts convicted the cult's former leader, Shoko Asahara, and sentenced him to be executed.

 

Developed in the mid-1930s by Nazi scientists, a single drop of sarin can cause quick, agonizing choking death. There are no known instances of the Nazis actually using the gas, but that didn't stop other nations from stocking it.

 

While the finding an artillery shell designed to disperse the nerve gas sarin is notable, it would take an arsenal of such weapons to pose a meaningful military threat, arms policy experts said.

 

"You would fire hundreds of these shells on the battlefield to have any significant effect," said Jonathan B. Tucker, a senior researcher at the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington.

 

In that way "you try to saturate an area" containing enemy troops, said Michael Powers, a senior fellow at the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute in Washington.

 

U.S. military officials in Baghdad said the Iraq Survey Group, a U.S.-led organization whose task was to search for weapons of mass destruction after the ouster of Saddam, confirmed the presence of sarin.

 

The team has run into a number of dead ends. In January, for example, field tests on discovered mortar shells near Qurnah in southern Iraq indicated a blister agent was in the shells. But follow-up tests indicated that the munitions did not contain the agents, though U.S. officials said Saddam had such agents in the early to mid-1990s.

 

Officials say there are chemicals associated with certain munitions, such as phosphorous, that can produce false positives. Some field tests are designed to favor a positive reading, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers.

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Post your comments here.

[Gryph]

Weapons of minor destruction found.

 

But its not fully proven yet. But that won't stop the Bush administration from putting up another Mission Accomplished sign.

Edited May 18, 2004 by GryphonKlaw

[random guy]

Big deal, they found one tiny 15-year old shell that would do bugger all damage on the weaponfield. That's hardly a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The article even says the guys who planted it probably didn't even know it had sarin gas in it (if it even is sarin gas). This thing probably fell behind a cupboard or something years ago. I'm also open to the possibility that this had been planted - I believe the phrase 'Wag the Dog' has been mentioned here recently...?

[L.S.D]

Not ot be sceptical, but after searching for one year, now they tell us they found A bomb, indicating weapons of mass destruction?

Hahahahaha, are they taking us for s ride or what?

That goes to show Bush Administration mentality level

[Inky]

geez you guys can't get enough can you. I just wanna say if I had something illegal and you sayed you were gonna come get it. then months later you started looking down the street form me. I can garandamntee by the time you got to my house whatever you were looking for would be gone. prolly someplace you already looked. that's just common f*cking sense.

 

if there are wmd there (I am not saying there are.) it's not hard to hide them in a whole f*cking country, with a relatively small force looking for them.

[L.S.D]

geez you guys can't get enough can you. I just wanna say if I had something illegal and you sayed you were gonna come get it. then months later you started looking down the street form me. I can garandamntee by the time you got to my house whatever you were looking for would be gone. prolly someplace you already looked. that's just common f*cking sense.

 

if there are wmd there (I am not saying there are.) it's not hard to hide them in a whole f*cking country, with a relatively small force looking for them.

 

First of all, IMO there are no hiding places in Iraq for WMD. Where can they hide? There are no massive forests to provide natural cover. In caves like Afghanistan?

Underground? In a deep bunker? Iraq do not has that kind of resources after the Gulf War due to sanctions by UN. In a big warehouse or in one of Saddam's palace? US has advanced technology in satellite spying. That is why they bombed every school, hospitals, offices, any building that is really big and potentially a warehouse for WMD.

 

There are simply no WMD in Iraq. (Well, it seems that maybe we can classified

old rifles as WMD since they can be used to gun down US copters)

[Inky]

iraq has known about our WMD jonez for years. it's not hard to get rid of stuff with that kinda head start. I'm just playing devils advocate here.

I'm just saying if I were saddam and I knew the US was going to be looking for my crap you can be damn sure they wouldn't find it.

Underground? In a deep bunker? Iraq do not has that kind of resources after the Gulf War

it's already a known fact that there is a maze of underground tunnels all over iraq.

 

not to mention they could just bury the crap in the desert and we'd never find it. did the un sanction shovels and back-hoes? not even mentioning the network of saddam sympathisers could have easily moved anything to anywhere they want. that's been proven in the way they smuggled saddam his sons and high ranking officials for months before we started to catch up to them. remember wmd doesn't mean a huge nuke. suitcase sized chemical or biological bombs are what we are talking about here.

Edited May 18, 2004 by garageink

[random guy]

iraq has known about our WMD jonez for years. it's not hard to get rid of stuff with that kinda head start. I'm just playing devils advocate here.

I'm just saying if I were saddam and I knew the US was going to be looking for my crap you can be damn sure they wouldn't find it.

Underground? In a deep bunker? Iraq do not has that kind of resources after the Gulf War

it's already a known fact that there is a maze of underground tunnels all over iraq.

 

not to mention they could just bury the crap in the desert and we'd never find it. did the un sanction shovels and back-hoes? not even mentioning the network of saddam sympathisers could have easily moved anything to anywhere they want. that's been proven in the way they smuggled saddam his sons and high ranking officials for months befoer we started to catch up to them. remember wmd doesn't mean a huge nuke. suitcase sized chemical or biological bombs are what we are talking about here.

But LSD made a good point there; if the US Military felt that their advanced satellite technology was good enough to find these WMDs, even though that meant they ended up bombing hospitals because presumably they saw weapon-like or weapon-making-like things, they should be able to detect things in the desert.

[Inky]

But LSD made a good point there; if the US Military felt that their advanced satellite technology was good enough to find these WMDs, even though that meant they ended up bombing hospitals because presumably they saw weapon-like or weapon-making-like things, they should be able to detect things in the desert.

come on is this buck rogers? there is no satillite that can see through hospital walls or 100 feet of dirt rocks and concrete. if there were then we wouldn't have the landmine problem that we do in eastern europe, and asia. that is propaganda. and it is a normal part of war.

[random guy]

But LSD made a good point there; if the US Military felt that their advanced satellite technology was good enough to find these WMDs, even though that meant they ended up bombing hospitals because presumably they saw weapon-like or weapon-making-like things, they should be able to detect things in the desert.

come on is this buck rogers? there is no satillite that can see through hospital walls or 100 feet of dirt rocks and concrete. if there were then we wouldn't have the landmine problem that we do in eastern europe, and asia. that is propaganda. and it is a normal part of war.

Then why did the US bomb all those hospitals based on satellite technology? How can they justify all those deaths? 'Oh whoops, it turns out we couldn't see through those buildings anyway, our bad. Guess we were looking through an open building the whole time during tests. Heeyuk!'

[Inky]

Then why did the US bomb all those hospitals based on satellite technology? How can they justify all those deaths? 'Oh whoops, it turns out we couldn't see through those buildings anyway, our bad. Guess we were looking through an open  building the whole time during tests. Heeyuk!'

the US bombed stuff cuz that's what you do in a war. the propaganda was to help all the bleeding heart hippies in the world to sleep better at night.

 

there is a saying "War is hell" well, guess what. it's true.

I already know what you are gonna say: "what gives them the right?"

A big frickin stick gives them the right.

what gave the the allies the right to reduce berlin to rubble?

what gave the axis the right to bomb the sh*t out of london?

war sucks! civilians die! the winner doesn't always do "whats right"

suck it up. that's life. it's never gonna change.