NO! Chemical weapons in Iraq???

[scaeagles]

Hundreds of chemical weapons found in Iraq

From an intelligence report with portions of it just declassified today:

Since 2003, Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent," said an overview of the report unveiled by Senator Rick Santorum and Peter Hoekstra, head of the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives.

Now I'm going to point out first of all that this article clearly states that the weapons were quite degraded to varying degrees. However, something tells me I still don't want to be around degraded mustard or sarin gas.

I, for one, have always believed they were there. As the link says, they are expecting to find more because they find them all the time. While this may not prove Saddam was trying to make more, I think it is clear that there was no mistaking that he had not destroyed his WMD chem weapons. 500 or so is a lot, regardless of condition. You don't just casually mix WMD with other munitions. Maybe one or two by mistake, but not 500.

One other thing I found to be very interesting -

Last year the head of Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, said that insurgents in Iraq had already used old chemical weapons in their attacks.

Nevertheless, "the impression that the Iraqi Survey Group left with the American people was they didn't find anything," Hoekstra said.

[Alex]

Depending on the form, 500 is all that much either.

But if it is all degraded then odds are this is pre-first Gulf War stuff which means it is somewhat likely that we were the original source for Iraq having it.

Of course, if it was all degraded it also means that Iraq wasn't even capable of maintaining what it already had which doesn't speak well to the likelihood of them being able to develop more anytime soon. If these provided a strong case for Saddam's evil intentions I'm guessing it would have all been declassified long before now. There was certainly no declassification lag in the early days of the war when every suspected WMD site was put on display for the media like Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault (with similar results).

I'm more interested in the claim that the insurgents have been using mustard and sarin in attacks since I've never heard this before.

I supported the war and still do (though never for the reasons Bush put forward) but it was support based on an unacceptable probability and it turns out the result was negative.

[innerSpaceman]

Tee Hee, scaeagles just got pantz.

[Scrooge McSam]

Big deal... I remember making the point all the way back on... was it the cocktail board?... that any chemical weapons Saddam might have at that time would have been degraded past the point of having any usefulness. Funny, but I also remember Scaeagles ridiculing that point at the time.

There was never any disputing he had them. We gave them to him. I don't find it all that hard to believe that some caches got forgotten, misplaced, however you want to classify it, especially when you consider the fact that we can't find $9Billion dollars we sent over there much more recently.

[Gemini Cricket]

The U.S. military announced in 2004 in Iraq that several crates of the old shells had been uncovered and that they contained a blister agent that was no longer active. Neither the military nor the White House nor the CIA considered the shells to be evidence of what was alleged by the Bush administration to be a current Iraqi program to make chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Last night, intelligence officials reaffirmed that the shells were old and were not the suspected weapons of mass destruction sought in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

Source

Sounds like Santorum is grasping for straws as he's booted out the door...

[FEJ]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Tee Hee, scaeagles just got pantz.

yeah..Fase!

[CoasterMatt]

I got more chemical weapons in my underpants after a night of tacos and beer than all of Iraq...

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Now I'm going to point out first of all that this article clearly states that the weapons were quite degraded to varying degrees.

While this may not prove Saddam was trying to make more, I think it is clear that there was no mistaking that he had not destroyed his WMD chem weapons.

Note that no one is saying anything that I didn't. This is why I am quoting myself.

I pointed out they were heavily degraded.

My point is that Saddam did not misplace 500 chem weapons, and there are most likely more. So he clearly was lying about having destroyed all of his chemical weapons.

This is my point.

[Nephythys]

Aw Leo- the point doesn't matter when people can act like smug condescending .....yeah.....

[SacTown Chronic]

What was the point? That Saddam is a liar, a coward, and a bully? Fine, I don't know anyone who disputes that.

Explain to me the difference between True Warrior 43 and Saddam.