Another possible WMD storage site

[DeviousJ]

U.S. May Have Found Iraqi WMD Storage Site
Mon April 7, 2003 07:44 AM ET
NEAR BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. biological and chemical weapons experts believe they may have found an Iraqi storage site for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a U.S. officer told Reuters on Monday.
A military source who declined to be identified said there were unconfirmed reports there could be sarin -- a highly lethal nerve agent that causes death by suffocation -- at the site.

Iraq is believed to have used sarin against Kurdish Iraqis in the 1980s.

"Our detectors have indicated something," said Maj. Ross Coffman, a public affairs officer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry.

"We're talking about finding a site of possible WMD storage. This is an initial report, but it could be a smoking gun," he said, adding that the site was south of the central Iraqi town of Hindiyah.

"It is not as if there is a cloud of gas hanging everywhere endangering soldiers lives. We're talking about a facility," Coffman added.

The United States and Britain launched the war against Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction Iraqi President Saddam Hussein denies having.

U.N. weapons inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year absence in November to look for banned chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Inspectors had not found any such weapons when their search abruptly ended when U.S.-led troops attacked Iraq on March 20.

On Saturday, a U.S. officer said that first tests of a suspicious white powder and liquid found on Friday in thousands of boxes south of Baghdad indicated it was not a chemical weapon.

Over the weekend, U.S. Marines in the central Iraqi town of Aziziyah began digging up a suspected chemical weapons hiding place at a girl's school.

The dig began after U.S. forces received information from an Iraqi who described himself as a former special forces member.

The informant told the Marines that a team of Iraqi officials broke through the wall of the school two months ago to truck in material and buried it under new concrete -- about the size of two tennis courts -- in the course of three nights.

[jared]

looks like missles were just found with mustard gas and sarin ready to fire

[crescentfresh]

Originally posted by DeviousJ


Inspectors had not found any such weapons when their search abruptly ended when U.S.-led troops attacked Iraq on March 20.

Yes, because they were making such progress.

I'm glad that someone is finally finding something, the speculation was killing me.

[DeviousJ]

Originally posted by crescentfresh


Yes, because they were making such progress.

I'm glad that someone is finally finding something, the speculation was killing me.

Well the initial inspections resulted in approximately 95% of Iraq's WMDs being destroyed, and the latest ones were (according to the inspection teams) progressing much better, with far more co-operation.

But yeah, here's a mini follow-up:

AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - A U.S. military official said on Tuesday more testing and analysis was required before determining whether substances found at sites in central Iraq were banned chemical weapons agents.
"Initial reports were 'yes, it could potentially be,"' said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.

"We do not know enough at this point to say it should be discounted or that we have found some weapons of mass destruction for use."

That contradicted an earlier remark on Tuesday by a U.S. military source near Kerbala in Iraq who said tests indicated the substances were not chemical weapons agents. "The latest tests turned out negative," the source said.

Initial investigations of 14 barrels found at a military training camp in the town of Albu Mahawish on Sunday revealed levels of nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite, Major Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division told Reuters at the time.

He said the find could be the "smoking gun" which proved U.S. and British charges that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been hiding banned weapons of mass destruction -- the central plank of their case for military action to overthrow him.

Gen. Benjamin Freakly, also of the 101st Airborne, said later that tests on substances at the camp and a separate agricultural site, also in Albu Mahawish, could show they had a less sinister purpose.

"This could be either some kind of pesticide," Freakly told CNN. "On the other hand it could be a chemical agent -- not weaponized, a liquid agent that is in drums."

So far U.S. and British forces have not found any confirmed biological or chemical weapons in the 20-day war in Iraq.

[Donkey]

i feel safer already