Also from Reuters: Mon April 7, 2003 10:25 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio reported on Monday. NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not just trace elements." It said the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport. http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PUDKPSFKWP3HGCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=2521303
Sunday, April 06, 2003 Mustard gas and cyanide have been found in river water in the Iraqi city of Nasiriya, coalition forces said yesterday. The poisonous substances are believed to have been dumped in the Euphrates either by Iraqi soldiers fleeing from U.S. troops or by local factories that produced weapons of mass destruction. A spokesman for the U.S. marines, based outside the city, described the quantities of chemical agents found as "significant" and claimed that it was further evidence that Saddam Hussein has produced weapons of mass destruction. The poisons were discovered by the marines' scientists who were testing the quality of water taken from the Euphrates before purifying it and distributing it to the residents of Nasiriya, a city of 250,000 people. http://www.canada.com/national/features/iraq/story.html?id=2CEEEE95-DB20-42C0-912F-332ECED238DE and Nerve agents detected in Iraq Compound evacuated; troops show symptoms Knight Ridder News Service Last Updated: April 6, 2003 Albu Muhawish, Iraq - U.S. soldiers evacuated an Iraqi military compound on Sunday after tests by a mobile laboratory confirmed evidence of sarin nerve gas. More than a dozen soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division had been sent earlier for chemical weapon decontamination after they exhibited symptoms of exposure to nerve agents. Reports from Journal Sentinel Middle East correspondents: KATHERINE M. SKIBA: Embedded with 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Ky. Attached to the 159th Aviation Brigade, which conducts air assault missions from helicopters. Go to Skiba's reports NAHAL TOOSI: Embedded with First Marines Expeditionary Force based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. Attached to the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, whose primary mission is storage and supply of bulk fuel and water. Bulk Fuel Company B, made up of units from Green Bay and Wilmington, Del., is part of the battalion. Go to Toosi's reports Postcards from Wisconsin Soldiers Katherine M. Skiba and Nahal Toosi bring firsthand word from Wisconsin soldiers serving in the Persian Gulf. Go to Postcards Family Forum JS Online wants to hear about your family members and friends who are serving in the military in the Persian Gulf. SUBMIT TO FORUM Following the War? If so, we'd like to hear from you. Click for Details The evacuation of dozens of soldiers Sunday night followed a day of tests for the nerve agent that came back positive, then negative. Additional tests Sunday night by an Army Fox mobile nuclear, biological and chemical detection laboratory confirmed the existence of sarin. Sgt. Todd Ruggles, a biochemical expert attached to the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne said, "I was right" that chemical agents Iraq has denied having were present. In addition to the soldiers sent for decontamination, a Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman and two Iraqi prisoners of war also were hosed down with water and bleach. U.S. soldiers found the suspect chemicals at two sites: an agricultural warehouse containing 55-gallon chemical drums and a military compound, which soldiers had begun searching Saturday. The soldiers also found hundreds of gas masks and chemical suits at the military complex, along with large numbers of mortar and artillery rounds. Chemical tests for nerve agents in the warehouse came back positive for so-called G-Series nerve agents, which include sarin and Tabun, both of which Iraq has been known to possess. More than a dozen infantry soldiers who guarded the military compound Saturday night came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to very low levels of nerve agent, including vomiting, dizziness and skin blotches. A hand-held scanning device also indicated that the soldiers had been exposed to a nerve agent. Two tests were negative, but further testing indicated sarin was present. Sarin can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and is considered one of the most feared but also the most volatile of the nerve agents. A cloud of sarin can dissipate after several minutes or hours depending on wind and temperature. The soldiers, journalists and prisoners of war who tested positive were isolated as everyone else evacuated the area. After about 45 minutes, the group was walked, single-file, down a road for about a city block to where two water trucks awaited them. The men stepped between the two trucks and were hosed down as they lathered themselves with a detergent containing bleach. 1st Lt. Elena Aravjo of the 63rd Chemical Company said she thought there might well be chemical weapons at the site. "We do think there's stuff in this compound and the other (agricultural warehouse) compound, but we think it's buried," she said. "I'm really suspicious of both of those compounds." The suspicions were widespread. The 2nd Brigade's commander, Col. Joseph Anderson, toured the site on Sunday, as did Brig. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne for operations. A short time later, the division commander, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, also visited the site. They made no official comment about suspected nerve agents. Troops not wearing chemical protection suits later reoccupied the military complex, while sections of the agricultural warehouse remained taped off. http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/apr03/131713.asp
Then again, maybe not.... http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...l_mideast_afp/iraq_war_wmd&cid=1514&ncid=1480 "Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had said might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production turned out to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as feared. A military intelligence officer for the US 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, Captain Adam Mastrianni, told AFP that comprehensive tests determined the presence of the pesticide compounds. Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin -- a powerful toxin that quickly affects the nervous system -- after US soldiers guarding the facility near Hindiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, fell ill. Mastrianni said: "They thought it was a nerve agent. That's what it tested. But it is pesticide." He said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and chemists had finally disproved the preliminary field tests results and established that pesticide was the substance involved. Mastrianni added that sick soldiers, who had become nauseous, dizzy and developed skin blotches, had all recovered. The turnaround was an embarrassment for the US forces in the region, which had been quick to say that they thought they had finally found the proof they have been actively looking for that Iraq (news - web sites) was hiding weapons of mass destruction. A spokesman for the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, Major Ross Coffman, had told journalists at Baghdad's airport that the site "could be a smoking gun". "We are talking about finding a site of possible weapons of mass destruction," he added. The fact that the coalition forces have come up with no clear evidence of WMD after capturing much of Iraq in 19 days of fighting has raised questions over the war's justification.
Don't know how relevant this is to the issue at hand, but most holocaust victims were killed by chemicals invented as pesticides. Don't sound so gleeful just yet.
Glee sounds like a good choice of words. Timing, you clearly take pleasure in pointing out the perceived failure of our military to detect WMD. Your attitude is sickening, especially in light of the 20 missiles with warheads containing WMD just found (source- NPR).
I'm so un-American. Damn me to hell for actually expecting accuracy. Maybe I should be like you guys and drop Nazi references every time my war monger arguments fail and claim disgust every time we jump the gun and claim things that turn out to be false. Cue Lee Greenwood...
How can "could be a smoking gun" become "an embarrassment for the US forces"? Oh, it's the FRENCH media you're reading. And you act like we captured 'much of Iraq' 19 days ago. We only captured some likely storage areas over the last fews days, and we already have 2 more possible examples of chemical weapons other than the pesticide, aside from the concrete we're digging into at the girls' school. I used to think you were somewhat moderate, but just like a few right-wingers here, you have difficulty accepting anything inconsistent with your opinion...(at least when it pertains to this war).
You means CLAIMS? As in since the war started there have been several CLAIMS that turned out to be false?
Don't change the topic. This thread is re. possible WMD. Possible. Therefore, we did not 'jump the gun' and make a false claim.
Nobody claimed anything. It was BELIEVED that Iraq had the weapons, and Iraq didn't help themselves by constantly giving the inspectors the runaround. But as someone said overseas, the U.S. had done more to find WMD in the last 3 weeks then the inspectors have done in 11 years.
In other news, Iraqi entymologists dance in the streets of Baghdad celebrating the end to Hussein's reign of terror on insects.
Funny how you're posting this article and busting on the U.S., and didn't post anything about the U.S.'s side that says that they have found things that could be the material used for nerve gases, mustard gas, and chemical protection suits, etc., etc. So then again maybe not, then again MAYBE SO!
the U.S. had done more to find WMD in the last 3 weeks then the inspectors have done in 11 years. Hmmm. In the last 3 weeks we have found zippo nada. While during those 11 years quite a bit of prohibited WMD were found and destroyed. I just wish the US would hurry up and find a stash of WMDs, so these fake find articles would quit dragging the US's name through the mud.
That's not my quote, I'm just quoting a foreign official that was on television today and said that after he heard the information. Truthfully, I don't know what the inspectors have or haven't done. I would like to think the inspectors have done at least a fair job since Iraq has fully built a nuclear weapon yet.
