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Report: CIA bought chemical weapons from Iraq to keep them out of terrorists' hands (Bush Adm)
haaretz.com ^ | Feb. 16, 2015 | 3:11 PM | Haaretz

Posted on 02/17/2015 10:14:51 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

New York Times reports that Operation Avarice netted at least 400 Borak rockets, one of the chemical weapons Saddam Hussein produced in 1980s.

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The CIA worked with the U.S. military to purchase Iraqi rockets containing the deadly nerve agent sarin, as part of a secret effort to keep terrorists and militant groups from acquiring old chemical weapons in Iraq, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The U.S. military considers the purchase plan – Operation Avarice, which took place in 2005 and 2006 – to be a nonproliferation success, the Times said.

It netted at least 400 Borak rockets, one of the chemical weapons that Saddam Hussein's government produced in the 1980s, according to the report. UN inspectors were unable to locate the rockets after the Gulf War in 1991.

That doesn't mean there aren't any weapons caches left in Iraq for extremists to take over, though.

In July, Iraq said in a letter that the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS, had taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled with sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents.

At the time, the U.S. said there were no intact chemical weapons there.
But many of the rockets purchased as part of Operation Avarice were in poor condition, the Times reported, saying that analysis showed the leftover sarin to be more potent than intelligence officials had expected given its age.

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; wmd
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

Reality must suck for the libs.

41 posted on 02/17/2015 11:20:22 AM PST by pfflier
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To: Ben Mugged

Careful...there are some here who still believe that balderdash.


42 posted on 02/17/2015 11:29:43 AM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Really? What was known all along.


43 posted on 02/17/2015 12:04:02 PM PST by Busko (The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain.)
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To: IMR 4350

Now that’s the best explanation I’ve heard to date.

UNMOVIC reported ‘precursors, accelerants, and dual use materials’ at levels that could pose a danger for Saddam’s adversaries.


44 posted on 02/17/2015 12:41:58 PM PST by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: IMR 4350

Now that’s the best explanation I’ve heard to date.

UNMOVIC reported ‘precursors, accelerants, and dual use materials’ at levels that could pose a danger for Saddam’s adversaries.


45 posted on 02/17/2015 12:41:59 PM PST by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: Nachum

PING


46 posted on 02/17/2015 12:48:05 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Shickl-Gruber's Big Lie gave us Hussein's Un-Affordable Care act (HUAC).)
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To: MrB

EXACTLY.


47 posted on 02/17/2015 1:26:18 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: Red Badger

I would hope any liberals would stop running their mouths about “Bush Lied”..

But I’m not going to be holding my breath.


48 posted on 02/17/2015 3:05:06 PM PST by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: TigersEye

You make a good point. Perhaps they will soon pick up the slack on this one.


49 posted on 02/17/2015 4:50:39 PM PST by Marine_Uncle (Galt level is not far away......but alas! Honor must be earned...)
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