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Pentagon sources tell CBS News that reports are "credible" that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) likely used mustard gas against Kurdish fighters in Iraq. It is unclear if the gas was leftover from Saddam Hussein stockpiles or if they were brought over from Syria, which would be the two likeliest sources of the gas, said a senior Department of Defense official. The official said the reports are credible because of prior information, but did not elaborate. Mustard gas is considered an "antiquated" weapon that must be used in very large concentrations to be lethal, the official told...

SOUTH OF KARBALA, Iraq — Four soldiers from the 2nd brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, with red sores on their faces and hands, were sent by ambulance to a rear MASH unit Tuesday. They were told they would be examined for possible contact with nerve or blistering agents. Once at the 30th medical brigade's mobile hospital at the 101st's headquarters south of Karbala, the soldiers were isolated from other troops and photographed. A doctor at the MASH, Maj. David Wolken, interviewed each soldier and measured his pulse and heart rate in a tent with a dirt floor. One soldier...

Well, here’s some lovely news emerging from the new Iraq. 17.09 Chemical weapons produced at the Al Muthanna facility, which Isis today seized, are believed to have included mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun, and VX. Here is the CIA’s file on the complex. QuoteStockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there. The most dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers. Although declared, the bunkers contents have yet to be confirmed. These areas of the compound pose a hazard to civilians and potential blackmarketers. Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited. Some of the...

FAS | Nuke | Guide | Iraq | CW |||| Index | Search | Join FAS Chemical Weapons Programs Iraq started research into the production of chemical weapons agents in the 1970s and started batch production of agents in the early 1980s. At that stage, production was heavily reliant on the import of precursor chemicals from foreign suppliers. In 1982, early in the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraqis used riot control agents to repel Iranian attacks. They progressed to the use of CW agents in mid-1983 with mustard, and in March 1984 with tabun (the first use ever of a nerve...

The U.S. Marines who guarded the sprawling complex in northwest Iraq where Saddam Hussein’s 1980s war machine churned out some of the most deadly chemical and biological weapons known to man had a name for one especially mysterious bunker: The Dragon’s Egg.

Brief thoughts/quotes from the last 11 years. "Looking away, not caring, or hoping for the best are not viable options in fighting terrorism (in general) and the global jihad (specifically). Terrorism must be fought head on 24/7 and preventing terrorism is far better than just reacting to one terror-related event after another." -Cindy (July 1, 2011) ~ "WHAT DID I LEARN from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001? OPINION: I have learned that more Americans love America than the lame-stream media will ever let on. I have learned that America's military is the finest in the world. I have...

Attention is paid to hair. In our culture the hair industry is huge — shampoos, conditioners, coloring, cutting, shaping, styling. For “hair-loss treatment” alone, Google conjures up 749,000 references. Some people undergo surgical procedures, sometimes uncomfortable and expensive, to implant hair. Total hair loss is often an unfortunate and undesirable complication of the agents used to treat and cure cancer. Yet baldness — the hairless look — can for some represent spirituality and religion, or for others may suggest that they are athletic, smart, cool, reeking of testosterone. Depending on where you are in your life, what you are doing,...

Just announced on CNN--they think the powder is explosive, not chem weapons.

On March 16, 1988, 5,000 residents of Halabja, a Kurdish city in eastern Iraq, were killed and 10,000 injured when Saddam Hussein's army attacked with chemical weapons -- perhaps the largest-scale use of such weapons against a civilian population in modern times. That morning, Iraqi Air Force planes bombed the city with a lethal chemical cocktail of mustard gas and sarin, tabun and VX nerve agents. Two days ago, the man accused of overseeing the attack, Gen. Ali Hasan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, appeared before a judicial tribunal in Baghdad. He is likely to go on trial next...

"The US military says one sample was labelled "tabun" US troops say they have found thousands of boxes of unidentified white powder and some nerve agent antidote at an industrial site south-west of Baghdad. They also said they discovered documents in Arabic, which apparently explain how to carry out chemical warfare. A special team has been sent to investigate the discovery at Latifiya - part of a large military complex frequently visited frequently by UN weapons inspectors before the war began. US troops have also reportedly found a second site nearby containing vials of unidentified liquid and white powder. The...

U.S. FORCES FIND IRAQI CHEMICAL WARFARE TRAINING CENTER

CBS Reported Suspicious Powder At Al Qaqaa In April 2003 (CBS Blows It Again) Alert CQ reader Samuel Silver sent me this article from the archives of CBS News -- the same organization that helped prepped NYTrogate with the New York Times -- which shows that the Third Infantry Division had reached Al Qaqaa and discovered thousands of vials of a mysterious powdered explosive by April 3, 2003 (coincidentally, my birthday): U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad....

As the military advances closer to Baghdad, signs of Iraqi chemical preparedness are multiplying, although there is still no conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein's regime possesses weapons of mass destruction. On Friday, troops at a training facility in the western Iraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" -- a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing. Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives. U.N. weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al Qa Qaa complex...

Saddam Hussein may not have had weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion but the chief US inspector found evidence that Iraqi insurgents have tried to develop them since. In his report on the work of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer said several rebel groups were trying to make chemical weapons to use against coalition forces. The most advanced in this quest has been a previously little known group called al-Abud, the report says, which made several attempts to produce the deadly nerve agent Tabun as well as mustard gas. It failed, because the chemists it hired lacked...

Sixteen years ago today, 5,000 innocent Iraqi civilians perished under a barrage of mustard gas; nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX; and possibly cyanide. The brutal attack, launched by their own government, earned Saddam Hussein the dubious distinction of becoming the first world leader in modern times to have used chemical weapons on his own people. The victims of the attack were residents of Halabja, 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and just south of the Iranian border. Three-quarters of them were women and children. The chemical attacks on what has come to be known as "Bloody Friday" were the most...

BERLIN: The German government has intercepted a cargo of 30 tonnes of sodium cyanide, which can be used in the manufacture of chemical weapons, at the request of Washington which believes the shipment was bound for North Korea, according to the German weekly Der Spiegel. The substance, commonly used in the treatment of metals, can also be in the manufacture of the deadly nerve gas Tabun. The cargo was officially being shipped by a German company to a warehouse in Singapore. Meanwhile, a North Korean trade official cast doubt on Sunday on a news report that a close aide to...

Americans May Have Found Mustard Gas V CORPS HEADQUARTERS, in northern Kuwait, April 7 ? American soldiers searching an empty military training camp in the Karbala area have found several drums that, according to preliminary tests, may contain deadly nerve agents and mustard gas. Officials here promptly notifed the Defense Department about the discovery, which was made on Sunday. "We're treating it as real, we're reporting it as real," said Col. Tim Madere, the top chemical warfare officer in the V Corps of the Army. But additional tests must be conducted before the possibility of a false reading can...

ALBU MUHAWISH, Iraq - This small village on the Euphrates River could turn out to be the site of the first confirmed discovery of banned chemical agents that were the U.S. justification for invading Iraq. Field tests Monday confirmed the presence of toxic nerve and blister agents at an agricultural warehouse. Maj. Bryan Lynch, chemical officer for the 101st Airborne Division, said samples taken from barrels in the warehouse, about two miles from a military compound, are being flown to the United States to determine of they are of weapons grade. The discovery is the strongest indication so far...

ABUL MUHAWISH, Iraq - More than a dozen soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division underwent chemical weapons decontamination on Sunday after they exhibited symptoms of possible exposure to nerve agents. Preliminary tests indicated that nerve agents were present, but subsequent tests were negative and additional testing is under way. Nevertheless, 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 on Saturday....

Words of Wisdom About Gas, Germs, and Nukes By SFC Red Thomas, Armor Master Gunner U.S. Army (Ret) 10.19.01 Since the media have decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf, I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert. Lesson number one: In the mid 1990s there was a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack, less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better...