[MississippiMan]

No, I PROMISE you I'm not pulling your leg. The photos are recent, authentic, and straight out of Iraq. That's all I can say on their source.

As for a lack of dirt, it's obvious they were wrapped in plastic. You can see pieces of heavy plastic sheeting on the left side of the pic, as well as some still wedged in between the ground and the forward bracket on the front tube.

[Steel Wolf]

No, I PROMISE you I'm not pulling your leg. The photos are recent, authentic, and straight out of Iraq. That's all I can say on their source.

You apparently know more about these canisters than you're letting on. What does your contact in Iraq think they are?

[Western Phil]

Back in the UNSCOM days the inspectors would go somewhere to inspect something. The Iraqs would not let them in. The next day the inspectors would try again and the Iraqs submitted to the inspection. A U2 took photographs and on occasion identify some new burials although my understanding is that the interpretation people were not very good. Sadaam didn't like any of this and put an end to it all, but not before some things were found. The UNSCOM reports are not very good either and it is hard to tell exactly what these things were. However there is a reasonably good story at http://www.geotimes.org/nov02/WebExtra112702.html
The things mentioned in this article were all related to the nuclear program and were carefully wrapped in plastic for eventual retrieval. (The goodies in the geotimes article came from Germany and France.) Not knowing when these tubes were buried in the dry soil, my first guess would be that this could be more nuclear stuff from the early 90s.

[Wooly]

They look like some type of modular launch tube for a rocket where the tube and all is loaded to a launch vehicle. THe White bands are for lifting and handling the tubes to place them in the launcher. The fact that the tubes are gray and the one that has a red band around it indicates a weapon with a toxic or irritant substance.