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Caches of "commercial and agricultural" chemicals don't match the expectation of "stockpiles" of chemical weapons. But, in fact, that is precisely what they are. "At a very minimum," Hanson tells Insight, "they were storing the precursors to restart a chemical-warfare program very quickly."

This can be a difficult to use find. Under my kitchen sink are the precursors to chemical agents. There are a lot of duel use chemicals, and unless they are in a useable munitions form they can easily be written off.

At Karbala, U.S. troops stumbled upon 55-gallon drums of pesticides at what appeared to be a very large "agricultural supply" area, Hanson says. Some of the drums were stored in a "camouflaged bunker complex" that was shown to reporters - with unpleasant results. "More than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to a nerve agent,"

Check the contents of a can of Raid.

Until active military munitions are found, tested positive and given wide access to by the reporters, it will still be reported that “No WMD have been found.

I no longer have the link, and the named "pesticides" found, but a year ago, I had that information. The chemicals named as "pesticides" were/ are comparably fatal on direct exposure - say, within a factor of 2-5 by weight/ volume. They were in proximity to ammo dumps with WMD delivery vehicles.

Sorry: either SH was intending to use these as Chem weapons, or the Iraqis were embarking on a program to distribute pesticides by artillery shell... your choice.

I will not be surprised if I eventually discover that Syria was shipped even more dangerous agents, or if Iraqi manufacturing facilities created pesticides instead of the WMDs Saddumb was intending but he was crossed. It is also possible that there was some deterioration of the chemicals due to lack of refrigeration. Nevertheless, these stockpiles are indeed useable as chem weaponry.

Oct 2003 - The vial of botulinum bacteria discovered in Iraq by U.S. arms inspectors – which experts call the most poisonous substance known to man – is "a weapon of mass destruction," the State Department's top spokesman announced yesterday."Botulinum kills people, it kills people in large quantities. Botulinum is a weapon of mass destruction, yes," said State spokesman Richard Boucher," according to an Agence France-Presse report. "Anything that destroys on a massive scale is a weapon of mass destruction."

The botulinum had been stored in a vial discovered in an Iraqi scientist's refrigerator, where it had been stored for safe keeping since 1993.

Noting that the vial of live botulinum bacteria had been hidden in an Iraqi scientist's home refrigerator, Kay, testifying before Congress, said the discovery "illustrates the point ... about the difficulty of locating small stocks of material that can be used to covertly surge production of deadly weapons."

According to Agence France-Presse, the Center for Civilian Bio-defense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University says: "Botulinum toxin is the single most poisonous substance known" and "poses a major bioweapons threat because of its extreme potency and lethality, its ease of production, transport and misuse, and the potential need for prolonged intensive care in affected persons."

WND

Excerpts from a Journal of the American Medical Association article on botulinum:

Botulinum toxin is the most poisonous substance known.6-7 A single gram of crystalline toxin, evenly dispersed and inhaled, would kill more than 1 million people, although technical factors would make such dissemination difficult.

Terrorists have already attempted to use botulinum toxin as a bioweapon. Aerosols were dispersed at multiple sites in downtown Tokyo, Japan, and at US military installations in Japan on at least 3 occasions between 1990 and 1995 by the Japanese cult Aum Shinriky. These attacks failed, apparently because of faulty microbiological technique, deficient aerosol-generating equipment, or internal sabotage.

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Iraq admitted to the United Nations inspection team to having produced 19 000 L of concentrated botulinum toxin, of which approximately 10 000 L were loaded into military weapons.22, 30 These 19 000 L of concentrated toxin are not fully accounted for and constitute approximately 3 times the amount needed to kill the entire current human population by inhalation. In 1990, Iraq deployed specially designed missiles with a 600-km range; 13 of these were filled with botulinum toxin, 10 with aflatoxin, and 2 with anthrax spores. Iraq also deployed special 400-lb (180-kg) bombs for immediate use; 100 bombs contained botulinum toxin, 50 contained anthrax spores, and 7 contained aflatoxin.22, 30 It is noteworthy that Iraq chose to weaponize more botulinum toxin than any other of its known biological agents.

More info, many links at:

JAMA

As David Kay stated...large stockpiles not required.