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Tainted old artillery shell found in Baghdad street [Mustard Gas]
Billings Gazette ^ | 5/7/2004 | unknown

Posted on 05/07/2004 3:24:28 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

WASHINGTON - A small amount of residue from mustard, a potentially deadly chemical agent, has been found in an old artillery shell on a Baghdad street, according to a U.S. military report obtained Thursday by Knight Ridder.

The shell was from a "very old stockpile," and for that reason experts didn't consider it evidence that former dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding illegal stockpiles of chemical weapons, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report said tests identified the substance as mustard residue. The official confirmed that and said more tests were under way. Mustard the chemical agent is not related to the plant of the same name.

The Bush administration has been under fire because American arms inspectors so far haven't found the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and the nuclear weapons facilities that the president and his senior aides claimed that Saddam possessed in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Saddam's regime used mustard and other chemical agents against Iraq's minority Kurds in the late 1980s and against Iranian forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

His regime said Iraqi experts and U.N. arms inspectors destroyed all of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. When inspections ended in 1998, U.N. arms inspectors contended that Iraq had failed to account for about 550 artillery shells filled with mustard.

Mustard is a blistering agent that attacks the skin, eyes and lungs and gives off an aroma compared to that of horseradish or apples.

It was first used on the battlefield in World War I.

A U.S. bomb-disposal team found the shell Tuesday and took it to a base, where it emitted a chemical smell, the report said.

Anti-American insurgents often make roadside bombs out of artillery shells, which are widely available in Iraq.

"It's possible, since the anti-coalition forces take artillery shells and turn them into IEDs (improvised explosive devices), someone scarfed this up somewhere and rigged it up without knowing what they had," the senior official said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; mustardgas; warlist; wmd
No WMDs in Iraq, yeah right.
1 posted on 05/07/2004 3:24:28 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
so was this shell used as a roadside bomb? If not was it just laying on the street? If there are so many of these shells that they're just randomly being found on the street I'm not sure what that means. Actually either scenario are pretty telling.
2 posted on 05/07/2004 3:27:57 PM PDT by Dr Snide (vis pacem, para bellum - Prepare for war if you want peace)
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To: *war_list
Ping!
3 posted on 05/07/2004 3:28:05 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (All the good taglines are taken...)
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To: Dr Snide
The shell was from a "very old stockpile," and for that reason experts didn't consider it evidence that former dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding illegal stockpiles of chemical weapons...

Yeah, that makes sense. It doesn't count unless it's shiny and carries a date stamp less than 2 years old. < /sarcasm >

4 posted on 05/07/2004 3:30:17 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (All the good taglines are taken...)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity; section9; Lazamataz; yonif; Nick Danger
It's a safe bet that a few more of these mustard gas shells will be turning up in new roadside bombs soon. You don't just find of them...stored by itself.

But if they knew what they had, they would be selling these at high prices to Al Qaeda. The propaganda value from setting one of these off at the Greek Olympics would command a high price to Zawaqari, Mullah Omar, or Bin Laden.

5 posted on 05/07/2004 3:40:29 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Yeah, that makes sense. It doesn't count unless it's shiny and carries a date stamp less than 2 years old. < /sarcasm >

Yeah, at this point we should be taking anything we can get.

6 posted on 05/07/2004 3:40:56 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
It doesn't count unless it's shiny and carries a date stamp less than 2 years old

<> Born on Date: xx/xx/xx

It's old so it does not count. Pre dates the 643 UN resolutions.

LVM

7 posted on 05/07/2004 3:42:11 PM PDT by LasVegasMac ("If everything is just barely under control......you are not going fast enough" - MA.)
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To: All
Pretty interesting but means they pulled it out of someplace and I don't think they come in "ones", i.e., it's part of a cache.

Don't tell the insurgents are accidently going to find the stuff for us. Bwahahahah

Calling Mr. Blix!!!

8 posted on 05/07/2004 3:51:12 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: Southack
The liberal's explanation
9 posted on 05/07/2004 3:54:31 PM PDT by gortklattu
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To: gortklattu
Mustard gas is the common name given to 1,1-thiobis(2-chloroethane), a chemical warfare agent that is believed to have first been used near Ypres in Flanders on 12th July 1917. Its chemical formula is Cl-CH2-CH2-S-CH2-CH2-Cl
10 posted on 05/07/2004 4:01:17 PM PDT by Eala (Sacrificing tagline fame for... TRAD ANGLICAN RESOURCE PAGE: http://eala.freeservers.com/anglican)
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To: Eala
And that's why I hated chemistry....It reminded me of Alphabet soup. I always wanted my letters to form into real words as they swam in the juice.

Try to make words with the floating letters and you got hit for playing with your food.

11 posted on 05/07/2004 4:19:50 PM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: Eala
Flanders? Okily Dokily


12 posted on 05/07/2004 4:34:12 PM PDT by Mr. K (ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,this is like liberal logic,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø))
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To: Eala
Read "Aftermath" by Donovan Webster for a very well researched history of ordnance still in the ground from past wars. It's shocking how many of the WW1 chemical shells turn up every year.
13 posted on 05/07/2004 4:41:42 PM PDT by CrazyIvan (Death before dishonor, open bar after 6:00)
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To: CrazyIvan
After reading the linked page, I'm a bit less surprised the stuff would last so long.
14 posted on 05/07/2004 4:44:44 PM PDT by Eala (Sacrificing tagline fame for... TRAD ANGLICAN RESOURCE PAGE: http://eala.freeservers.com/anglican)
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To: CrazyIvan
For that matter it's not unknown for unexploded shells from the US Civil War to turn up on old battlefields, still filled with black powder and still dangerous.

skepsel
15 posted on 05/07/2004 5:22:52 PM PDT by skepsel
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To: skepsel
Living in a farm area of the Midwest, I'd always known that solid objects rose to the surface of fields over time. Mr. Webster explains why in the book, and says that the really large artillery shells are just surfacing.
16 posted on 05/08/2004 5:57:35 AM PDT by CrazyIvan (Death before dishonor, open bar after 6:00)
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To: Eala
natch!
17 posted on 05/08/2004 6:25:57 AM PDT by gortklattu
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To: Eala
There's stockpiles of WWII vintage mustard gas shells around, it does tend to polermerize over time, but is still nasty stuff.
18 posted on 05/08/2004 6:28:08 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (From each according to his inability, to each according to his misdeeds - DNC Motto)
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