Posted on 05/17/2004 8:17:40 AM PDT by MountainPatriot
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A small amount of the nerve agent sarin was found in a shell that exploded in Iraq (news -web sites), the U.S. army said Monday in the first announcement of discovery of any of the weapons on which Washington made its case for war.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference the substance had been found in an artillery shell inside a bag discovered by a U.S. convoy a few days ago. The round had exploded, causing a small release of the substance, he said.
"The Iraq Survey Group has confirmed today that a 155 (mm) artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) that was discovered by a U.S. force convoy," he said.
"A detonation occurred before the IED be could be rendered inoperable," Kimmitt said, adding that two members of an explosives team had been treated for exposure to the substance.
Kimmitt said the round, designed to mix the sarin in flight, belonged to a class of ordnance that the ousted government of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) claimed to have destroyed before the 1991 Gulf war.
"It is a weapon that we believe was stocked from the ex-regime time, and it had been thought to be an ordinary artillery shell set up to explode like an ordinary IED... when it exploded it indicated that it actually had some sarin in it," he said.
IEDs are bombs usually planted at the side of the road to explode as coalition vehicles pass.
The United States launched its invasion of Iraq last year, accusing then-president Saddam Hussein of developing chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons. Failure to find such weapons has stirred criticism in the United States and Britain, Washington's closest ally in the war.
It must kill Yahoo News to report this. They are consistently slanted towards liberal interpretations of all news.
I don't think they'll be able to do that. This is huge. Cnn has reported that ten days ago they found a shell with mustard gas. He said this may prove there were(are?) WMD in Iraq.
Who?
This just goes to show you that they have found this and that there are some WMD left over after all. It's obvious they aren't going to be out in the open. The press will say so what, but this is a big find.
But, but, but, but, but there aren't any WMD is Iraq!
That is according to CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times!!!!
And they are always correct!
I mean they never make a mistake!!!
How can this be????
The news media have already decided for us that there were NO WMD in Iraq. Munitions containing Sarin, Mustard Gas, Ricin, Anthrax, and enriched Uranium, yeah, yeah, but NO WMD!!
In the Left's pathology known as "libthink" the discovery of a WMD in Iraq means it was planted by the CIA....
Truly, the only thing that would "count" would be a warehouse, say, stacked floor to ceiling with shells with "WMD" in them. Thus, if the "WMD" were split up and distributed individually to different military - or looted by individuals - it can't possibly "count" at this point, even if we find all of it, each find will be "small" when it shows up on Yahoo news. Must be all toghether, in a "stockpile"! By the way, the definition of "stockpile" will be clarified and refined from time to time, as meaning, "an amount larger than the amounts we have found".
Also, "WMD" or something similar in Arabic must be written on the side of these shells, so that we are sure the shells are not merely filled with pesticides for some unknown reason. Similarly, we must find little instruction books close to the shells regarding how to use them against humans because after all, any such "WMD" could be merely for use as pesticides, we can't be sure they were intended for use as weapons unless there is some indication of this.
Oh yeah, also, there must be some missiles capable of reaching the US from Iraq which could carry these "WMD" to our mainland, otherwise nothing will "count". Who cares if Saddam had "WMD" if they couldn't reach us by missile!
At every stage of this process the bar shall be moved as needed.
Ping for your comments:
>"The Iraq Survey Group has confirmed today that a 155 (mm) artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found. The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) that was discovered by a U.S. force convoy," he said."<
The amount was only small if the writer wasn't exposed to it.
To anyone nearby this was a huge amount.
My gut reaction was "yep, the media will dump this story" ala Berg.
But in the past hour, its come to dominate every report.
The President really needed something like this to happen to start off the week, politically. Its been a long four months on that score....
It's all Bush's fault.
BUMP
You are all here today because you have trouble saying three words. Let's take 'em one at a time. Repeat after me...
Bush
Was
Right
Now that wasn't too painful, was it?
SHEEEESH!! Once again, s-l-o-w-l-y.....the Liberation of Iraq is justified on multiple grounds, only one of which was the existence of WMDs...Reuter's and Yahoo News are blatantly biased against American interests.
FReegards...MUD
What we need is a few wise Iraqis to step to the plate and tell us which haystacks these needles are buried under.
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