[hc87]

Sarin and mustard gas?

Anyone care to speculate on whether this is deliberate use by the bad guys or some dope unknowingly tapping into a secret cache of WMDs?

[Solson]

Deliberate. More will be found in the next two months. The Dems will look foolish. Syria and Lebanon will be implicated. Pressure will mount on them to give it up. If Bush is re-elected they will. If Kerry is elected, Syria will remain defiant knowing the US will really do nothing.

[RetiredArmy]

CNN was playing this off as they bad guys did not know they had sacin earlier. BUT THE MAIN FACT REMAINS NOT THAT THE STUPID GUYS KNEW THEY HAD THE STUFF TO USE IN THAT ARTY SHELL, RATHER THAT THE DANGED SHELL CONTAINED THE POISIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THAT IT ACTUALLY EXISTED WHEN THE LEFTIST SAID SADDAM DID NOT HAVE THE STUFF!!! Excuse me for being so POed about this when the communist in the media will spin this off to protect the lying socialist democrats.

[Not A Snowbird]

He's a brave fellow.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I go with the second. They accidentally got their hands on it thinking it was just like any other artillery shell otherwise they would have extracted the binary compounds for use in a much more lethal manner.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. Or they simply didn't know how to extract it safely without killing themselves so they just blew it up and hoped for the best.

[demlosers]

Weapons of Mass Destruction breaking out all over...

[xkaydet65]

Deliberate and damaging. Start this stuff now as the temps climb to 100 F and you will have GIs and marines travelling around the country in MOPP suits in summer heat. Debilitating enough without the agents. Pop one of these every week or two in different parts of Iraq and it will create problems. I'd say we're dealing with some very clever people. More clever than some second tier Baathist thugs.

[Imal]

A civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul was sworn in Monday to replace the assassinated leader of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

This man, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar, must be one of the most courageous people on the face of the earth.

I pray that he dies of old age a very, very long time from now.

Certainly his predecessor, Izzedine Salim, knew full well the risks he faced, and he faced them anyway, and died.

Lest we forget, these men, and all members of the IGC (I have not forgotten Aquila al-Hashimi, either), are the very definition of patriots, willing to give their lives for their people and their nation. God bless them.

[Headfulofghosts]

the assassination was in inside job, probably inked on somehow by that bastard Chalibi.

[pawdoggie]

"The general said the Iraqi Survey Group, headed by Charles Duelfer, would determine if the shell's discovery indicated Saddam possessed chemical weapons before the U.S. invasion last year". If the answer to the question, "Did Saddam possess chemical weapons before the U.S. invasion last year?" is anything but "yes" or "we're not certain, but it looks that way", then the President needs a new "head" for the Iraq Survey Group.