Breaking? WMD report?

[Scarchin]

I just got a phonecall saying something big was about to break RE: WMD but I can't get to a TV. Anyone?

[april15Bendovr]

"Much was destroyed during the war, and by the work of UN weapons inspectors who for years played cat-and-mouse with Iraqi officials trying to hide the weapons of mass destruction."

U.N. lost in the cat and mouse game.

[tcrlaf]

bump

[pettifogger]

Can I borrow your Senator for a couple of years?

He's in a very tough reelection fight, so, you may get him!

[Sacajaweau]

I'm guessing that this was reclassified because something has been found in the Zarqawi "information cache" that references WMD.

[kx9088]

They were planted there, that's why it took so long to find them it's because they weren't there and it took time to move them secretly from the US to Iraq. /sarc

[GrandEagle]

Thanks for the info, and the link!
It makes more sense now.
(dusting off the memory cobwebs)

Cordially,
GE

[Ditto]

Iraq had a fairly substantial collection of Soviet arms, but the USSR didn't trust Saddam either, so they held back the really good stuff; and we only gave them a little "bump" so to speak anytime it looked as though the war was getting too lopsided.

France sold Saddam whatever the hell he wanted if you recall. Did you forget about the Exeocet fired from an Mirage that killed a bunch of our salors and damn near put one of our destroyers at the bottom of the Persian Gulf? Our assistance to Iraq during the war with Iran was primarily providing intelligence on Iranian troop positions. Saddam did not need any hardware from us. The French and Russians sold him whatever he wanted. We also arranged for spare parts for American built Iranian equipment to be delivered --- does Iran-Contra ring a bell? Our intention than, stated planly by SoS George Schultz, was to see that both sides lost.

Your original post said that we "taught" Saddam how to build chemical weapons. That is bull crap. The Iraqis were perfectly capable of building them on their own. People had been building and deploying these things since WWI. It's no big secret on how to do it.

[dynoman]

Binary sarin shells don't degrade at all. Did he have them? We don't know.

I read somewhere Iraq did have binary shells.

[dynoman]

Here is is; Sarin, Mustard Gas Discovered Separately in Iraq

The round was an old "binary-type" shell in which two chemicals held in separate sections are mixed after firing to produce sarin, Kimmitt said.

If these 500+ shells are indeed binary shells the argument the sarin is old, degraded, and therefore ineffective is destroyed. Binary sarin shells never get old and ineffective because the components don't mix until the shell is fired, that is why they are called binary and made to hold the components separately until use. When the shell is fired the components mix and produce sarin.

[jwalsh07]

Thanks for the link.

I know how binary munitions work.

The Army trained me in CBR many moons ago.

[faq]

"WE (the US) taught and trained them how to make and use chemical weapons back when they were at war with Iran."

"As it turns out, it was a mistake to teach them the art of roadside bombs, etc."

Quit making stuff up. You're taking one fact (the US sided with Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war) and adding in blatantly false statements and spinning that one fact in the worst possible way. You are getting your "common knowledge" from left wing and other web sites where inflammatory posts attempting to rewrite history aren't challenged.

[NYC Republican]

I'm VERY surprised Santorum's taking such a huge risk. It's sorta akin to a hail mary pass, where he's down by so much in the polls, he needs to do something drastic to get back into it...

If this is another false alarm, his chances, imo, are doomed. I really thought he could still eek out a victory before this, now I'm not so sure

[GrandEagle]

You're taking one fact (the US sided with Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war)
I'm not sure "sided with" is accurate. According to another poster we also "sided with" Iran. The objective wasn't for either to "win". Just to keep them tied up with each other.

Look, you can bask in whatever glory you think this is, that is OK.
It is a great thing that we found the stuff, I would hate for it to be used on our guys.
I just don't think it is the major "smoking gun" that everyone else does.

My post was not to emphasize so much that we helped them, but more toward that it shouldn't have been such a surprise that these were there. We knew he had them, along with everyone else in the world.
To me, the "smoking gun" would be if and when we find something that they developed in secret - that they were hiding from us and the world.
That is all.
Believe it or not, we sometimes as a nation do things that appears to backfire on us. Happens all the time. You can't really say, even in hind sight, that it was the wrong thing to do because we don't know what sort of mess it would have been had we not done (action X - you pick it).
If you want to poke US way up on a pedestal of righteousness, that's ok I guess - but the farther up you are, the farther you fall.
We do what we think is best for US at the time. Usually we are not too concerned what happens to others unless it makes US look too bad to the world. That is just the way it works - always has, always will.
For example, if the world wouldn't have thrown a fit, we could have nuked Afghanistan and Iraq into oblivion. It would have save us lots of good men and women. But, it also would have cost us dearly in the eyes of the world.
From time to time we get it really right, from time to time it ends up not so good.

Believe as you will, doesn't bother me at all.

Cordially,
GE

[daler]

There is not a syllable on this presser in my two local rags this morning.

Not one word.

Now, had Michael Moore called a press conference to suggest that George W. Bush, and not Mrs. O'Leary's cow, was responsible for the Chicago Fire...

[Ditto]

My understanding is that purpose behind binary weapons was to make them safer/easier to manufacture, transport and store. I don't know for a fact if it also increases shelf-life.

[jwalsh07]

I do know for a fact it increases shelf life.

And there you have it.

[rhombus]

Um...well the press conference was late afternoon so there is a chance they just couldn't make deadline. But clearly the media is trying to ignore this rather than demand to know why the remainder of this classified report isn't released as is their usual M.O. when it comes to Government secrets.

[Candor7]

Pleaee listthe sources of information you have which indicate that the United States trained Iraquis in the manufacture and or use of improvised explosives, and the manufacture of WMD.

I would love to see them. As far as I can discover, you are perpetrating an Urban Myth.

[Ditto]

ok

[GrandEagle]

United States trained Iraquis in the manufacture and or use of improvised explosives,
Never said we trained the Iraquis in IED's. This was done in Afganistan aganst the USSR. You may recall that these are some of the guys we are now fighting in Iraq.