Posted on 06/21/2006 2:39:13 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
On Fox right now
But nobody reads the papers anyway. So Freepers should get along giving hits to every website that carries this story---let 'em know they do have readers.
shut up, robert.
WMDS in Iraq [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
Here is a very rough transcript of the Rick Santorum-Pete Hoekstra press conference from earlier this evening...(basically my understanding is Santorum caught wind of this from an administration official earlier this year. He's been working to track down and now has gotten part of a report declassified):
Congressman hoekstra and i are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in iraq, chemical weapons. It's a document that was developed by our intelligence community which for the last 2.5 Months i have been pursuing and thanks to the help of the chairman of the house intelligence committee, ultimately he was able to get it in his hands and i was able to look at it. I think both of us feel very strongly this is vitally important information that the amercian people needs to know and so i will read the portions of the unclassified version and then i'll turn it over to peter to make his comments about the significance of that and then i'll be happy to answer questions.
The unclassified version of this report states as follows follows. Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons [munitions] which contain sarin nerve agent. Despite the efforts to destroy the pre-war chemical [munitions], fill and unfilled are assessed to still exist.
Now, let me go off the quote. That means that in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions existing in the company. Back on statement,
they could be sold on the black market. Use of these weapons by terrorist and insurgent groups would have implications for forces in iraq. Possibility of use outside of iraq cannot be ruled out. The most likely munitions remaining are sarin and mustard filled project tiles.
I underscore filled. It depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal. It has been reported in open press that insurgents and iraqi groups desire to acquire and use chemical weapons.
This is an incredibly significant finding.
The idea that as my colleagues have repeatedly said this this debate on the other side of the aisle that there are no weapons of mass destruction is in fact false. We have found over 500 weapons of mass destruction and, in fact, have found that there are additional weapons of mass chemical weapons still in the country
.
Santorum will be on Hannity & Colmes later tonight.
Posted at 6:18 PM
The reason any WMD's in Iraq would be kept secret would be to keep Al Queda from digging around looking for it before we could find it.
Ya Hoo....ROve strikes back...take that DemonicRats....
Nor can I, I think most everyone knew they were there (even many Dems). I have a hunch Santorum was correct in saying President Bush didn't want to revisit it and get in a huge battle over it.
Nonsense. What is the source of that allegation?
Santorum: 500 Chemical-Weapons Shells Found In Iraq
According to numerous sources but not yet on the wires, Senator Rick Santorum announced a few minutes ago that the US has found 500 chemical-weapons shells in Iraq. Hot Air has the hot link for what little data exists thus far. Apparently, some of the shells contained sarin and others mustard gas. No word has come yet on when and where the US found these munitions.
I will update this as more information becomes available.
UPDATE: Nothing on the wires yet at 5:10 pm CT, but let's think through what this discovery -- if it is new -- means. We have found a handful of such shells already in Iraq; I reported such a find here in November 2004. The shells had come from around the time of the first Gulf War and the contents had likely been rendered inert by the passage of time and exposure to air. That has a lot less significance than a find of 500 shells; that kind of stockpile could have done real damage to our troops during the invasion, and of course could also have caused a lot more trouble with civilians in the hands of terrorists, if properly deployed.
The political significance will be difficult to calculate without more information on when and where the shells were found, in what condition, and so on. However, their existence in those numbers will at least eliminate the argument that Saddam's WMD existed only in his head, a position that former Saddam henchmen have taken ever since they fell into Coalition hands.
UPDATE II: Here's a post that noted confirmation of one shell with sarin gas found in May 2004.
I'd be very surprised if the wires report this. It will be a buried story.
By all means! Shout it from the rooftops!
Like the last group of missiles found in Iraq, these will prove to be from the 1980's and as such, useless.
If they were intact and operable, we'd have known about it almost immediately.
The center package, with the Russion writing and heavy foxing on the label, is the subject. The two adjacent packages were likely provided by the U.S. for testing.
Well, we can't let them bury it. That's all there is to it. Letters to the editor, talk radio, blogging, anything you can think of to get this info out there!
My Dem mother-in-law in Los Angeles does. She gets the NYT and the LA Times every day, as well as all variety of left-wing monthly publications.
She just called a few minutes ago to gloat over how long it took for Bush to finally "fabricate" some WMD "evidence". She says the fact it took so long to make this up proves how stupid he really is.
What could I say, other than "looking forward to out visit next month too".
You have my deepest sympathies.
Yes, I think it is time.
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