Posted on 06/22/2006 11:38:34 AM PDT by jveritas
Tigerhawk also, sarcastically, points this out in his blog entry.
Update III: Further underscoring my point about the curious lack of interest in "negative" WMD news, witness the virtual media feeding frenzy (along with voluminious follow-up reports and analysis from experts!) which greeted this find just last summer:
US troops raiding a warehouse in the northern city of Mosul uncovered a suspected chemical weapons factory containing 1,500 gallons of chemicals believed destined for attacks on US and Iraqi forces and civilians, military officials said yesterday.
The early morning raid last Monday found 11 precursor agents, ''some of them quite dangerous by themselves," a military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan, said in Baghdad.
Combined, the chemicals would yield an agent capable of ''lingering hazards" for those exposed to it, Boylan said. The likely targets would have been ''coalition and Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civilians," partly because the chemicals would be difficult to keep from spreading over a wide area, he said.
Boylan said the suspected lab was new, dating from sometime after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/06/these-are-not-wmds-youre-looking-for.html
Here's what we need to know about the longevity and lethality of mustard gas. Gas rounds from WWI were found at Spring Valley in MD having been fired in WWI. And, nobody is treating them with a "So what?"
http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=so01tucker
See posts 450-452 here and read this story - Sarin, Mustard Gas Discovered Separately in Iraq
One more time,.....Thanks for your excellent efforts and posting some very useful information...( If we knew the name of the Defense Department expert quoted in the MSM news reports we could let him know also...but ) pinging others....
There has been speculation that our advance toward Baghdad was so rapid, there was not time to get them completely ready to go. Another scenario was that the commanders, seeing that the coalition force was overwhelming decided to flee to preserve their own lives. Finally, the Iraqi commanders may have been aware of the consequences to them if they ordered their use (to be endlessly hunted down and if they survived, put on trial before the world).
Done.. with much pleasure.
Can you explain how it was that Hussein wasn't able to use these when he was down to his very last days in power-- the time you'd think he would be the most desperate and the most likely to do so? Or the Sunni malcontents since the Hussein regime ended? It doesn't compute. What kind of threat were they if they wouldn't even use these weapons in the most obvious moments?
The good thing it is coming from their beloved UN!
Peach, as always thank you for all your help.
I checked their online archives, but they only go back to 1995, so it's earlier than that.
A library should have the complete index to the magazine.
It's the least I can do to help you out after all you've done, jveritas.
As I understand it he shell used in the IED did not produce much sarin because the binary components did not mix properly.
Exactly - people on archaeological digs in the desert have found buried firearms and ammo from the 19th century that still work just fine, none the worse for wear despite their being over a century old.
Hypocrisy is a one main liberal decease.
Note to Mara: Your crowburger is ready.
It's good information about the mustard gas, but maybe not so good about Sarin. I went to the wrong page of the report. At the bottom of page 72 (74 of the PDF document), here's what it says about the Sarin that was produced in the 1980s:
According to documents discovered by UNSCOM in Iraq, the purity of Sarin-type agents produced by Iraq were on average below 60%, and dropped below Iraq’s established quality control acceptance level of 40% by purity some 3 to 12 months after production.
According to the next page of the report, UNSCOM couldn't determine whether Iraq had produced large quantities of Sarin after they switched to binary production of Sarin in 1988. This would have preserved the product at high purity until it was ready to use. It will be interesting to hear the details of what kinds of WMD have been found and whether the Sarin components are in binary form. Prudence would dictate that we assume all the Sarin we find is in binary form and at full potency until determined otherwise.
Salute on your UN proof there !!! Gotta love Freepers...
Yes, his military command structure crumbled in the first 48 hours of the war.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.