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INTELLIGENCE: Why Iraq WMD Finds Were Kept Secret
Strategy Page ^
| 2006 Jun 23
| Harold C. Hutchison
Posted on 06/24/2006 11:17:55 AM PDT by Wiz
June 23, 2006: The revelation that Coalition forces have discovered about 500 shells containing chemical weapons (mostly sarin nerve gas and mustard gas) since 2003, most of which are pre-1991 Gulf War vintage, leads to the question as to why the U.S. waited so long to reveal this. The U.S. government has taken a beating for supposed failures to find weapons of mass destruction in the press, and from political opponents. There have been some discoveries that have made the news, most notably an incident in May, 2004, when terrorists used a 155-millimeter shell loaded with sarin in an IED. The shell detonated, exposing two soldiers to sarin nerve gas (both of whom survived and recovered). It is this attack that provides one explanation as to why many of the finds have been classified.
If the United States were to have announced WMD finds right away, it could have told terrorists (including those from al-Qaeda) where to look to locate chemical weapons. This would have placed troops at risk for a marginal gain in public relations. A successful al-Qaeda chemical attack would have been a huge boost for their propaganda efforts as well, enabling them to get recruits and support (many people want to back a winner), and it would have caused a decline in American morale in Iraq and on the home front.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 155mmshell; 2003; 2004; 200405; alqaeda; alqaida; binaryshell; gas; iraq; iraqiintelligence; iraqiwmds; islamist; mustard; nervegas; nuketheleft; oif; sarin; terrorism; terrorist; waronterror; wmd; wot
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To: King Prout
okay, she's a hottie, but... what are her politics?Remember, left chicks are easy!
41
posted on
06/24/2006 12:14:12 PM PDT
by
JimRed
("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help m)
To: nw_arizona_granny
Ping and binny boy is dead?
42
posted on
06/24/2006 12:17:44 PM PDT
by
DAVEY CROCKETT
(Not one US soldier has lived, that has been captured by terrorist.)
To: killjoy
They're still sick basturds for setting IED's. Damn them all to Hooters. That would serve them right. All those half neeked women strutting around. They're so fond of making their women wear burkas.
43
posted on
06/24/2006 12:17:55 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(If you can't stand behind our military, stand in front of them.)
To: Izzy Dunne
The real problem is tracking down all the hidden stuff that SH hid in the countryside.
I believe that the huge pile of documents that we secured in the fall of Iraq have finally been transcribed, read and assimilated into the intel computers and the administration feels secure that most, if not all of the WMD stuff has been collected or identified in other countries.
My guess is that the sarin shell IED was rigged as if it was an ordinary high explosive round, and that the bad guys just thought it would go BOOM. If we let them know that the shell was really C/B masquerading as HE 155, well that would really have the bad guys racing around the countryside, like diseased rats, looking to SELL the C/B rounds to other like minded nuts outside of Iraq.
44
posted on
06/24/2006 12:18:05 PM PDT
by
Mr. Jazzy
(Mr. Jazzy, VPD of LCpl Smoothguy242, USMC, now back HOME! Ooorah!!!)
To: mgstarr
I also think the definition of WMD has gotten stretched a bit over the past few years.I disagree. WMD's are still chemical (e.g. Sarin, Mustard gas), biological (e.g. anthrax, botcholism), or radiological (nukes) weapons.
45
posted on
06/24/2006 12:18:10 PM PDT
by
JoeGar
To: Matchett-PI
46
posted on
06/24/2006 12:22:07 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(If you can't stand behind our military, stand in front of them.)
To: pbrown
They played it as a pass off and not much else.
47
posted on
06/24/2006 12:27:18 PM PDT
by
SandRat
(Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
To: DAVEY CROCKETT
(Not one US soldier has lived, that has been captured by terrorist.) Ronald D. Young Jr., David S. Williams, Edgar Hernandez, Joseph Hudson, Shoshana Johnson, Patrick Miller, James Riley, Jessica Lynch...
48
posted on
06/24/2006 12:29:49 PM PDT
by
killjoy
(Dirka dirka mohammed jihad! Sherpa sherpa bakalah!)
To: Pete
Rather we be demeaned and ridiculed than call a spade a spade?
To: Wiz
Great Article, the truth comes out.
50
posted on
06/24/2006 12:43:08 PM PDT
by
Candor7
(Into Liberal flatulance goes the best hope of the West, and who wants to be a smart feller?)
To: SandRat
You are correct, an interesting view, that makes sense to me.
51
posted on
06/24/2006 12:50:42 PM PDT
by
nw_arizona_granny
(Lord ,when we are wrong,make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with.)
To: Matchett-PI
He writes this. "I had forgotten that federal prosecutors designated Jack Murtha an unindicted coconspirator in the Abscam investigation 26 years ago.">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Not only that, but the special prosecutor for ABSCAM resigned when the comittee, controlled by Democraps, refused to indict Murtha. The prosecutor had him COLD, and Murtha would have done time.
52
posted on
06/24/2006 12:51:05 PM PDT
by
Candor7
(Into Liberal flatulance goes the best hope of the West, and who wants to be a smart feller?)
To: TypeZoNegative
53
posted on
06/24/2006 12:51:48 PM PDT
by
Candor7
(Into Liberal flatulance goes the best hope of the West, and who wants to be a smart feller?)
To: JoeGar
Botcholism? My fridge could qualify as a WMD in that case.
54
posted on
06/24/2006 12:54:25 PM PDT
by
mgstarr
To: DAVEY CROCKETT
OBL, will never die.........it would break the jihadi's heart.
55
posted on
06/24/2006 12:59:24 PM PDT
by
nw_arizona_granny
(Lord ,when we are wrong,make us willing to change. And when we are right, make us easy to live with.)
To: SandRat
I'm glad those two soldiers weren't badly hurt because of it.
56
posted on
06/24/2006 1:00:34 PM PDT
by
processing please hold
(If you can't stand behind our military, stand in front of them.)
To: Candor7
Yeah.. the rules have been different for the RATS for many years. If we can keep them out of office and/or off of powerful committees, then privatize a lot of the work being done by the treasonous feather-bedding RATS who make up the permanent bureaucracy at all levels of government - we would be going a long way towards neutralizing them and the protection racket they run.
57
posted on
06/24/2006 1:03:46 PM PDT
by
Matchett-PI
( "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight Eisenhower)
To: pbrown; SandRat
I don't have a link, but I remember reading about it as well. As I recall, it was a binary shell, and the fact that it didn't get spun down a tube and then in flight, was thought to be the reason why it didn't have much efficacy (insufficient mixing of the binary components).
58
posted on
06/24/2006 1:11:00 PM PDT
by
FreedomPoster
(Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
To: Pete
It does make sense. It's kind of like on 24, where the fictional president was complicent in nerve gas being sold to terrorists and in the assasination of a former US President. It was decided that revealing this information to the public was in the country's best interest.
It still annoys me that so many people have called me a lunatic anytime I tell them I believe there are/were WMD's in Iraq.
59
posted on
06/24/2006 1:32:25 PM PDT
by
EdnaMode
To: SandRat
This makes sense to me, and this is something I've wondered about for a long time (for reasons I cannot go into). I think it also speaks volumes about President Bush that he put the troops ahead of any political gain he'd have gotten from trumpeting these finds.
60
posted on
06/24/2006 1:32:39 PM PDT
by
elhombrelibre
(The MSM is "the propaganda arm of our enemies." - Jack Kelly)
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