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To: Jim Robinson; Viennacon

Thanks for that Viennacon, and for calling post #9 to my attention Jim.

Viennacon’s information appears thorough, and complete, but I still cannot comprehend how any American leader military, or Political of that era could screwup the works leaving such a cache as described with even limited access by anyone much less a warring people known for their lack of respect for life. It boggles the mind, costs be damned.


16 posted on 06/20/2014 3:36:54 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will. They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: rockinqsranch

Information is more thorough on the facility history with regard in particular to chemical artillery rounds (not dissimilar to what Assad has used) here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ipankonin/Duelfer_Chemical_Weapons_quotes

It does seem to be a lack of any foresight by the American military command that this facility was not dealt with, but bear in mind.

1) The facility was obviously so damaged and unstable that Saddam had decommissioned it himself. It was not apparent that the facility was a threat.

2) Nobody expected what would come later with ISIS. People were anticipating a residual force after the hard-fought gains in Iraq, a la South Korea. With a then-stable government in place, there just wasn’t a credible threat at the time.

3) I would suspect (though I have no evidence) that the facility was brought to al-Malaki’s attention. At the end of the day, a decommissioned and dangerous chemical facility is his problem, and people probably suspected him to deal with it in the interest of public safety. Obviously this didn’t happen.

With all that being said, I am sensing that this was just sloppy. Nobody wanted to do a full run-down on the complex, and with all the madness that occurred as the war wound down, people just wanted to forget about it, resign it to history as just another relic of a by-gone decade.
The most important thing to note is that if the inspection by ISG was incomplete due to the unstable nature of the facility, then the intelligence on what was inside is based off of the UNSCOM report written during the 1980s. We may not have adequate intelligence on anything manufactured between that report and Desert Storm.


21 posted on 06/20/2014 3:53:05 PM PDT by Viennacon (Liberals are like vomit in a lot of ways)
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To: rockinqsranch

https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/chap5_annxB.html

You might all want to check out this CIA report on the place.


34 posted on 06/20/2014 4:51:38 PM PDT by hecticskeptic
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