Posted on 07/08/2014 10:15:52 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Iraq said the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.
Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a letter circulated Tuesday that "armed terrorist groups" entered the Muthanna site on June 11, detained officers and soldiers from the protection force guarding the facilities and seized their weapons. The following morning, the project manager spotted the looting of some equipment through the camera surveillance system before the "terrorists" disabled it, he said.
The Islamic State group, which controls parts of Syria, sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq last month and quickly captured a vast stretch of territory straddling the border between the two countries. Last week, its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the land the extremists control.
Alhakim said as a result of the takeover of Muthanna, Iraq is unable "to fulfil its obligations to destroy chemical weapons" because of the deteriorating security situation. He said it would resume its obligations "as soon as the security situation has improved and control of the facility has been regained."
Alhakim singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex 35 miles northwest of Baghdad in the notorious "Sunni Triangle."
The last major report by U.N. inspectors on the status of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program was released about a year after the experts left in March 2003. It states that Bunker 13 contained 2,500 sarin-filled 122-mm chemical rockets produced and filled before 1991, and about 180 tons of sodium cyanide, "a very toxic chemical and a precursor for the warfare agent tabun."
The U.N. said the bunker was bombed during the first Gulf War in February 1991, which routed Iraq from Kuwait, and the rockets were "partially destroyed or damaged."
It said the sarin munitions were "of poor quality" and "would largely be degraded after years of storage under the conditions existing there." It said the tabun-filled containers were all treated with decontamination solution and likely no longer contain any agent, but "the residue of this decontamination would contain cyanides, which would still be a hazard."
According to the report, Bunker 41 contained 2,000 empty 155-mm artillery shells contaminated with the chemical warfare agent mustard, 605 one-ton mustard containers with residues, and heavily contaminated construction material. It said the shells could contain mustard residues which can't be used for chemical warfare but "remain highly toxic."
Well, now I read through the thread. Oh, and the article.
Well I stand by my point that we’re too busy now with this new happy bo scandal/mess to pay attn. to the nightly news coming out of the ME
It’s not like we have Ted Koppell or anyone to keep us posted and apprised of details on ABC
These are all cholinesterase inhibitors which is basically bug spray. Those used as weapons of war are uniquely designed to be lethal to mammals.
The point I am trying to make is if you have a factory that can make bug spray you have a factory that can make chemical agents that are particularly lethal to humans.
I remember a thread back in ‘03 saying something about insecticide being found in missiles during the first few weeks of the invasion.
this
Whah?
Iraq ain’t got no weapons of mass destruction. ...
Amazing!!!! Allah it took was some blood thirsty murder cultists to find the WMDs.
WMD can be nuclear, radiological, or chemical. Biological weapons even seem to be dumped into the mix even though they have never been used on a large scale. We lump these weapons together as "CBRN."
I guess it's okay to talk about the WMD in Iraq now... we already took out Saddam Hussein, and there isn't much point in bashing Bush since he left office.
Headline should read, “WMD found in Iraq”
Repeat after me...THERE WERE NEVER ANY WMDS IN IRA. ALL THE KURDISH WOMEN AND CHILDREN FELL OVER DEAD IN 1988 FROM A SEVERE CASE OF GOUT. LEFTISTS HAVE RELIABLY INFORMED US THAT SADDAM NEVER HAD ANY WMDS. AND LEFTISTS NEVER LIE. (smirk)
So we are supposed to believe that these weapons have been lying around for more than a decade, with no effort to destroy them or clean up the site? And further that we would abandon the area, and entrust the security of these weapons to an Iraqi army that is known for it’s cowardice and ineffectiveness?
I just don’t believe it. I think it’s a ploy to cover ISIS. They can use these weapons now, and have a plausible excuse as to how they were acquired. ISIS is a creation of Obama, he armed and trained them, even if by proxy through the Gulf states.
I wonder if this sarin matches the signature of the stuff used in Damascus?
/sarc tag in order...
You had to know you were opening a sh*tstorm there... :^)
What???!!! They found WMDs????
hehe
Precisely. We found a good deal of organic phosphates stored in the middle of Iraqi ammunition dumps, which strikes me as a very odd place for insecticide. The media continue stoutly to insist that it was all innocent. The media lie.
VX is a short range weapon, though, a local weapon
you cannot disperse it to kill all the people it could kill, it will dissipate
still, kill all who get it but, short range, short effective dispersement
the value of these is a a residue bomb, tied to an explosive, to kill those who arent killed by shrapnel or first responders who come aftter the large first blast
like a nuclear dirty bomb
still effective, but unable to be dispersed as designed
only 50 yard radius instead of 200 yards wide
like that matters to the people it hits...
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