Iraq Mission Aborted (Peter Jennings looks likes he's happy w/himself)

ABCNews & World News Tonight ^ | 8.19.02 | Peter McWhethy

[mhking]

Iraq Mission Aborted

President Bush Calls Off Operation to Take Out Al Qaeda Poison Gas Laboratory

By John McWethy

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 19 — The CIA and the Pentagon began planning a covert operation into Northern Iraq to destroy what appeared to be a budding chemical weapons laboratory several years ago, but late last week, the president called it off, sources told ABCNEWS.

U.S. forces had been monitoring a small group of al Qaeda operatives for weeks as they experimented with poison gas and deadly toxins — killing barnyard animals and at least one human, sources told ABCNEWS.

Intelligence sources say the al Qaeda operatives were under the protection of a small radical Kurdish group called Ansar al Islam. Officials say there is no evidence Saddam Hussein's government had any knowledge of their activities.

Most of the experiments, sources say, involved the poison ricin, a by-product of the widely available castor bean plant.

"It is quite toxic, probably seven times more toxic than phosgene which was a chemical weapon used in World War I," said Jonathan Tucker of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Tucker is the director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Institute.

As a potential weapon of terror, ricin is considered most deadly in a closed room or building, where nearly everyone could die.

"There is currently no treatment and no vaccine for ricin exposure," said Tucker.

Intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS there is evidence the terrorists tested ricin in water, as a powder and as an aerosol. They used it to kill donkeys and chickens, and at one point, the terrorists allegedly exposed a man to the toxin in an Iraqi market.

They then followed him home and watched him die several days later.

As U.S. surveillance intensified, officials concluded the operation was so small and crude that in the final analysis, it was not worth risking American lives to go after it — and also not worth the outcry that might follow any U.S. operation inside Iraq.

As part of this operation, intelligence analysts discovered that al Qaeda money was again flowing, that new people had stepped in to manage and encourage far flung projects like this one — offering glimpses of a terrorist network trying to put itself back together again.  

[rockfish59]

Nah, he's got more bodyguards than araRAT!

[sleavelessinseattle]

We'll get Ed Mcmahon to deliver the news...YOU AND the US may already be a WINNER!:-D

[piasa]

good point, LOL

[hinckley buzzard]

That's what ABCNews said...and you believed them...??

[SEGUET]

That's must be where you got your information - not necessarily where I got mine. I didn't know ABC had it yet

[Timesink]

I will never forget one old gentleman general when his smug smile was wiped off his face on the air...as the invasion came by land.

Unfortunately, they seem to all become old gentlemen generals in the end. In 1991, General Schwartzkopf was the man who brilliantly snookered all the old retired guys. Today, he's gone a bit wobbly himself, questioning whether the "new guys" should attack at all, when, where, how, etc. He's setting himself up to be snookered instead of doing the snookering.

[Conservababe]

How very very sad.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Heckuva graphic, saber.

Picture's worth a thousand....

[takenoprisoner]

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 19 — The CIA and the Pentagon began planning a covert operation into Northern Iraq to destroy what appeared to be a budding chemical weapons laboratory several years ago, but late last week, the president called it off, sources told ABCNEWS.

Is Saddam with us or against us?

[Lion's Cub]

Foxy Bush administration sealing up leaks. Now they know who leaked the "attack" story to CNN and who leaked the "non-attack" story to ABC.

Not a bad theory.

What amazes me the most is that both of those networks are so stupid they don't even question the story. Since northern Iraq was set up as a "no fly" zone specifically to protect the Kurds in the north from Saddam, why would we need to send men on the ground to destroy the facility when we could easily take it out by air?

If we know enough to know that the terrorists exposed a man in the market to poison and then followed him home to watch him die days later, we obviously already have someone on the ground--or very good electronic surveillance...Since I doubt we'd deliberately leak news of a ground asset, I'd say it was learned electronically and released to make them wonder how we know...I love it when our guys mess with their heads :)

[EODGUY]

"I still don't watch them, I haven't forgotten how they shunned our rallies, or how they lied and lied about the 2000 election. I think they were in on the vote fraud up to their eyeballs, and I don't think it was a mistake that they called Florida for Gore before the votes were in."

Well said!! I recall the rally in Washington, when, in fact, I first became acquainted with Free Republic. Every speaker was more eloquent than the previous and each was speaking from the heart. I recall the impact Rev. Jesse Petersen's comments had on me and immediately recognized his sincerity and holiness.

I also recall that the media was very careful NOT to pan the crowd to show just how many dedicated people traveled to Washington to display their displeasure with clinton. Five people show up for the million women march and the media reports tens of thousands. Apparently they resort to their math skills acquired via the public school system when reporting totals of participants at conservative forums.

There is a sitcom on one of the major networks that my wife watches, and I must admit, I do watch Monday night football, but the sponsor boycott and the network boycott remains in effect in our family, with those two exceptions.

With your screen name, I have to sign off, "Bye, Bye".

EODGUY

:)

[MissAmericanPie]

I'm so grateful for Americans like you, it's good to know that such determination still exists since the 2000 elections.

[N. Theknow]

Iraq Mission Aborted (Peter Jennings looks likes he's happy w/himself) /i>

Hmmm. Someone named Peter....happy with himself...what a jacko##!

[N. Theknow]

</i>Danged Italians

[EODGUY]

Grocery shopping with my wife has really changed. Prices are no longer considered, but products are turned upside down or whatever it takes to determine by whom a product is manufactured OR distributed. That constitutes the critera we use for purchasing.

I think the left and corporations who support them rely on us to forget their abominable behavior. I think their assumption is becoming more and more unreliable every day.

God bless.

[Pistias]

.S. forces had been monitoring a small group of al Qaeda operatives for weeks as they experimented with poison gas and deadly toxins — killing barnyard animals and at least one human, sources told ABCNEWS. Intelligence sources say the al Qaeda operatives were under the protection of a small radical Kurdish group called Ansar al Islam. Officials say there is no evidence Saddam Hussein's government had any knowledge of their activities.

was leaked to further show that iraq is a breeding ground for terrorist activities

Whatever! They figure, let Saddam deal with his own Kurdish problems...hell, if it comes to a fight, they might be using ordinance we gave them last time round.

[ravingnutter]

I almost threw a knife at the TV (I was making supper) when I heard him say, quite gleefully, something to the effect that 'the Bush administration will be embarrassed'.

You need to do what I did...get one of those toy rubber dart guns and keep it handy to "shoot" liberals...it really does help keep the blood pressure down! My aim is getting better, my patience with these idiots worse...I "shot" Tipper in the head last night just for showing up on my screen, LOL!