Iraq can make chemical weapons that penetrate U.S. protective gear

Associated Press ^

[RCW2001]

WASHINGTON - Iraqi scientists know how to make chemical weapons that can penetrate military protective clothing, and Iraq imported up to 25 metric tons last month of a powder that is a crucial ingredient to such ``dusty'' weapons.

Iraq told the United Nations the powder was destined for a pharmaceutical company that a former weapons inspector says was ordered by President Saddam Hussein before the 1991 Persian Gulf War to work on chemical and biological weapons.

[Bogey780]

Wasn't it revealed that the Anthrax sent around the US was a highly sophisticated strain that was combined with silicon dioxide?

[Paleo Conservative]

We should try by military tribunal and execute the Iraqi "scientists" who developed these weapons.

[Dog]

Yep.

[LibWhacker]

If they use this stuff against our troops, and Bush is the man I think he is, it'll be the end of Iraq.

[mfulstone]

Back in the '60s, I saw powder so fine it would leak out of a sealed Mason Jar.

Big deal.

Just igniting the powder while suspended in the air (like an explosion in a grain elevator) would be a more effective weapon.

[ex-Texan]

Also try by military panel the stupid U.N. officials who approved the shipment. F****** U.N.

[error99]

"...If Iraq made and used a powdered form of its deadliest nerve agent, VX, it could kill U.S. troops dressed in full protective gear..."

Not if we kill them first...

[Enemy Of The State]

THE US has nukular weapons that will disentigrate Iraq and all of its chemical weapons

[boris]

And all of its spell-checkers, too.

[Sparta]

Anyone who feels like playing armchair general and kicking Saddam's ass

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/790647/posts
Fantasy Iraq invasion thread

[Gorzaloon]

Relax, folks, the article is BS, written by another graduate of our educational system.

Fumed silica has been used for many decades in hundreds of products. The most homely one is the anti-caking agent in free-flowing table salt.

Fumed silica is a nanophase material consisting of "Strings" of 18 nanometer baeds, about 220 nanometers in length, and made by burning an organosilicon. It is used in paints, glues, rubbers, dairy creamers, etc..etc, and is no "Miracle ingredient". Yes, you can adsorb bad things on it, or on clays, like bentonite, but _everyone knows this_.

It is Not News.

[error99]

I feel better now.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

but.. but they dont have any chemical weapons

[Barnacle]

Iraq can make chemical weapons that penetrate U.S. protective gear

U.S. can make exploding weapons that can penetrate Iraqi bunkers.

[Gorzaloon]

but.. but they dont have any chemical weapons </>

Ooops. I forgot that!

[HangThemHigh]

I don't understand the technology behind the dust. The molecules of nerve gas are surely smaller than the dust particles, no? How does the dust help the gas penetrate?

[Gorzaloon]

The molecules of nerve gas are surely smaller than the dust particles, no? How does the dust help the gas penetrate?

It helps it linger longer, and they hope it will get into fasteners and seams, where is can lurk away from bleach, etc.. Also it might be possible that a dispersion of dust of that size will disperse better than an aerosol.

But the story is really no big deal. I just think there is a shortage of real news about the War on Terrorism, for good reason. So the press is starved and will print anything to look like they are on top of things.

[American in Israel]

You would have to release a concentration thousands of times stronger than normal to up the exposure past a suit's seams. We can hope they are stupid enough to burn up their entire supply in one strike. Heck, you are more at risk of being hit by the skud making the delivery than getting a suit leak that bad.

Shortly after the skud strike, Bagdad and Babylon ceases to exist. Great victory, for the Kurds that is.