MSNBC- American Troops Have Found A Second Chemical Plant In Iraq

MSNBC | 3/23/03

[kattracks]

Nothing follows.

[meisterbrewer]

Yep. Remember all the complaining from Blix and the UN during the inspections about the US not sharing information.

Now we know why.

[John H K]

For those of you who do not know about Bill Gertz, he is a very good reporter from the Washington Times

Mediocre overrated hypemonger from the Washington Times.

[ImphClinton]

Also a good reason to not let the Iraquis know we have confirmed it as a chemical Weapons Lab.

Don't give them a reason to use them on us.

But I agree. Someting sinister was going on. Camafloge electric fence soldiers including two generals. Some kind of chemical plant.

My bet is on it really being a WMD plant.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

That is scary. We need to pray!

[Southack]

"Oh sure, all countries put their innocent pesticide plants out in the desert, and then go to incredible lengths to camouflage them from the air. That's typical, all innocent pesticide plants are hidden and camouflaged."

You've got to remember that what you see might be accurate, or it might be an intentional deception.

Presuming that our soldiers on scene are correct in saying that the facility "looks" like a chemical factory (to rule out things like a storage area for money, drugs, whores, ammo, etc.), then it might be:

A. the real deal (i.e. a chemical weapons factory),
B. a dummy factory meant to slow us down by erroneously "confirming" that the Iraqis have WMD, or
C. a non-lethal civilian-style chemical factory that for some reason needed 30 armed guards.

I'm suspecting that something got lost in translation, however, and that the two "general officers" mentioned in the article for this thread really doesn't mean that someone is wearing a star on their cap, but more likely that they are captain or major in rank (just 30 soldiers for two generals?? what'd the rest do, get killed or run away?!).

[John H K]

Has the pentagon confirmed that some of these missiles were indeed SCUDs?

I am unaware of any coalition military or civilian DoD spokesman directly saying ANY of the fired missles were SCUDs.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like much of an issue for the media; I do believe at the end of one Rumsfield conference one of the shouted questions at the very end when he's walking away and unanswered was about that.

[John H K]

I'm suspecting that something got lost in translation, however, and that the two "general officers" mentioned in the article for this thread really doesn't mean that someone is wearing a star on their cap, but more likely that they are captain or major in rank (just 30 soldiers for two generals?? what'd the rest do, get killed or run away?!).

Indeed.

It's quite possible that some BASIC reported facts on this story may not be true.

The problem is (and this happens ROUTINELY on FR) people assume that the only way basic, early facts on a breaking story can be wrong is for someone to be deliberately lying, which is not the case.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[ChemistCat]

I'm getting really mad at these people for leaving the word "WEAPONS" out of this.

There's a HUGE DIFFERENCE between a chemical plant and a chemical weapons plant!!!!!!!!!!!

[ImphClinton]

Article just says we are not positive yet that it produced chemical weapons.

I don't know that anyone here said we were positive.

It just sure looks and talks like a duck. But then to nowdays you can do marvels with electronics. I wonder if it would be possible to spread everything out then have only one plant to combine it. Who knows? It may take some time to confirm what the chemicals are used for.

[concerned about politics]

It just sure looks and talks like a duck.

We KNOW it's not a baby formula factory, so we're safe there.

[quesera]

AHHH, ze plot thickens!

[Terriergal]

Yeah I guess it has been around. Scary it's such a no brainer that no one claims credit! ;-)

[snooker]

David Kay was on PMSNBC. He said why would you place a commercial chemical plant in the middle of nowhere, camo the buildings, surround it with electrical fencing, have troops gaurding it, and have a two generals running it.

Maybe baby milk is real valuable and they have a lot of baby milk hijackings in Iraq.

Sounds fishey if you ask me. But we should know soon.

snooker

[so_real]

I am unaware of any coalition military or civilian DoD spokesman directly saying ANY of the fired missles were SCUDs.

Bummer... Thanks for the update.

[ImphClinton]

Actually in their briefing Sunday they specifically said that the missles fired were not Scuds. However they were still checking on missles being fired.

SAMS are huge and eaisly mistaken for SCUDS.

[BurbankKarl]

Ms. Glick, chief diplomatic commentator for Makor Rishon newspaper in Israel, served as assistant foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1997-98 and was a member of the Israeli negotiating team with the Palestinians from 1994-96.

[fire and forget]

The site apparently appears to be a chemical weapons facility. They're slow in taking the steps to confirm this because who knows what kind of trap they'll find inside. They'll take their time to minimize risks.

Give 'em a few more hours. If they're right and this is what it's believed to be, this is a huge event.

On the political end, we're covering ourselves should there not be enough evidence (no real or convincing product, for example) that this truly is the first "smoking gun" confirming that Bush's policy is correct. In any event, everything so far points to this being the real deal. It's a military facility, evidently commanded by a general officer. What else might it be unless it's an elaborate ruse?