Third Infantry Finds Chemical Weapons

CBN News ^ | March 26, 2003 | Paul Strand CBN News War Correspondent

[JustPiper]

Add this to the 6000 chem suits and masks they were hoarding because 'we' were going to use chem weapons on them.

[brewcrew]

Now you've gone and dashed my hopes of someday having him re-replace Hillary.

[hchutch]

Perhaps, but I think that the explanation for the contraband will come down to at least one, if not all, of these scenarios:

1. Russian mafia.
2. "Straw pruchases" by third countries (the Ukraine and Syria are likely bets, but I would not discount the French, either).
3. Bureaucrats who got a piece of the action and approved sales that shouldn't have been approved.

For me, the key is not what the Russians SAY or even DO in the UN. Instead, they key is what they do outside the UN.

[colorado tanker]

the key is what they do outside the UN

Agreed. And what they appear to be doing is trading weapons for cheap oil.

[hchutch]

But that doesn't make sense to me, particularly since cheap oil would mean they make less money - hard currency, I might add - off the Caspian Sea oilfields they have found. Plus there is whatever they find in Siberia.

Things were a large jumble in Russia for a while, and that sort of thing takes much longer to solve than to create. Rogue companies and Russian mafia connections are a lot more plausible than Putin crossing us with direct arms sales. He might be former KGB, but he is not stupid. And doing anything that would place him on the bad side of an enraged United States of America would qualify as stupid, as Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, and Osama bin Laden could testify to - if, that is, they are willing to come out of whatever rock they are hiding under to avoid ending up with a nasty case of dead.

[xm177e2]

I'm not accusing CBN of lying. Maybe the source is lying.

[Poohbah]

And doing anything that would place him on the bad side of an enraged United States of America would qualify as stupid, as Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, and Osama bin Laden could testify to - if, that is, they are willing to come out of whatever rock they are hiding under to avoid ending up with a nasty case of dead.

Heard it could be contagious, too.

[DittoJed2]

Why would the "made in Russia" part be less credible? If they would sell jammers and night vision goggles, why not chems?

[cake_crumb]

"Police arrested two Nobel Peace Prize winners along with more than 30 other people protesting on Wednesday near the White House against the U.S.-led war against Iraq."

Jimmy 'Da Peanut Man' Carter and Yasser, perhaps? (had to ask)

[Poohbah]

Why would the "made in Russia" part be less credible?

Because he can make his own.

[colorado tanker]

My understanding is that Russia re-sells cheap oil from Iraq to the West at market prices, making a nice profit. It really doesn't hurt their own sales, since they're selling everything they produce and their winter production is limited.

I know getting caught would be very damaging to Russo-American relations, but in hindsight I don't think the Russians, French and Germans ever thought they'd be caught. They dodged us for 12 years with 16 UN resolutions and knew they could block UNSC action. I don't think they ever thought the US would pull the trigger. But for 9-11, we probably never would have.

This stuff could have come from the Mafia or Syria, but I tend to doubt it. Kornet is Russia's most advanced anti-tank ground mount missile and they seem to be deploying it in numbers and far forward, indicating numbers beyond the Mafia's ability to supply or Syria's desire to give up.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Fox just had their embedded guy with the 3rd on ... no mention of this ...

[DittoJed2]

My understanding is that the Russians sold a whole lot of stuff to Iraq and other mid-east nations during the cold war and probably beyond. If these chems were purchased before Saddam had the capability of making his own, they could easily have been stored up as well. Saddam's capability has increased since Desert Storm, but I think he is still behind Russia and is DEFINATELY behind the US.

[bluecollarman]

Question is...why didn't they ask him about it. It's already out there.

[Poohbah]

My understanding is that the Russians sold a whole lot of stuff to Iraq and other mid-east nations during the cold war and probably beyond. If these chems were purchased before Saddam had the capability of making his own, they could easily have been stored up as well. Saddam's capability has increased since Desert Storm, but I think he is still behind Russia and is DEFINATELY behind the US.

Actually, Saddam wanted to buy chemicals from Russia, but got turned down during the Cold War. That's why he worked so hard to get his own.

Seems Ivan didn't want to take a chance on non-controlled terrorists getting ahold of Russian chemicals and using them in Western Europe. That might have been enough to start World War III back in those days.

[ez]

I read the story about the Russia bio-chem program and they had some nasty bugs etc. The guy who designed a lot of it caught a bug and died a horrible death as a lab experiment.

I sure hope that stuff never finds its way into the open, but you know someday it will.

[ffusco]

The Russians will sell anything to anybody. They have no morals. Never did. A nation of criminals.

This is the thanks we get for allowing them the pretense of being a world power. For all the loans, aid, know-how. They are Garbage!

[JustinV]

o'reilly discussed this with one of the military guys on his panel who had also heard the story and both said that they tried to confirm with pentagon but couldn't get anywhere

[honway]

Report: Russia Has Smallpox Biological Weapon
American Foreign Policy Council
August 23, 1999

American military scientists are developing defense vaccines against smallpox -- a disease wiped out in nature, but one that still threatens thanks to ongoing biological weapons programs.
Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. According to the Washington Times, "there are reports that Russia has created a biological weapon utilizing variola.

[dagnabit]

Just heard on PmSNBC being discussed w/Lester Holt and a pentagon correspondent Jeannie Ohm.