British find evidence of chemical warfare

British troops have discovered protective chemical suits in southern Iraq that had been issued to infantry, indicating that Baghdad was ready to use weapons of mass destruction, UK officials said today.

"British forces have made significant discoveries in recent days that show categorically that the Iraqi troops are prepared for the use of such horrific weapons," Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told reporters.

Yesterday, U.S. Marines seized more than 3,000 chemical suits with masks at an Iraqi hospital that was being used as a "military staging area," according to U.S. officials. Also, American troops south of Baghdad believe they have captured Russian chemical warheads along with a launcher and a chemical warfare specialist, according to a reporter embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division.

The British forces found relevant documents and numerous chemical weapons suits and respirators left behind by Iraqi forces, said Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, Britain's chief of defense staff, who noted that the equipment was in "good working order."

"We have to ask ourselves why Iraqi commanders felt that infantry in this part of Iraq should be issued with weapons of mass destruction equipment," he told reporters today, according to Reuters.

"For reasons of security I can't tell where this find was made, other than that it was within the oil fields, but I can tell you that we estimate that there were upwards of some 100 suits across the site, along with other related equipment," Boyce said

Hoon acknowledged that the find was not conclusive but said the suits were "obviously to protect [Saddam's] own forces."

Officials emphasized that any Iraqi commander who sanctioned the use of chemical or biological weapons would face war crimes charges.

What is real fun to do is to list all of the things you would have to believe in order to accept the idea that Iraq does not have WMD. Then it becomes clear that those who continue to tout Iraq's French-sponsored public relations spin are either koolaid drinkers or aren't paying attention.

We may be 99% convinced that they have WMD,

We're 100% convinced they have WMD. Good grief- they used the stuff already, as western doctors treated some of the people it has been used on. Even more recently, Blix's team did find chemical weapons shells that were filled with - guess what- chemicals. The Iraqis claimed they just missed those when they "destroyed" their stocks. No offense, but it is Iraq's job to PROVE that it destroyed all of its stocks. That means when inspectors visit the disposal areas, there better not be even one intact shell there. Blix proved they missed some. Iraq is guilty.

How much more proof do you need? It was WMD that was used in the Anfal, it was WMD that inspectors have found in Iraq over the years, evcerything from anthrax to aflatoxin to VX. It is up to Iraq to make a successful appeal of its conviction- and it has indeed been convicted. Iraq has not made even a good faith effort to appeal; it has been unable to find an alibi or account for the items that have already been found since the inspections process began. It is not the UN's job, nor ours, to support Iraq's claims, it is Iraq's job, if it wants to win on appeal. The smoking gun was the Anfal, the fatal bullet was Halabja and several other devestated and now abandoned towns; the inspectors matched the Halabja bullet to Iraq's gun. We do not need to find every bullet in this murder case when no one disputes the fact that the fatal bullet was fired from Ireq's gun ... by the leaders of Iraq.

but until we find an actual smoking gun there is going to be continued suspicion by many other nations that this whole thing was something cooked up as an excuse.

For smoking guns, look to my response above. There is ALWAYS going to be continued suspicion, because there are countries which have an interest in cultivating suspicion even as the continue to cultivate weapons deals with Iraq. You are making the mistake of assuming that the nations who are skeptical about Iraq's WMD are objective, but in truth they never will be. No amount of proof will convince them just as for some people here in the US no amount of proof will convince them that NASA put men on the moon. These countries have deep financial links to the regime and their companies have been involved in a thriving business selling Iraq the technology, tools and materials neccessary to produce varied forms of WMD, chemical, nuclear, and biological. German companies have provided technicians, tools, and centrifuges to Iraq for the purpose of enriching uranium- to Ggermany's credit, it prosecuted and convicted some of those involved. Brazilian techicians were working at Osirek when the Israelis bombed it. But France has made no effort to prosecute those involved in weapons sales to Iraq, and neither has Russia. Both Russia and France depend too much on Iraq to have any interest in enforcing the terms of Iraq's probation.

Suits alone are not enough - the barrels of "stuff" may be, but even then the fact that they had suits on is not proof - you need to actually find out what is in them.

It wasn't Windex that was used on Halabja and other Iraqi towns. It wasn't Avon Skin-So-Soft Lotion that was used on Iranian soldiers before that. Inspectors have found VX nerve gas and mustard gas in the 1990s. That Iraq possesses chemical weapons is not even in question. That they have used them against human beings both in testing and war is also not in question. The inspectors in the 1990s found anthrax and aflatoxin in the 1990s, so Iraq's possession of biological weapons is also not in question. Delivery vehicles as well as shells for biochemical dispersion have been found as recently as this year. Iraq has imported nuclear material from Brazil, and has had Brazilian centrifuge specialists inside their country working in Iraq's nuclear enrichment and research program at Osirek before the Israelis graciously blew up the reactor there. Iraq has had German technicians, tools and centrifuges working on its enrichment program. Iraq has continued to try to smuggle in precisely the items needed to begin an enrichment program even after its original efforts were disrupted by inspectors. There is no doubt that Iraq has had a nuclear program. And there is no doubt that it has been seeking to revive it even while inspections were underway.

But even so, Iraq's obligations are not limited specifically to bans on WMD and development thereof, but also to delivery systems in the conventional sense. It is also supposed to submit proof it had disposed of certain missiles in its arsenal and it was obligated to keep its missile program within certain limits as to range and type and allow inspections to confirm this. Blix already established that Iraq, after 12 years, has continued to try to increase the range of its missiles and has not been in compliance with its remotely piloted drones, either.

And as for cooperating fully and completely, Iraq has never done so. It relies on the "anything is OK if we don't get caught method." That is in and of itself a violation of the terms of the cease fire; disarament only works if the country WANTS to disarm. When such terms are violated, the cease fire is VOID. There is no reason for people assume that an uncooperative country can be disarmed, unless they are just terminally stupid and ready to believe anything. Iraq will simply keep trying to hide what it has while smuggling and rearming until you give up in exasperation, and that's exactly what Iraq is doing.

My own government couldn't even disarm me, short of locking me in prison until I die, or killing me outright. They can inspect all they want but I can still hide, buy or make weapons as long as I feel like doing so, and if I was unethical I could steal weapons, too. What makes you think Iraq is any different, since it is clear that Iraq does not want to disarm?

And as far as front line reports go, they can be pretty iffy - as noted by the BBC news story today that they have announced the taking of some town 9 times now...

Agreed; initial reports by nonexperts do need to be confirmed before they can be assumed to be reliable. Yet we have ample evidence from 12 years of toil, and in spite of attempts by Iraq to bribe, blackmail, bug and threaten inspectors, to hide programs and equipment in other countries, to delay and interfere, to evade sanctions and rules through front companies and spying, despite assassinations of scientists and threats against their families, all this is simply overlooked by those with a vested interest in overlooking it. But Iraq is guilty as charged. and it has not won an appeal.

***

Iraq is also required to return 602 Kuwaiti POWs to be in accord with the ceasse fire terms. Iraq has not done so.

Not doing so was justification to dispense with the cease fire altogether long ago. Iraq violated the cease fire from the very beginning, in virtually every way it could; we should have resumed fighting a decade ago until Iraq was no longer able or willing to resist inspections and all POWs were returned- including Speicher.

That's not even getting into the terrorism links, which Iraq does indeed have with various organizations, nor does it cover the involvement of Iraqi diplomats in terrorism against the US and its citizens, and against its dissidents abroad. An Iraqi "diplomat" was involved in a bombing which killed a US Green Beret in the Philippines during our so-called cease fire, during Blix's last little circle jerk. That alone is justification for war.

Our failure to punish Iraq for flagrantly vilating the terms which ended the war left us with no credibility and resulted in Iraq's being able to massacre hundreds of thousands of people with impunity, and that made it even more difficult to do what we can no longer avoid doing now. I don't care one whit if the UN has no credibility- but we must have it or we are just asking for terrorist attacks agaisnt us.

To paraphrase TDR :"The world will never love us. It may respect us, it may even fear us, but it will never love us."

The part of the world that is skeptical of us isn't skeptical because of what we do, but for what we are. It's a waste of time to try to convince the Franco-Russian "Flat Earth Society" that the world isn't flat. We have convinced those countries which matter.

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