EUPHRATES 'POISONED'

Sky News ^ | 4/4/03

[Zipporah]

EUPHRATES 'POISONED'

US Marines found cyanide and mustard agents in high concentrations in the Euphrates River near Nassiriya in Iraq, television network MSNBC has reported.

The network said a briefing from Marine officials was its source for the information.

The agents were found during routine tests conducted to ensure the water being used is safe, MSNBC said.

Neither Centcom officials in Qatar nor US military officials in Iraq have confirmed the MSNBC report.

Mustard gas produces painful, long-lasting blisters and often leads to blindness, while cyanide kills by preventing blood from transporting oxygen.

Last Updated: 19:01 UK, Friday April 04, 2003

[PeterPrinciple]

Photo is probably from archives???

[oyez]

Another WMD story that will be squashed or FUBAR by tomorrow.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Not necessarily. All animals do not react the same to chemicals that may poison humans. For example, an owl is completely immune to the effects of potassium cyanide. Dioxin (called the worlds most toxic poison) has no effect on humans yet will kill rodents in a heartbeat. Likewise, there has never been substantial proof that DDT affected either humans or mammals or fowl (despite the various lies that abound) yet it is deadly on insects.

[DoughtyOne]

While I recognize the validity of your comments, I do think there would be evidence of distressed or dead animal life if this story were true. Thanks for your comments. We'll see how this plays out.

[Saundra Duffy]

Bastards!

[Fletcher J]

BINGO

[RAT Patrol]

YooHoo....whatcha gonna say now, lefty environmentalists?

[BritExPatInFla]

Has this been mentioned anywhere else? Not to put too fine a point on it, but as a former subscriber to SKY TV, they are just a bit better than the tabloids that can be found wrapping fish and chips in Picadilly Circus for using dubious sources and senasationalizing rumours. There have been no reports of mass deaths or poisonings as of yet. But, I don't have much doubt that the peaceloving muslims in charge of Iraq would do this, just looking for corroboration.

[justshutupandtakeit]

That is not a picture of the Marines finding this evidence. I am sure no one gets to their water intakes that easily.
The poison was found around the intakes.

[justshutupandtakeit]

MSNBC reported it early this morning. A thread was posted about it then.

[Beck_isright]

Not really. It would take HUGE (that's hugh also) amounts of these chemicals to create a major fish kill. Hang tight, I'm sure it will come out that just one unit dumped it's junk because they were about to be captured and didn't want to obey the order to use it.

V

[stboz]

Anybody got data on concentrations found? How high is high?

Enough to kill fish? Enough to kill people?

[Cicero]

It wouldn't necessarily kill the fish right off. Fish lived in the Hudson River in NYC all through the worst years of pollution. But you wouldn't want to drink it.

I would guess this is either pollution or dumping.

[green team 1999]

the media and anti-war,eviromental nuts they all will look the other way.

[DoughtyOne]

Our ew series it has to bee hugh?

If it is a small amount of the substance, I would agree that major impact would be unlikely. The problem is, that the article lays out this "bomb" of an article without providing much information. Thanks for the comments.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments.

[jackbill]

Has this been mentioned anywhere else?

I saw the report, live, on MSNBC this morning. The embedded reporter (Dr.) Bob Arnot was on the scene and reported that the troops were testing the water before putting it in their water purification system, when they found toxins. A bit later they mentioned that the levels were lower - which makes sense. The toxins would be rapidly dissipated in a big body of water like the river and by the current.

If the report is true, I suspect dumping rather than an attempt to poison the troops. MSNBC had the female doctor who was in the DOD (Bailey?) and she said that it would be a very ineffective way to poison anyone because of the rapid dissipation.

[tubebender]

Being discussed on MSNBC NOW...

[SarahW]

That was my first thought.