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Soldiers sick: poison gas likely (Five taken to hospital for mustard gas symptoms)
Australian Associated Press ^ | April 8, 2003

Posted on 04/08/2003 1:03:43 AM PDT by HAL9000

THE US military was investigating today the 'likely' discovery of mustard gas near the central Iraqi city of Najaf after five soldiers developed blisters while on duty there, officers said.

The soldiers, from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade, suffered nausea as well as the blisters after walking into a building that stored Iraqi ammunition yesterday afternoon, military intelligence officer Captain Adam Mastrianni told AFP.

Mastrianni, attached to the division's Aviation Brigade, said initial tests showed the substance in the building was mustard gas, but more thorough tests were being conducted today to confirm that.

"It's fairly likely it was in fact mustard gas," Mastrianni said.

101st spokesman Lieutenant Eric Lake said the five soldiers were taken to a military hospital with blisters and nausea, but their conditions were not believed to be life-threatening.

Mastrianni said it was not yet clear where in the building the suspect substance was stored or whether it was packed into artillery shells.

If the substance is confirmed as mustard gas, Mastrianni said this was a breach of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's commitment not to produce or use chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

"It's still a chemical agent and it's not supposed to be utilised," he said.

"The bottom line is it's one of the items he was supposed to be destroy."

US forces "secured" Najaf, 100 kilometres south-west of Baghdad, last week after about a week of intense fighting with forces loyal to Saddam.

The 101st soldiers are still in the Shi'ite Muslim holy city to ensure it remains secure for military and humanitarian operations.



TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 101stairborne; chemcialweapons; illegalweapons; iraq; iraqifreedom; mustard; mustardgas; saddamhussein; warlist
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1 posted on 04/08/2003 1:03:43 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
WePledge.com - update from Don Wildmon
A Special Project of the American Family Association
 

Sign The World's Biggest Thank You Card to PFC. Jessica Lynch & Our Other Troops!

Dear WePledge.com member,

On Tuesday, April 2, 2003, U.S. special operations forces slipped behind enemy lines and seized POW PFC. Jessica Lynch from the Saddam hospital nine days after her capture by Iraqi soldiers.

On Friday, May 16, American Family Association (AFA) will deliver THE WORLD'S BIGGEST THANK YOU CARD to the home of PFC. Jessica Lynch in Palestine, West Virginia. We want your signature on it.

Click here to read and electronically sign Jessica's Thank You Card.

After you have signed Jessica's card, forward this email to your family members and friends! Let's make this the WORLD'S BIGGEST THANK YOU CARD!

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon, Chairman
American Family Association


2 posted on 04/08/2003 1:06:20 AM PDT by fuzzy122
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To: HAL9000
Let's show these heroes our thanks!!!

Link to Send Your Thanks To the U.S. Military

13,143,240
people have signed Defend America's online Thank You Note to the men and women of the U.S. military.


Whooo-raaah!!!

MEGA-

Stay Strong
Fuzzy

3 posted on 04/08/2003 1:06:58 AM PDT by fuzzy122
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To: HAL9000; *war_list; W.O.T.
Hmm!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

4 posted on 04/08/2003 1:08:02 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Where is Saddam? and where is Tom Daschle?)
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To: HAL9000
"Paging Hans Blix........ Paging Hans Blix........."
5 posted on 04/08/2003 1:08:53 AM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: HAL9000
Interestingly, the ONLY news agency Mastrianni EVER talks to is Agence France Presse; doing a google search turns him up only in AFP articles.

And Mastrianni is the same guy who said earlier today that the chemicals at the first site were pesticides.
6 posted on 04/08/2003 1:11:43 AM PDT by John H K
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To: John H K
Interestingly, the ONLY news agency Mastrianni EVER talks to is Agence France Presse; doing a google search turns him up only in AFP articles.

AFP is apparently embedded with his unit.

And Mastrianni is the same guy who said earlier today that the chemicals at the first site were pesticides.

His comments may depend on the results of the most recent test and the timing of the interview.

7 posted on 04/08/2003 1:25:42 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
This is a completely different location than the earlier one.

For some reason, people seem to be rolling them all together and thinking it's one big chemical site on FR...including this, the barrels near Karbala, the BM-21 rocket warheads, etc.

Yep, AFP has an imbed around him all the time, most likely.

However, when AFP had the article where he said it was pesticides, people began to spin all their usual conspiracy theories about AFP and such.
8 posted on 04/08/2003 1:33:28 AM PDT by John H K
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To: HAL9000
I don't think there are any frogs imbedded with the US forces. The French are not to be trusted thus knowing my friends in the armed forces, they would never allow it.

V


9 posted on 04/08/2003 1:55:01 AM PDT by Beck_isright (FLASH: CNN hires Baghdad Bob as new Operation Iraqi Freedom Military Analyst)
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To: HAL9000
Hope our guys are okay.

Thanks for the post. It will be interesting to see if this is confirmed . . .

If the substance is confirmed as mustard gas, Mastrianni said this was a breach of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's commitment not to produce or use chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

10 posted on 04/08/2003 2:47:05 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: HAL9000
Maybe someone with better posting skills than I could gather up all the stories on possible chem weapons find.

It's hard to keep up with them and keep straight whether a report is of a new incident or what.

11 posted on 04/08/2003 2:57:30 AM PDT by fightinJAG
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To: fightinJAG
That's a great idea. It's getting to the point where we need a table to keep it all straight.
12 posted on 04/08/2003 3:56:49 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
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To: HAL9000
Those pesticides are nasty stuff...
13 posted on 04/08/2003 4:40:20 AM PDT by Snake65 (Osama Bin Decomposing)
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To: MeeknMing
Im surprised at the lack of blaring headlines over the discovery of WMD. Is it because we knew we would find them? If this is so, it should be the final nail in the Useless Nations coffin. But wheather it will be remains to be seen. The Inspectors were there for 2 mos, and couldnt find anything. The troops were there for three weeks and have found more than one place housing the stuff! What does that tell you about UNSCOM? I dont believe they are incompetent, I believe they hate the US and were told not to look hard for the stuff.
14 posted on 04/08/2003 4:46:06 AM PDT by cardinal4 (The Senate Armed Services Comm; the Chinese pipeline into US secrets)
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To: Snake65
They had it wrong. It was ketchup gas.
15 posted on 04/08/2003 6:07:14 AM PDT by The Red Zone
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To: cardinal4
The Inspectors were there for 2 mos, and couldnt find anything.

Inspections can only be effective when the state cooperates. That never happened, therefore inspections never had a chance of succeeding. The whole concept of inspections in a hostile, uncooperative regime is a farce.

What's equally fascinating is the relatively unsophisticated and obvious "hiding places" for these weapons in military bunkers. What a waste of time, money and lives these last 12 years of UN games have been.

16 posted on 04/08/2003 6:28:10 AM PDT by browardchad
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To: John H K
The drums above ground are pesticides. It is the drums they found buried underground that are giving the on-site positive tests and samples of those will be brought to the US for further testing.

AFP was right about the original find -- those drums were pesticides. Upon further exploration, they found the buried drums with camoflage over the top of them to hide the barrels.

Two different finds at this "pesticide" plant. Not sure when AFP first reported that they knew about the ones buried.
17 posted on 04/08/2003 6:29:27 AM PDT by PhiKapMom (Get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US)
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To: Snake65
They're essentially nerve agents for insects, very similar chemically to nerve agents intended for humans.
18 posted on 04/08/2003 6:42:57 AM PDT by expatpat
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To: cardinal4
While I share your animosity toward the U.N., I think that our folks have received almost unfettered access the last 2-3 weeks ! Well, there was that 'stiff resistance' by the Republican Guard. But many of those are literally STIFF now ! Makes a big difference !! :O)
19 posted on 04/08/2003 6:46:02 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Saddam! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: HAL9000
Paydirt Alert #872
20 posted on 04/08/2003 6:47:08 AM PDT by NautiNurse
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