GAS WARHEADS ‘READY TO FIRE'

New York Post ^ | April 8, 2003 | NILES LATHEM and ANDY SOLTIS

[sarcasm]

U.S. experts will study samples of suspected nerve gas found in 20 newly discovered Iraqi missile warheads that may be the "smoking gun" of Saddam Hussein's long-denied illegal arms cache, officials said yesterday.

Pentagon officials said reports of the ready-to-fire missiles found near Baghdad - as well as chemicals in huge metal drums hidden near Karbala - were the hardest evidence so far of the weapons of mass destruction that U.N. weapons inspectors failed to find.

[skr]

Boy, do I wish they would test, test, test and THEN report.

[patriciaruth]

So, now we are all waiting for gas chromatography tests...

and DNA tests...

[konaice]

"The 20 missiles were discovered in a warehouse by troops making a sweep near Baghdad, said a National Public Radio reporter traveling with the soldiers. "

You gotta know it must really piss off the NPR top brass to have their own guy be the embed reporting this. They have a lot of crow to eat.

[DianaN]

Casi (An organization that was originally started to end sancitons against Iraq) is already claiming that all they've found is "pesticides". Of course anyone knows that pesticides are highly toxic and can be used as a WMD against an enemy. CASI now, is really just used as a spying agency for Iraq. I tapped into CASI's archives and anyone else can too to find out who the subversives are. One guy is all the way from hungary. Anther is a woman named Philippa Winckler (a consumate Jew hater and Arab sympathizer). Another guy is from a small town in the heartland. The guy from Hungary wrote and wanted to know "what happened to all the protestors" (in the US) whereupon the guy in the heartland responded to him that his 'office' was really composed of very few people and most people in his area thought the war in Iraq was a fait accompli. Notice on the media how the leftist Dumocrats have had to change the subject from how we're losing to how we're winning too much? The Iraqi's are really desperate now and are sabotaging their own building and blaming it on coalition troops. They also are shooting people and blaiming it on coalition troops. Al Jazeera is claiming coalition forces deliberately targeted them killing one of their reporters and injuring another.
Diana

[John H K]

You gotta know it must really piss off the NPR top brass to have their own guy be the embed reporting this. They have a lot of crow to eat.

The problem is the NPR reporter was nowhere near the missles and never saw them.

This all goes back to a botched Reuters wire story on the whole thing (which Rush Limbaugh ended up seeing and then talking about.)

And now the New York Post also has a botched story.

This is what happened:

1) Officers of the First Marine Division are listening to their radios and overhear some 101st Airbone guys talking about finding some BM 21 rockets with some possible chemical weapon warheads. They weren't talking to the 101st guys directly, just listening in.

2) There's an NPR embed with the marines, so they tell the embed about it.

3) Embed then tells what he heard the Marine officer tell him what he overheard on the radio.

Nobody knows where these rockets are or anything more about them. They are NOT at the same location at the original Karbala find which does in fact appear now to be just pesticides (NBC and Reuters within the last 1-2 hours.) They ALSO are not the same location (apparently) as Najaf where there's the report of 101st Airborne with Mustard Gas blisters.

[iopscusa]

Al-Jeeeeez - JH Know it all....you rock with propriety knowledge....are you on CNN soon?

[meenie]

There is a desparate attempt to find some WMD's in Iraq. It is obvious that if some aren't found soon, the coalition will become the laughing stock of the world. This is, after all, the reason we are in Iraq. To defend the world against the WMDs of Iraq.

[meenie]

There is a desperate attempt to find some WMD's in Iraq. It is obvious that if some aren't found soon, the coalition will become the laughing stock of the world. This is, after all, the reason we are in Iraq. To defend the world against the WMDs of Iraq.

[norcalvet]

There is a desperate attempt to find some WMD's in Iraq. It is obvious that if some aren't found soon, the coalition will become the laughing stock of the world. This is, after all, the reason we are in Iraq. To defend the world against the WMDs of Iraq.

What? You can't seriously believe that Iraq doesn't have at least chemical weapons, can you? Sure you are in the right forum? I don't know what leads you to believe that there is a "desperate" attempt to find them, or that they haven't been found already. Recall that there were specialized teams tasked with finding and assessing these facilities, while the news reports above involve regular units. First things first - we have to win the war first, prove to the world that Iraq had WMD's second. Despite the good news today, the war is far from over and there is an awful lot that the military is going to want to keep secret until then for the sake of operational security. You, like the rest of the world, need to be patient and realize that just because you don't hear it on the news doesn't mean it doesn't exist.