Tests rule out suspect bio-labs

CNN ^ | 4/15/2003

[ArcLight]

The buried labs U.S. troops found last week were not the mobile chemical and biological weapons labs one U.S. Army general suspected, CNN's Ryan Chilcote reported Tuesday.

[Maedhros]

Main screen turn on.

[COURAGE]

"...they are nowhere (pause)...they are nowhere, really"

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[rhombus]

Sorry, I don't buy it -- they have duel use equipment -- if they could get the materials, they'd make the nasties.

[MEG33]

They were buried...WHY?

[konaice]

Yes, I agree, why the hell else would these be burried in the desert. Somethings going on here, and the Embedded reporters are failing to even get a single image of these things to us. Whats up wid dat???

[yonif]

Man....not again.

This is starting to be annoying (not that I think we will never find them, but just that they break these stories out before they are validated by tests. The US military is at fault at this as well as the media.)

[Mr. Jeeves]

Just like a glass tube is not really a crack pipe, just part of a child's chemistry set...

[Redcloak]

And there is still, of course, the question of why they'd let us grind them into the dust over weapons that they didn't have. It would have wounded their pride to let inspectors have free run of the place, but so what? Better to be embarrassed but still alive and in power than extruded through the cracks in a cinder-block wall by a JDAM.

[Centurion2000]

I'm thinking the DoD does NOT want these sites confirmed until later .... like maybe when we have enough to make an absolute open and shut case that they had them.

Can't figure another reason for it.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The only other semi-logical explaination for burying trucks is to avoid allied bombing.

[Smedley]

And why the need for mobile labs?

[Chameleon]

I think they've likely already found plenty of stuff...No embeds are with the special forces who were taasked with taking them out early, or with the WMD teams.
There's been no comment on some finds, and denials of others.

I expect the plan is to present all the evidence at once rather than let finds dribble out and let people debate about individual issues.

Staregically, I think it makes a lot more sense to be mum, and present a complete document months down the road which details all activities - including places, names, testimony, equipment, and weapons finds. Make a real document like the one Iraq was supposed to submit last year, and then let the UN come in and verify it's destuction.

In addition to a comprehensive report being far more compelling and convincing, I would think that they don't want Iraqi scientists and generals to know what we know when we interrogate them.

So I'd expect that keeping quiet about any WMD finds for the time being is part of Centcom/DOD strategy, and it is why we haven't heard anything except what embeds have picked up from folks in the field.

[MEG33]

The report is from The World's Most Trusted Source.

[bcoffey]

"I'm thinking the DoD does NOT want these sites confirmed until later"

I've been thinking along those lines as well. Suppose we announce that WMD have been found, say, in the western Iraqi desert. Don't you think every terrorist group in the world would be out there looking for them, too? (We don't have enough troops and/or drones to watch the whole place at once.)

[demnomo]

I don't buy it either. To begin with, why were the labs buried? It sure as heck looks like the Iraqis were trying to hide something to me...

Plus, there is not a catogorical denial from the Pentagon, just another "we don't know," "doesn't appear to be WMD" and "can't confirm as of yet" from an "official" that some anti-war reporter is twisting to make it sound like there are absolutely no WMD or equipment that could be used in WMD at this particular site (or in Iraq, for that matter) so Bush is toast because he lied about Iraq having WMD, the war is a failure, etc.

The jury (and final professional opinion based on records, testing and interviews with Iraqi scientists & officials) is still way, way out on a lot of these sites...

[WilliamWallace1999]

IMHO, all the "disproven" WMD's are part of a disinformation campaign to keep the info for when W needs to play that card. I think they don't want the info to trickle out and spoil the fun of watching more of our enemies show their true color and accuse us of not finding anything and "needlessly" toppling a murderous tyrant. We already have people cheering in the streets and a new government beginning to sprout. Those that support W are satisfied, and those that don't never will. He is saving the information on WMD's for some future shock and awe media blitz as part of a bigger game.

May I have my tinfoil hat back now please.

[rhombus]

I have to think that Bush is biding his time and evidence will be presented once the left have slipped their heads into the noose -- yet again.

[hsmomx3]

You read my mind as that's what I keep thinking.