U.S.: Banned arms evidence in Iraq

http://www.msnbc.com/news/931304.asp?0cm=c10 ^ | 06/25/2003

[NCjim]

U.S. investigators in Iraq have found equipment for a nuclear weapons program and millions of detailed documents relating to chemical and biological weapons, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

U.S. OFFICIALS said the discoveries were not proof that Iraq had managed to build or obtain banned weapons of mass destruction, as President Bush asserted before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March. But they said the materials, some of which dated back to the first Gulf War, were compelling proof that Saddam was trying actively to acquire such weapons in defiance of the United Nations.

NBC News has learned of several recent discoveries, some within the past week, one related to nuclear weapons and the others to chemical, biological and banned conventional weapons.

Three U.S. officials told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that an Iraqi scientist who was part of what Saddam called his “nuclear mujahadeen” had led intelligence officials to a barrel in the back yard of his home in Baghdad, where they found plans for a gas centrifuge and components of a uranium enrichment system.

[Freee-dame]

bump

[DallasMike]

One of the documents, from 2001, was titled “Document burial and U.N. activities in Iraq,” the sources said. It gave detailed instructions on how to hide materials and deceive U.N. weapons inspectors, the sources said.

Other documents related to the concealment of VX nerve gas, the sources said.

The sources said U.S. troops also discovered about 300 sacks of castor beans, which are used to make the deadly biological agent ricin, hidden in a warehouse in the town of al-Aziziyah, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, the capital. The castor beans were inaccurately labeled as fertilizer.

Sounds like smoking guns to me.

[ysoitanly]

Oh, come on! We planted these! /sarcasm

[The_Media_never_lie]

300 sacks of castor beans

Wonder if there is an innocent explanation for these? We've been down this path too many times before and don't need to be disappointed again.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Just ask Google

The Seeds for a Backyard WMD

[ysoitanly]

I doubt it. Smoking Gun, MANY months ago, posted the pages of the 'terrorist's handbook' and castor beans get a huge mention there. There is no real other purpose for castor beans than making ricin. They're deadly poison - I do believe you can make some kind of medicine or tea (correct me everyone if I'm wrong) if you boil or treat them VERY carefully. But the clear intent is poison. Ricin is extremely deadly, and I can't see storing them for a huge future tea party.

[ysoitanly]

Well, first of all, this one was found buried in a remote rose garden. Can't believe Hans Blix and crew missed it /sarcasm. Secondly, there are 'dual-use' types of equipment that you can spin either way you want, but when you are dealing with a regime that has a history and evidence of these types of programs, you can choose which way you lean. How does this moron explain all of the equipment and biological material that was listed as banned in earlier reports and that existed according to those reports (which is what Inspector Clouseau and crew were going by), and never accounted for since?

[FORMERMID]

Well after today I know what my halloween costume is gonna be....

I am gonna put egg on my face and go as a WMD naysayer...

thanks

[cpdiii]

Precision equipment can be buried if packed and stored properly and still be quite functional.

If there is one there are many more to be discovered.

High speed centrifuges are unique in their construction and are used for enrichment, not making milk shakes.

What were those mobil labs for then?

"flaming bags of sh--" That sure sounds like a personal attack. I think I do smell the great zot master charging up his capacitors

[oyez]

300 sacks of castor beans

To make castor oil. Iraq is a very constipated country.

[alnick]

Ask him about the castor beans that were found and about the document outlining how to hide WMD from UN weapons inspectors which was dated 2001.

[mtbopfuyn]

Ahh but don't ya know, castor beans make very pretty foliage in a flower bed. I had some in my back yard, not 300 sacks though. With all the "obviously innocent" *parts* of WMD found relating to flower bed, it makes one wonder how many green thumbs there are in Iraq.

[lowbridge]

bump

[lowbridge]

U.S. OFFICIALS said the discoveries were not proof that Iraq had managed to build or obtain banned weapons of mass destruction, as President Bush asserted before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March.

Did he assert that? Or is this MSNBC making things up?

http://www.bushcountry.org/bush_speeches/president_bush_speech_032003.htm

http://www.bushcountry.org/bush_speeches/president_bush_speech_031803.htm

http://www.bushcountry.org/bush_speeches/president_bush_speech_030703.htm

[ArneFufkin]

Thanks for those links.

[F16Fighter]

Until Geraldo Rivera is posed with microphone in hand besides an upright shiny 30' missile labeled, 'WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION', the cynics will continue to whine.

[Happy2BMe]

The Seeds For A Backyard Weapon Of Mass Destruction
By rickyjames, Section News Posted on Fri Jan 10th, 2003 at 07:10:11 AM EST
This week British police authorities have arrested six bioterrorists and are searching for others who may be Al Qaeda operatives that produced quantities of the deadly toxin known as ricin. This substance is five times deadlier than VX nerve gas, 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide and 12,000 times more poisonous than rattlesnake venom. Overseas, ricin was used in the highly publicized 1978 assassination of Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov. In the US, ricin has been manufactured by individual terrorists as well as militia groups with names like the Minnesota Patriots Council as well as The Covenant and the Sword. A virtually invisible speck produces irreversible pneumonia-like symptoms and kills within days; there is no antidote. A pound of ricin dumped in a city's water supply or blown around in the ventilation system of an indoor Super Bowl arena would not be a good thing. Although ricin as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) seems like a topic ripped from 21st century headlines, few people realize it is an old and not even particularly exotic threat. Ricin was isolated and discovered in the late 1880s and used in Agatha Christies' 1929 mystery "The House of Lurking Death", in which the heir and heiress die from a castor bean poison mixed with fig paste. Ricin comes from the Indian Ricinus communis plant, commonly known as the castor bean plant. This plant is widely cultivated in Italy and California in the industrial production of castor oil for use as a chemical additive and anti-constipation medicine. Worldwide, one million tons of castor beans are processed annually in the production of castor oil and the mountains of waste produced by this process are five percent ricin by weight. Purifying and isolating ricin from castor beans takes only alcohol, paper towels and foolish courage to risk accidental death by following widely available instructions like US Patent 3,060,165 or other, cruder recipes available on the internet from white-supremacy groups like Odin's Rage. Since the castor bean plant is in widespread cultivation and is now both a common weed and an common ornamental plant, the challenge for the US Department of Homeland Security now is to tell the WMD terrorists from the backyard gardeners.

[backhoe]

-Weapons of Mass Destruction ( or Distorsion or Deception? You decide...)--