Posted on 05/18/2004 9:23:50 AM PDT by Living Free in NH
Breaking news ... nothing follows
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sides anyways, it blew up so there aren't any WMD's there now! /brainless logic
Was it straight sarin or a binary agent (where two chemicals mix to form sarin)? Binaries are much safer to handle of course. According to at least one blogger, Iraq had declared that it did not have binary sarin in artillery shells.
My guess, given the limited symptoms, was that it was binary. Some mixing occurred and a small amount of sarin was released, but a shell with 3-4 liters of straight sarin would likely have killed anyone exposed to it.
When they used Sarin in Japan in the subway, weren't there a relatively few number of casualties? Anybody know how much was released in Japan?
It was a binary artillery shell, the 2 chemicals were seperate in the shell, would mix while in the air, then disperse in the air for a wider effect. As a roadside bomb, not as effective.
Clueless press alert! It's constricted pupils not dilated.
The stuff was a dud because this was a binary component shell that was meant to mix when the shell was properly fired from it's tube. It wasn't meant to be used as a landmine or IED.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on chemical munitions, but I've read several good comments from people I know to be at least partially knowledgeable on the subject. That said, if what I have said is incorrect, someone pelase correct me.
Dud because it wasn't detonated properly. The warhead was binary, meaning two compartments are seperated, keeping the precursors apart. When launched properly, they mix together and then form Sarin... and when the round hits its target, it explodes and the gas is released. Thank God that this wasn't set off properly. a drop of this stuff the size of a pinhead is deadly.
Our press is making up excuses for our enemies. This is treasonous.
Sarin is not a gas, its an oily, yellow/brown liquid with roughly the consistency of baby oil. I would have thought that a gallon of sarin would be an enormous risk/find. Perhaps this stuff was incinerated in the explosion or perhaps there was some other reason it could not effectively disperse.
This was a binary weapon. That is, the poison was in two non-poisonous precursors. When properly used, the agents are fully mixed and THEN dispersed by the shell. This howitzer shell was blown up by the sappers and did not "detonate" itself. Mixing was incomplete.
Google "binary chemical weapons"
TDIDS
A few "casualties". Five died and hundreds were sickened.
Whew, JMO, maybe you should lose your AP liberal media bias.
Not an expert but from what I heard it is at it's MOST effective when the BINARY mixtures combine while the shell is in FLIGHT. This was exploded as an IED without the mixing having taken place.
just a guess...
--erik
Kinda puts 3 to 4 liters of sarin in perspective, huh?
The chemical artillery shell is designed to be stable in normal rough armed-forces handling, and only mix the two components thoroughly when fired from a howitzer and spun at 15,000 RPM by the rifling of the howitzer's barrel.
It sounds like what happened here is that the improvised explosion was enough to rupture the barrier between the two agents, but not sufficient to mix them significantly and produce more than a small quantity of sarin.
Also, the shell was detected by our armed forces before it detonated, and it probably had plenty of room around it when it went off.
I think I've read that Sarin isn't as lethal in an open air situation, but I must admit I'm really ignorant of the "specifics" on the gas.
That amount is a lot, but you are right, not for a large open area. Sarin is very lethal if you come into direct contact with it (dripped on skin, inhaled in concentration), but it can also cause short and long term nerve damage if inhaled in less concentration.
This was a binary weapon, meaning that there were two components in the shell, that when mixed create Sarin gas.
The shell is designed to be fired from an artillery piece and during that firing the shell rotates very quickly. The "centrifuge" mechanism in the shell "mixes" the two ingredients.
When used as an IED, the liklihood that the two components will mix is very small.
Bret Behr (sp) on FoxNews: If the sarin bomb had been exploded correctly, allowing the gas mixture to disperse, it could have killed thousands.
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