How Many Chemical Weapons Have to be Found Before You Can Say There Are WMDs in Iraq?

White House Press Office ^ | 7/6/2004 | White House Press Office

[ConservativeMajority]

From Tuesday's White House press briefing:

Q I wanted to follow up on Helen's question. Charles Duelfer, the head of the Iraqi weapons inspection team, recently reported the discovery of a small quantity of chemical weapons containing mustard gas and sarin. Polish forces also found weapons containing sarin. These are undoubtedly weapons of mass destruction and certainly would be seen as such if they were to be detonated, say, inside the New York subway system. So why isn't the administration saying that WMDs have been found in Iraq?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think those questions may be best directed to the Iraq Survey Group and to Charles Duelfer. He has commented on those. As he pointed out in the interview recently, he said they were continuing to do their work and continuing to pursue other locations where there have been reports of weapons. And they're continuing to look into the question of what happened to the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, because we know that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction because he had used them on his own people, as well as on a neighboring country. And so those are issues that the Iraq Survey Group continues to look at and uncover. They're working to find out the truth and determine what happened to those weapons of mass destruction.

Q What's the magic number for proclaiming that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, I think it's important to let them continue to do their work and continue to find out what the truth is.

[Huck]

Q What's the magic number for proclaiming that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Good question...but what up with the Polish discovery? I saw that coalition personnel were saying it had no WMD?

[adam_az]

No not the briar patch! Anything but that!

[Mr. Mojo]

I think the left is in for a rude awakening. ......soon.

[smonk]

there's not a minimum number, but there is a date associated;

"THE PRESENCE OF WMD WILL NOT BE ADMITTED UNTIL AT LEAST THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER."

[ConservativeMajority]

AP from 7/6/2004:

"Laboratory tests showed the presence in them of cyclosarin, a very toxic gas, five times stronger than sarin and five times more durable," Bieniek told Poland's TVN24 at the force's Camp Babylon headquarters.

[b4its2late]

October Surprise.............

[So Cal Rocket]

Jeff: Were these your questions for McC?

[dead]

The magic number will be reached right before the GOP convention.

[OXENinFLA]

It should be noted this question came from TALON NEWS!!

[Jeff Gannon]

How did you know?

[elephantlips]

And then only when there is a delightful mushroom cloud appearing on the horizon.

[JZoback]

For some people there will never ever be WMD in Iraq unless of course there is a Democrat in the White-house.

Micheal Moore disease: Brain rot

[McGruff]

Be careful about quoting Polish WMD claims. See CENTCOM News Release.

July 2, 2004
Release Number: 04-07-05

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IRAQ ROCKETS FOUND IN LATE JUNE TEST NEGATIVE FOR CHEMICALS

Baghdad, Iraq - On June 16, 2004, an Iraqi civilian led Polish Soldiers to two 122mm rockets he had found in Al Hillah.

The rounds were tested and showed positive for Sarin gas. It has been determined that the rounds were left over from the Iran-Iraq war.

Due to the deteriorated state of the rounds and small quantity of remaining agent, these rounds were determined to have limited to no impact if used by insurgents against Coalition Forces.

The source led Soldiers to 16 more 122mm rockets over a period from June 23 - 26, 2004. Those 16 rounds were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE PRESS INFORMATOIN CENTER AT 914-360-5082.

[SunkenCiv]

	Saddam's Bombmaker by Dr Khidir Hamza with Jeff Stein paperback Chapter One: Escape frontline interview remarks on sanctions
[Saddam's] son Uday received kickbacks from the black market in food and merchandise coming down from Turkey and oil and gas going out -- all of it busting the U.N. embargo... By some accounts, Saddam Hussein arrived in Baghdad at about the same time I did, in 1956. Rudimentally schooled, precociously violent, a product of a notoriously crude Tikriti clan, Saddam quickly plunged inot the street politics roiling the capital, eventually joining up with the Baath Party... their real quarry was the monarchy itself... King Faisal II had nearly been overthrown in World War Two by a cabal of pro-Hitler military officers that included Saddam's uncle... Then, in October 1961... somebody... tried to assassinate Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim, head of the military regime. It was Saddam Hussein.
	Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man by David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke Moore: Americans are 'The Dumbest People on the Planet' Posted by kattracks

[plain talk]

There were WMDs and continue to be WMDs unless proof is given as to disposition. We have found WMDs but they have been onesy-twosies and not stockpiles. In addition, the ones found have been of the chemical variety and no nuclear or biological varieties or stockpiles have been found (that I know of). It's possible we may never know what happened to the stockpiles of chemical WMDs which could be buried in the sands of Iraq.

Why is this so hard for the press and even the WH to report correctly and accurately?

Correction:
Q What's the magic number for proclaiming that we have found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

[Jeff Gannon]

Still the fact that:

"The rounds were tested and showed positive for Sarin gas. It has been determined that the rounds were left over from the Iran-Iraq war."

means that the are WMDs in Iraq.

DNA testing on Monica's blue dress told a story of what happened, not when.

[Question_Assumptions]

I'm getting the distinct feeling that they are counting them up and following all of their leads to build a solid case for proclaiming that there are/were WMD in Iraq, after all. They need to double-check all of their claims this time around but I get the feeling that there will be some sort of announced disclosure before the election to make the press and Kerry look bad.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Nothing less than a secret underground lair will satisfy the Dems. They'll just keep raising the bar on anything that's found.

[sazerac]

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040703211910.617uvolu.html

Poland stands by 'poison gas' find Iraq

WARSAW (AFP) Jul 03, 2004 Political and military officials in Poland Saturday reaffirmed that missile warheads found by Polish troops in Iraq contained poison gas, despite denials by the multinational forces in Baghdad.
"In each of the missiles found, the presence of a chemical substance was found. It was cyclosarin," a spokesman for the Polish contingent in Iraq, Colonel Robert Strzelecki, told public television.
"They were missiles that were made 15 years ago, which should have been destroyed and were not. They would certainly have very dangerous had they fallen into the hands of terrorists," said deputy defense minister Janusz Zemke. (snip)