Posted on 07/10/2006 10:02:25 AM PDT by kellynla
Congressional Republicans are at odds with Democrats -- and the Bush administration -- over the significance of 500 munitions found in Iraq since 2003 and recently disclosed by the Pentagon.
The rocket and artillery shells hold deadly sarin and mustard gas, a small part of the vast weapons of mass destruction (WMD) arsenal that Saddam Hussein built in the 1980s.
Republican lawmakers say the 500-plus shells, with more likely to be found in the coming months, are evidence that Saddam was still concealing WMDs in 2003 in violation of United Nations resolutions to disarm after Iraq's failed invasion of Kuwait.
The resolution "didn't say pre-'91 chemical weapons," said Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican. "It didn't say post-'91 chemical weapons. It said chemical weapons. Saddam Hussein violated this resolution and others like it. ... In part because of such violations, we voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq."
Democrats dismiss the findings. They say the munitions were found in small clusters and are 1980s vintage. In other words, Iraq produced them before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and thus they are irrelevant to the CIA's flawed 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), on which President Bush largely based his decision to go to war to keep Iraq's WMDs from terrorists, they say.
To the consternation of congressional Republicans, including Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, the Democrats are getting support from the administration.
When the office of Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte conducted a phone-in briefing for reporters last month, the presenters downplayed the munitions finding, just like the Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
JV translated docs specifically related to these shells. He has even more that supports the WMD claim.
2003 UN Report: Iraq Sulfur Mustard Gas Chemical Weapons Have High Quality After 12 years of Storage http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653841/posts
2002 Document: Chemical Material Hidden Underground http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1642403/posts
Iraqi Documents: Plans To Produce Prohibited Chemical Weapons Precursors http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657480/posts
Iraqi Document: Highly Radioactive Atomic Neutron Device http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1651626/posts
2002 Document: Request For 500 KG Of SODIUM CYANIDE A Precursor For A Chemical Weapon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1637240/posts
2002 Document: Plan To Produce Mobile Laboratories http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1631022/posts
2001 Top Secret Document: Production of Prohibited Nerve Gas Detectors http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1624797/posts
Document: Saddam Ordered Biological And Radiation Test on Presidential Sites Attacked by US in 1998
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653280/posts
1999, 2000 Iraqi memos: Procurement of 50000 Aluminum Tubes That Can Be Used For URANIUM ENRICHMENT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620565/posts
Undated Document: Change Chemical, Nuclear, And Missiles Sites for Fear of Western Attack http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621334/posts
2001, 2002 Iraqi Memos: SECRET NUCLEAR PROJECT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620262/posts
September 1998 Document: Secret Research Programs Related to WMD http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1613509/posts
1997 Document: Orders To Remove All Information Related To WMD From Computers http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611976/posts
Summer 2002 Document: Destruction And Hiding of WMD Documents and Archives http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1614115/posts
Document Dated February/3/2003: Chemical Gears for The Chemical Group http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603039/posts
Saddam Regime Document Dated 2001 Shows Chemical Platoon Still Exists And Active http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602985/posts
Saddam Regime Document: SADDAM MET WITH HIS NUCLEAR GROUP IN 2002 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608944/posts
III. MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS TRANSLATIONS
Saddam Regime Document Dated January 2003: The French and German Connections http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603917/posts
Saddam Regime Document: Give CNN the Priority for Coverage http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603696/posts
Saddam Regime Document: Saddam Ordered The Use of Chemical Weapons in Northern Iraq http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601810/posts
Saddam Regime document: How To Use Coalition Dead Troops and POW’s As Propaganda Tool http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608423/posts
November 2002 Document: Russian Company Sells Mig 29 Parts to Iraq http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1615
Yes, dawg, they would.
Why can't we just get the truth out of our Govt. for ONCE....
End rant.. thank you very much!
The answer is NO.
Was he supposed to reveal to the UN inspectors everything he had regarding WMD not matter how small the quantity was?
Yes
Are 500 shells containing Chemicals Weapons considered a large number of WMD?
Absolutely.
Is the Mustard gas in these shells lethal?
Absolutely. In fact the UN reports in March 2003 clearly states that the quality of mustard gas is so good that it keep its efficiency even after more than 12 years of storage, please see this link posted few weeks on this subject.
2003 UN Report: Iraq Sulfur Mustard Gas Chemical Weapons Have High Quality After 12 years of Storage http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653841/posts
Ya know, if there weren't any WMD then why was the UN wasting all that time and money sending folks over to check on it?
They've been playing this game all along.
During the invasion, several times we came across nerve agent stockpiled at military ammo dumps, as well as a nerve agent production facility operated by the Iraqi military.
In each case, within a day or two, it would be announced that no, these were just agricultural pesticides, "bug spray", in other words. They made the WMD disappear by redefining it out of existence. If you spray chemicals on your crops to kill bugs, its ag pesticide. If you spray it on Iranians, its nerve agent. In fact, the Iraqis used to call the stuff they sprayed on the Iranians just that, "bug spray".
If the plant is operated by the army, if the poisons are stored in a military ammo dump, think about it, they are not intended for crops.
So all this time, we've been wondering where the WMD went, when all along we had found them and merely defined them out of existence.
What I always wanted to know was "who" decided they were not WMD, and why has the administration let it go.
Now we are finding chemical artillery shells, and these are being discounted in the same way the poison stockpiles were discounted.
And its a big desert out there. There is more to be found, and this doesn't begin to include what was moved to Syria.
It should say "some figures in the administration." There are some bureaucrats in Intelligence, including Negroponte who doesn't want to roil the waters in the CIA, and some holdovers in the Defense Department, who obviously don't want this information to be released. However, Donald Rumsfeld very publicly acknowledged the existence of these weapons and said they were very dangerous.
“So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real" - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003
"I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." -- John F. Kerry, Oct 2002
Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security." -- Hillary Clinton, October 10, 2002
America is united in its determination to eliminate forever the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." -- John Edwards, Oct 10, 2002
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002
"I share the administration's goals in dealing with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Gephardt in September of 2002
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. -- Wesley Clark on September 26, 2002
"Hussein has chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten time since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb 18, 1998
"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998
"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." -- From a letter signed by Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, & John Kerry among others on October 9, 1998
Baghdad's regime did use such weapons in the past. Today, a number of evidences may lead to think that, over the past four years, in the absence of international inspectors, this country has continued armament programs." -- Jacques Chirac, October 16, 2002
http://home.earthlink.net/~mmmhiggins/IRAQWMD.html#TOP
With regard to Iraq, WMDs and the Bush administration, a greater disconnect exists between knowledge and action, than what is contained in the issue presented by the old 500 WMD shells. That greater issue is information the administration has been given concerning sites in Iraq where new WMDs were buried in 2002-early 2003, cement covered their graves and lakes flooded on top of the cement - yet these suspected sites have not been investigated to date.
The GOP House representatives who want to authenticate the 500 old WMD shells, as part of the valid claim of pre-war WMDs in Iraq, should be hosting a joint news conference to report on and demand the administration investigate the sites of buried WMDs the administration has been told about that it refuses to look into.
The administration's blindness, deafness or sense of not-caring about this issue has made me conclude that the permanent government, under GWB, even with a Rumsfield at DOD, can insulate itself from alot of sins, unless a citizenry that is better informed than the President is by that permanent government, can force the President's attention through our elected representatives lifting these issues up in public.
Yes, I said "better informed than the President", because GWB's personal habits (1)defer extensively to his subordinates within his general position on something (does not want to look at details), (2)does not read or explore much for any information outside of what is presented to him by his own official channels (hates to read), (3)even prefers that alot of information that is written for him be presented to him in oral briefings. A perfect mechanism for the permanent government to hide alot of sins from a President, while seeming to be carrying out official policy; because it has, it keeps, it hides many of the inconvenient details from a President that generally does not want and does not inquire about details.
Well-said. In 2004 I started collecting every news item I could find on the whereabouts and proof of Saddam's WMD program (one item I will post shortly). But as the White House began to play down the WMD story, and particularly began to parrot the "conventional wisdom" (i.e., lies) that Saddam didn't have WMDs, I figured why should I knock myself out looking into the public record to verify Saddam's WMD threat when the Administration itself doesn't seem to care? This has been the biggest mystery regarding Pres. Bush's administration.
On April 13, 2004, Jordanian security forces foiled an al-Qaeda plot against the nation’s intelligence agency. The plot, reported on April 26 by Agence France-Presse (AFP), involved a plan to use trucks packed with 20 tons of chemical explosives, including blistering agents, nerve gas and choking agents. Jordanian officials estimated that had the attack been successful, the amount of chemicals involved had the potential of killing up to 80,000 people.
Six members of the terror network which planned to execute the plot were arrested and four others were killed in a series of raids in Jordan which concluded on April 20. The ringleader of the terror network was a Jordanian, Azmi al-Jayussi. Jayussi had been recruited for the operation in Iraq by al-Qaeda leader Abu Massab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was identified by Jordanian officials as the mastermind of chemical weapons plot.
According to a Jordanian security official interviewed by AFP, “Jayussi started to plan for the operation in Iraq where he had moved to from Afghanistan. He received direct orders from his leader, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, to whom Jayussi had pledged allegiance and absolute obedience since he met him in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.”
In a taped statement, Jayussi related how his first encounter with Zarqawi had been in Herat, Afghanistan, and how he later connected up with him again in Saddam’s Iraq. He stated that it was Zarqawi who had trained him in the use of “explosives and strong poisons.” Excerpts of Jayussi’s taped statement, which were aired on ABC’s “Nightline” on April 26, 2004, revealed that the planning and training for the WMD plot took place in Iraq more than a year before the US-led coalition invasion.
In Iraq, Zarqawi introduced Jayussi to another of his Jordanian followers, Muwafaq Adwan. Muwafaq was killed in a shootout with Jordanian police in Amman on April 20. Jayussi told Jordanian security officials that Zarqawi had ordered Muwafaq and him to Jordan where “[o]ur mission was to instigate military work” in the country.
In Jordan, Jayussi was aided by several Syrians under Zarqawi’s direction. The aim of their operation was to attack Jordan and its ruling family as part of a “war against crusaders and infidels.”
Anti-terror experts said that the network’s 20 tons of explosives would have caused “two explosions: a traditional one and a chemical in an area of two square kilometers.”
“The chemical explosion would lead to the emission of poisonous chemical gasses which would have caused physical deformities and direct injuries to the lungs and eyesight,” said one of the experts on a Jordanian news program. “Outside this circle, the human loss would amount to around 80,000 people dead and 160,000 injured.”
To fund the operation, Jayussi said that he received the equivalent of $170,000 (US) in installments from Zarqawi, sent through messengers, most of them from Syria.
Another arrested suspect, Ahmed Samir, told Jordanian security that he had been trained in Iraq by a Zarqawi aide and worked on explosives for two months in a factory in Ramtha, near the Jordanian-Syrian border.
(Comment: News of this foiled plot should have provided conclusive proof that what President Bush feared, and which justified the effort to take Saddam down, was real – that Saddam allowed the operation of terrorist groups, especially al-Qaeda, within Iraq, and that terrorists trained in Iraq and supplied with a significant quality of WMD materials from Iraq, could have international reach. News of this foiled terrorist plot to use WMDs in a spectacular attack in Jordan received scant attention in the US media. While ABC’s “Nightline” carried the story, and similar stories appeared in articles published in the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, the American news media did not give this news the significant level of attention it deserved. The news media’s mantra is that the failure to find stockpiles of WMDs in Iraq is a scandal that rests on the head of George W. Bush. “Bush lied!” The real scandal here is the failure or refusal of the American news media to report and pursue events which give credence and justification to President Bush’s policies in Iraq.)
"On April 13, 2004, Jordanian security forces foiled an al-Qaeda plot against the nation’s intelligence agency. The plot, reported on April 26 by Agence France-Presse (AFP), involved a plan to use trucks packed with 20 tons of chemical explosives, including blistering agents, nerve gas and choking agents. Jordanian officials estimated that had the attack been successful, the amount of chemicals involved had the potential of killing up to 80,000 people."
Excellent find!
Got a link?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
