Posted on 06/19/2014 1:00:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sunni extremists in Iraq have occupied what was once Saddam Hussein's premier chemical-weapons production facility, a complex that still contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department and other U.S. government officials said.
U.S. officials don't believe the Sunni militants will be able to create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to move, officials said.
Nonetheless, the capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of the U.S.
"We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL," Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. "We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials."
The takeover underscores the chaos gripping Iraq and the possibility that the growing Sunni rebellion could further destabilize the Middle East. Not lost on U.S. government and military officials is the irony that the latest chapter in a war designed to strip Iraq of chemical weapons could see radical Sunni extremists take control of that same stockpile.
The rise of ISIS has reignited the debate about the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the Bush administration and the 2011 decision by the Obama administration to withdraw remaining military forces from the country. The takeover of a chemical weapons stockpile—even if the weapons are useless—seems likely to further intensify those debates.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Had a friend in Iraq said he himself personally witnessed wmds being moved. So, I always fought against the ‘found no wmds’ line from the media. I always wondered why bush/cheney never said a thing. (No matter what the subject, they wouldn’t defend themselves.)
This makes me sick.
These WMD’s such as they were were known about
and yes 0dumbo could have done something about the facility but so could Bush
I am pretty sure it was safer to leave them as they were
Hundreds of tons in that facility, Jim. Hundreds of lying, deceiving, 10 year old tons that 10 years ago were 10 years newer and 10 years more deadly.
I am truly at a loss for words at the disdain I feel for every single politician I’ve ever listened to.
I agree. And they both were obliged to do so — at least for those that made the sacrifices in Iraq. Allowing the Left and MSM to denounce the efforts unimpeded was disgraceful.
Liberals had to lie. This was all part of the "Selected, not elected" meme about President Bush.
Admitting that WMDs were there would have put pressure on the Left to start cooperating.
-PJ
Bookmarked
The Left/MSM made its bed on the WMD angle. I’m curious to see how this plays out over the next few days.
The MSM is not about covering news. It's about covering up news.
-PJ
TY! <3
The term ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ is a tricky term to use. Internationally, WMD’s have to be used in destruction to be labeled as such.
Had President Bush been able to use international legal terms such as precursors, accelerants and dual use materials (as in Syria’s recent use of clorine), we wouldn’t have any problems.
If you noticed when Obama called for military intervention in Syria, he used the correct terms.
When I did a Google search for articles about this story when it first broke, could not find them if you searched for the WMD abbreviation. Apparently it is being censored and dropped from the stories. You must search for chemical weapons not WMD. Funny.
Because they had to leave some in place and they did not want terrorist to know that. My guess is there was damage and corrosion so the WMD components could not all be moved or cleaned up easily. And WMD is a top Security clearance subject, especially loose ones. Most of the good for transport stuff was moved out by the Russians into Syria anyway. And admitting WMD in the battle space opens one up for a lot of litigation (Gulf War syndrome). But in the end, GWB was a team player, unlike Emperor Zero.
Someone please get this report to Megyn Kelly, ASAP!!
Paging Dick Cheney...please pick up the FoxNews courtesy phone...
Self ping.
obama’s brothers in arms. he supports sunnis over shites though that is like saying horse crap smells better than cow crap.
My understanding is that it is always known that SH had chemical weapons at one point, but had decommissioned them. What is at those sites are the decommissioned remnants of such weapons that where no longer usable, but difficult to destroy entirely.
I suspect that part of the reason Bush (and Clinton and 0bama) took a soft line on this is that the site might become exactly what it has become, a beacon for nut cases who don't care if they die so long as they can give a weapon to jihad. Even 0bama stopped bleating about it when he started attending the briefings. Is the stuff usable? Probably not. Is it safe? Absolutely not.
Has there been one republican point out that Hussein supposedly didn’t have these weapons of mass destruction?
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