UN Inspectors find Mustard Gas Shells

AP | 12/05/2002

[rumrunner]

Demetrius Perricos, who is leading one of the U.N. inspection teams in Iraq, said Wednesday his team of international arms experts secured about a dozen Iraqi artillery shells containing the mustard liquid agent.

[hchutch]

Saddam's gonna be busted.

[Miss Marple]

The Geneva Protocol of 1925 banned the use of all chemical agents in battle, including mustard gas. Iraq was one of the signatories to that agreement.

[cake_crumb]

"UN Inspectors find Mustard Gas Shells"

I'd like to know HOW they found them: did they trip over them while searching for a Republican Guard agent to ask directions to their next "surprise" inspection site, or did Saddam decide to throw them a small bone to keep their loyalty as the rest of the world starts dreaming up "How many UN weapons inspectors does it take to..." jokes?

[finnman69]

These were shells buried by previous UN Inspectors apparently.....................

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/021204/1/35etp.html

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team probed the former nuclear centre at al-Tuwaitha, 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Baghdad, while another from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) travelled to the al-Muthanna complex, where Iraq launched its chemical and biological weapons research in 1985.

The UNMOVIC team was able to confirm that a stock of mustard gas shells left at al-Muthanna by its predecessors, who pulled out in 1998, had not been tampered with, its leader Dimitri Perricos said after the four-hour visit.

"We wanted to make sure that the mustard shells which were not destroyed were still there," he told reporters, explaining that the shells had been transferred to the vast desert site by the former UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1998.

"It's a pretty good quantity of mustard. There is no leakage."

Perricos described the interior of the al-Muthanna site where his team secured the shells as "like a moon scene".

"It is there that the most extensive destruction has taken place. That is where most munitions were destroyed," he said referring to the disarmament work of UNSCOM between 1991 and 1998.

[Blood of Tyrants]

D#$&ed! He wasn't supposed to find anything! Fire him IMMEDIATELY!

[pabianice]

Mustard gas, a blistering agent, is a WMD. It was used to terrible effect during WWI -- so much so that it was banned by treaty in the 1920s.

If it touches your skin you quickly develop huge, running, very painful bistering pustules along with third degree burns. If inhaled, it does the same thing to your lungs (don't want to think about it). If it gets in your eyes it blinds you like someone using a soldering iron.

It can be spread by airburst artillery shell or aircraft and kill thousands at a time. Yah, it's a WMD.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Maybe it's spicy deli.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

GP 1925 bump.

[montag813]

This is such a joke. The Iraqis giving up this WWI-era "gift" while keeping the good stuff hidden.

[CFC__VRWC]

Doubtless Hans Blix is on the phone with the Security Council playing CYA even as we post - "How the hell should I know how the team found mustard gas? Didn't you guys get the word to the Iraqis about where we were going to be looking today?"

[princess leah]

Well, December 7th is just another day or two away ~ sounds like a good day for bombing, don't ya know? Only THIS time, we do the bombing over bagdad!

[spokeshave]

"This is such a joke. The Iraqis giving up this WWI-era "gift" while keeping the good stuff hidden."

No....the joke's on Sadam....he gave up his WMD and nuclear program for 8 cans of WW1 mustard gas.......HA HA

[CFC__VRWC]

material breach

(In my best Clinton voice) ... "Well that just depends on what the definition of "material breach" is."

[Atlas Sneezed]

Why wait until the 7th?

[arkfreepdom]

I had a patient who was exposed to this during WWII, yes WWII, and his lungs were screwed.

[debg]

inspector to hans: "it's still there, untouched!"

hans: "proof to the world that saddam has abandoned his old ways!"

[kinghorse]

This would be known as

throwing the auditor a bone. If nothing was found then we could cry coverup. A few well placed gotchas goes a long way towards making the auditor feel like he earned his paycheck.

Oldest trick in the book.

[brewcrew]

Good God, he looks a little too much like Radar O'Reilly.