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Third Infantry Finds Chemical Weapons
CBN News ^ | March 26, 2003 | Paul Strand CBN News War Correspondent

Posted on 03/26/2003 12:45:20 PM PST by Freedomsfriend

"What I just heard from a highly placed source here is that they've discovered, they've captured chemical warheads, they're Russian, they have Russian writing all over them and they are chemical warheads."

CBN.com – The Third Infantry Division has captured evidence of chemical weapons as they are fighting Iraq’s Republican Guard just 60 miles south of Baghdad. The evidence has yet to be confirmed, but CBN News War Correspondent Paul Strand delivered this exclusive information by satellite phone early Wednesday. PAT ROBERTSON: We are going to our CBN News War Correspondent Paul Strand, embedded with the Army's Third Infantry Division. That's the spearhead of the attack against Baghdad. Paul, we understand you have some shocking news about chemical warheads. Tell us about it.

PAUL STRAND: Yes, Pat, I do. First of all, I hope you can hear me because I am out in that raging sandstorm and it’s hard to hear you. I hope you hear me okay. What I just heard from a highly placed source here is that they've discovered, they've captured chemical warheads, they're Russian, they have Russian writing all over them and they are chemical warheads. Of course, they can't get into them and find out if there’s chemicals because once they open them they'd all die right there on the spot. But they're gonna ship them off for testing.

They also captured a launcher that was able to shoot these very munitions that they've captured. And they’ve captured a man who mixes the chemicals, that was his job with the Medina Division which is the division we're facing right now near the city of Karbala. So all these things leading the military here to believe we might have been hit by chemical shells any time now, and we're not sure we've got them all. So those are the developments here near Karbala about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

ROBERTSON: Paul, I can hear you loud and clear, so don't worry about that. Let me ask you this, are these the type of weapons of mass destruction that has been talked about so much by President Bush?

STRAND: I’m not sure, Pat. I’ve told you just everything I heard. It happened just a few minutes ago. I would think this is definitely the smoking gun. It’s so strange, because the joke before this war was that Saddam says, "I have no chemical weapons, and if you invade I will use them on you." And now we find out they’re right out there with the frontline troops.

And another disturbing thing I heard a few days ago, was that he has pushed the level of authority for using these weapons down to the commander level. Not up around him, but the very commanders out on the line, they can use these things, they can choose to use them. So that means young officers have the orders now that they can go ahead and use these things if they feel like they are about to be overtaken. So that’s another disturbing development. Not only have we found the warheads, but officers out on the frontline can use them.

ROBERTSON: Paul, are you protected against this kind of thing? Will your suits do it and do you have some kind of an injection that can be used to counteract the effects of VX or whatever?

STRAND: Yes, Pat. We already, from the day we entered Iraq, we have had the suits on, the trousers and the pants, and boots, and gloves, and then we put the masks on. The mask fully protects us and the hood wraps around it tightly. And then we have in our backpacks, we have atropine we can shoot into our legs against nerve agents, we have pills to take against things like anthrax. So we’re pretty well covered. And the soldiers I have talked to seem very comfortable about getting hit with this stuff. The only thing is nobody wants to live in those masks for weeks.

ROBERTSON: Paul, I am told that the sandstorm may be the worst in recent memory, you know, in the last 17 or 18 years. Can you tell us about the sandstorm? Is it growing in intensity?

STRAND: It is about the worst weather I have ever felt in my life. Last night I was sleeping outdoors like usual, and it was so bad I jumped into a Humvee. There, with all of the windows closed and everything, the Humvee just filled with sand, there was so much sand it just came in through the little air holes or whatever. And the wind was so strong, it felt like the Humvee would get picked up and thrown over — and you know, Humvees are big, strong, giant vehicles. Stuff was flying through the air, smashing into the side of the vehicle all night long. And the air is completely yellow. You can't see any normal light, you can’t see the sky. It got dark like an hour before it was supposed to. It’s just truly an amazing sandstorm.

ROBERTSON: The Iraqis are saying it’s the judgment of Allah upon the attackers. Are we finding any bright spots in it for the American troops?

STRAND: We are. The soldiers have so much gear that can operate in this kind of thing that they say actually some obscuring factors like this can help them. Now the thing is, the battle has been raging in Karbala, back and forth, so both sides seem to be still operating in this environment. But I understand if it does go away here in the next day or two, that we will just really smash ahead as hard as we can. You know, I must admit, the first thing I said when the sandstorm came in, a lieutenant and I were sitting in the Humvee with it roaring all around us, and I said, "It’s at a moment like this that a theologian asks, ‘What is God trying to tell us?’"

ROBERTSON: [laughter] Paul, I think a lot of people are going to be asking that. This is kind of a trite statement, but as they say, stay safe.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blixiespixies; cbn; embeddedreport; illegalweapons; michaeldobbs; paulstrand; wmd
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To: Freedomsfriend
Add this to the 6000 chem suits and masks they were hoarding because 'we' were going to use chem weapons on them.
261 posted on 03/26/2003 2:47:27 PM PST by JustPiper (Anti-War Protestors Are The Terrorist's Bodyguard!!!)
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet
Now you've gone and dashed my hopes of someday having him re-replace Hillary.
262 posted on 03/26/2003 2:48:07 PM PST by brewcrew (It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. - Jonathan Swift)
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To: colorado tanker
Perhaps, but I think that the explanation for the contraband will come down to at least one, if not all, of these scenarios:

1. Russian mafia.
2. "Straw pruchases" by third countries (the Ukraine and Syria are likely bets, but I would not discount the French, either).
3. Bureaucrats who got a piece of the action and approved sales that shouldn't have been approved.

For me, the key is not what the Russians SAY or even DO in the UN. Instead, they key is what they do outside the UN.
263 posted on 03/26/2003 2:49:24 PM PST by hchutch ("But tonight we get EVEN!" - Ice-T)
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To: hchutch
the key is what they do outside the UN

Agreed. And what they appear to be doing is trading weapons for cheap oil.

264 posted on 03/26/2003 2:54:00 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker; Poohbah
But that doesn't make sense to me, particularly since cheap oil would mean they make less money - hard currency, I might add - off the Caspian Sea oilfields they have found. Plus there is whatever they find in Siberia.

Things were a large jumble in Russia for a while, and that sort of thing takes much longer to solve than to create. Rogue companies and Russian mafia connections are a lot more plausible than Putin crossing us with direct arms sales. He might be former KGB, but he is not stupid. And doing anything that would place him on the bad side of an enraged United States of America would qualify as stupid, as Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, and Osama bin Laden could testify to - if, that is, they are willing to come out of whatever rock they are hiding under to avoid ending up with a nasty case of dead.
265 posted on 03/26/2003 3:06:11 PM PST by hchutch ("But tonight we get EVEN!" - Ice-T)
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To: bluecollarman
I'm not accusing CBN of lying. Maybe the source is lying.
266 posted on 03/26/2003 3:07:14 PM PST by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: hchutch
And doing anything that would place him on the bad side of an enraged United States of America would qualify as stupid, as Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, and Osama bin Laden could testify to - if, that is, they are willing to come out of whatever rock they are hiding under to avoid ending up with a nasty case of dead.

Heard it could be contagious, too.

267 posted on 03/26/2003 3:07:30 PM PST by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!)
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To: Pres Raygun
Why would the "made in Russia" part be less credible? If they would sell jammers and night vision goggles, why not chems?
268 posted on 03/26/2003 3:13:17 PM PST by DittoJed2
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To: concerned about politics
"Police arrested two Nobel Peace Prize winners along with more than 30 other people protesting on Wednesday near the White House against the U.S.-led war against Iraq."

Jimmy 'Da Peanut Man' Carter and Yasser, perhaps? (had to ask)

269 posted on 03/26/2003 3:14:41 PM PST by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions = VERY expensive, very SCRATCHY toilet paper.)
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To: DittoJed2
Why would the "made in Russia" part be less credible?

Because he can make his own.

270 posted on 03/26/2003 3:17:58 PM PST by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!)
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To: hchutch
My understanding is that Russia re-sells cheap oil from Iraq to the West at market prices, making a nice profit. It really doesn't hurt their own sales, since they're selling everything they produce and their winter production is limited.

I know getting caught would be very damaging to Russo-American relations, but in hindsight I don't think the Russians, French and Germans ever thought they'd be caught. They dodged us for 12 years with 16 UN resolutions and knew they could block UNSC action. I don't think they ever thought the US would pull the trigger. But for 9-11, we probably never would have.

This stuff could have come from the Mafia or Syria, but I tend to doubt it. Kornet is Russia's most advanced anti-tank ground mount missile and they seem to be deploying it in numbers and far forward, indicating numbers beyond the Mafia's ability to supply or Syria's desire to give up.

271 posted on 03/26/2003 3:18:53 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: All
Fox just had their embedded guy with the 3rd on ... no mention of this ...
272 posted on 03/26/2003 3:20:18 PM PST by Mr. Buzzcut
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To: Poohbah
My understanding is that the Russians sold a whole lot of stuff to Iraq and other mid-east nations during the cold war and probably beyond. If these chems were purchased before Saddam had the capability of making his own, they could easily have been stored up as well. Saddam's capability has increased since Desert Storm, but I think he is still behind Russia and is DEFINATELY behind the US.
273 posted on 03/26/2003 3:36:53 PM PST by DittoJed2
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To: Mr. Buzzcut
Question is...why didn't they ask him about it. It's already out there.
274 posted on 03/26/2003 3:49:20 PM PST by bluecollarman
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To: DittoJed2
My understanding is that the Russians sold a whole lot of stuff to Iraq and other mid-east nations during the cold war and probably beyond. If these chems were purchased before Saddam had the capability of making his own, they could easily have been stored up as well. Saddam's capability has increased since Desert Storm, but I think he is still behind Russia and is DEFINATELY behind the US.

Actually, Saddam wanted to buy chemicals from Russia, but got turned down during the Cold War. That's why he worked so hard to get his own.

Seems Ivan didn't want to take a chance on non-controlled terrorists getting ahold of Russian chemicals and using them in Western Europe. That might have been enough to start World War III back in those days.

275 posted on 03/26/2003 3:53:45 PM PST by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!)
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To: Pearls Before Swine
I read the story about the Russia bio-chem program and they had some nasty bugs etc. The guy who designed a lot of it caught a bug and died a horrible death as a lab experiment.

I sure hope that stuff never finds its way into the open, but you know someday it will.

276 posted on 03/26/2003 4:31:04 PM PST by ez (Advise and Consent = Debate and VOTE!!)
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To: Freedomsfriend
The Russians will sell anything to anybody. They have no morals. Never did. A nation of criminals.

This is the thanks we get for allowing them the pretense of being a world power. For all the loans, aid, know-how. They are Garbage!
277 posted on 03/26/2003 5:08:42 PM PST by ffusco ("Essiri sempri la santu fora la chiesa.")
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To: All
o'reilly discussed this with one of the military guys on his panel who had also heard the story and both said that they tried to confirm with pentagon but couldn't get anywhere
278 posted on 03/26/2003 5:35:30 PM PST by JustinV
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To: ffusco
Report: Russia Has Smallpox Biological Weapon
American Foreign Policy Council
August 23, 1999

American military scientists are developing defense vaccines against smallpox -- a disease wiped out in nature, but one that still threatens thanks to ongoing biological weapons programs.
Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. According to the Washington Times, "there are reports that Russia has created a biological weapon utilizing variola.




279 posted on 03/26/2003 5:50:49 PM PST by honway
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To: honway
Just heard on PmSNBC being discussed w/Lester Holt and a pentagon correspondent Jeannie Ohm.
280 posted on 03/26/2003 7:13:54 PM PST by dagnabit
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