Free Republic

'Sarin Bomb!' v The Dud Heard Round the World by Scott Ritter from the May 21, 2004 edition Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache By Scott Ritter DELMAR, N.Y. v In the mid-1980s I served as the intelligence officer for a Marine artillery battalion. Stationed in Twentynine Palms, Calif., I would often find myself deployed in the field, on exercises where thousands of live artillery rounds were fired downrange. In keeping with the Marine artillery motto of "shoot, move, communicate," we were always moving from one firing location to another to simulate modern war. This mobility...

Scott Ritter, formerly the top United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, has long argued that claims that Saddam Hussein possessed biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes were massively exaggerated. His public campaign against the US-led invasion of Iraq made him a hated figure of the American right, which still demonises him as an apologist for the ousted Baghdad regime. Now, at the very moment when the absence of weapons of mass destruction in post-Saddam Iraq should make Mr Ritter feel vindicated, he faces new questions about his relationship with Baghdad after he quit his UN job in 1998. Mr Ritter...

Dear Saddam, Remember when we first met on that magic night in Baghdad in 1983? You were gassing those wacky Iranians with chemical weapons and having a grand old time, but Ronnie and I just said hey, 'dictators will be dictators' - know what I mean?!! Hahaha. It's a good thing we sold you all those weapons and military equipment that you used in crushing your own people. Lord knows what might have happened if we hadn't stepped in to help you out. What a time it was too! We sold you all kinds of fun things - anthrax, VX...

Question: I have not yet reached the age of puberty. Is it correct that a girl could get married before her menses start, or is that just a traditional myth?. Answer: Praise be to Allaah. Firstly: Marriage to a young girl before she reaches puberty is permissible according to sharee’ah, and it was narrated that there was scholarly consensus on this point. 1 – Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And those of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the ‘Iddah (prescribed period), if you have doubt (about their periods), is three months;...