Missiles loaded with Sarin & Mustard gas found. -NPR/Reu

[Col. Crackpot]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 3Apr7.html

Reuters
Monday, April 7, 2003; 10:25 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio reported on Monday.

NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not just trace elements."

It said the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport.

U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment.

The United States and Britain launched the war against Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons.

Also, US Troops being treated for Chemical Weapons Exposure:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/apr03/131713.asp

Nerve agents detected in Iraq
Compound evacuated; troops show symptoms
Knight Ridder News Service
Last Updated: April 6, 2003

Albu Muhawish, Iraq - U.S. soldiers evacuated an Iraqi military compound on Sunday after tests by a mobile laboratory confirmed evidence of sarin nerve gas. More than a dozen soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division had been sent earlier for chemical weapon decontamination after they exhibited symptoms of exposure to nerve agents


The evacuation of dozens of soldiers Sunday night followed a day of tests for the nerve agent that came back positive, then negative. Additional tests Sunday night by an Army Fox mobile nuclear, biological and chemical detection laboratory confirmed the existence of sarin.

Sgt. Todd Ruggles, a biochemical expert attached to the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne said, "I was right" that chemical agents Iraq has denied having were present.

In addition to the soldiers sent for decontamination, a Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman and two Iraqi prisoners of war also were hosed down with water and bleach.

U.S. soldiers found the suspect chemicals at two sites: an agricultural warehouse containing 55-gallon chemical drums and a military compound, which soldiers had begun searching Saturday. The soldiers also found hundreds of gas masks and chemical suits at the military complex, along with large numbers of mortar and artillery rounds.

Chemical tests for nerve agents in the warehouse came back positive for so-called G-Series nerve agents, which include sarin and Tabun, both of which Iraq has been known to possess. More than a dozen infantry soldiers who guarded the military compound Saturday night came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to very low levels of nerve agent, including vomiting, dizziness and skin blotches.

A hand-held scanning device also indicated that the soldiers had been exposed to a nerve agent. Two tests were negative, but further testing indicated sarin was present.

Sarin can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and is considered one of the most feared but also the most volatile of the nerve agents. A cloud of sarin can dissipate after several minutes or hours depending on wind and temperature.

The soldiers, journalists and prisoners of war who tested positive were isolated as everyone else evacuated the area. After about 45 minutes, the group was walked, single-file, down a road for about a city block to where two water trucks awaited them. The men stepped between the two trucks and were hosed down as they lathered themselves with a detergent containing bleach.

1st Lt. Elena Aravjo of the 63rd Chemical Company said she thought there might well be chemical weapons at the site. "We do think there's stuff in this compound and the other (agricultural warehouse) compound, but we think it's buried," she said. "I'm really suspicious of both of those compounds."

The suspicions were widespread. The 2nd Brigade's commander, Col. Joseph Anderson, toured the site on Sunday, as did Brig. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne for operations. A short time later, the division commander, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, also visited the site. They made no official comment about suspected nerve agents.

Troops not wearing chemical protection suits later reoccupied the military complex, while sections of the agricultural warehouse remained taped off.

[theski]

Well if this is true, how long untill the Left,the liberals, the French, claim that we planted them and that Saddam is more compassionate for not using the weapons???

[Col. Crackpot]

Well if this is true, how long untill the Left,the liberals, the French, claim that we planted them and that Saddam is more compassionate for not using the weapons???

you don't get much farther left than NPR..... How they keep getting government funding while constantly slandering the government is beyond me. You know, a much as a hate to pay a compliment to NPR, if they are reporting it , it must be true, because they sure as hell wouldn't lift a finger to further the President's agenda.

[Master of Ossus]

Well if this is true, how long untill the Left,the liberals, the French, claim that we planted them and that Saddam is more compassionate for not using the weapons???

Actually, I will bet that the French admit that the weapons were present, but claim that inspectors would have found them if the Americans had given their program a chance.

[Knife]

Well if this is true, how long untill the Left,the liberals, the French, claim that we planted them and that Saddam is more compassionate for not using the weapons???

Actually, I will bet that the French admit that the weapons were present, but claim that inspectors would have found them if the Americans had given their program a chance.

What they won't mention, is that another twelve years or so would be required, durring which, the French will expand their trade with Iraq.

[Master of Ossus]

Actually, I will bet that the French admit that the weapons were present, but claim that inspectors would have found them if the Americans had given their program a chance.

What they won't mention, is that another twelve years or so would be required, durring which, the French will expand their trade with Iraq.

Exactly. I don't know about the twelve year time frame, the French will probably claim that weapons inspectors could have worked faster than that, but all that time the French would be investing more and more money and buying more and more Iraqi oil.

[jegs2]

The French miscalculated events, and now they will pay a political and economic price.

[theski]

I believe that Chraic has publicly stated that he would not "believe any US claims of WMD found in Iraq" only in UN weapons Inspectors

[Knife]

Fox news in now reporting the same thing.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83449,00.html

Pentagon sources said a prisoner of war led U.S. forces to a specific site near Karbala, near a camp described as a military facility, and that preliminary field tests on substances found at the site suggest they contain several banned chemical weapons, including deadly nerve agents.

Maj. Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division said the nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite appeared to be present at the site, Reuters reported.

Although, later on they say...

"If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove [Saddam Hussein] has the weapons we have said he has all along," Hamlet said. "But right now we just don't know."

A Knight Ridder News Service journalist traveling with the 101st said initial tests of samples from the facility were inconsistent. Some tests did not indicate chemical weapons, while others indicated the presence of G-class nerve agents -- which include sarin and tabun -- and mustard agent, a blistering chemical first used in World War I.

So we are still awaiting the super uber tests instead of the field kits to comfirm this shit. CBS radio is also reporting about the same thing.

[Master of Ossus]

I believe that Chraic has publicly stated that he would not "believe any US claims of WMD found in Iraq" only in UN weapons Inspectors

That just proves he's irrational. It doesn't matter who finds the things, if they do in fact exist.

[Hamel]

Friend just called and said around 2:40 CNN reported that it was a chemical for mosquitos along the Euphrates~

Imma checking the internet right now

[Col. Crackpot]

Friend just called and said around 2:40 CNN reported that it was a chemical for mosquitos along the Euphrates~

Imma checking the internet right now

then what the hell is it doing loaded in to missiles? are these special tank-driving mosquitos?

[Hamel]

"Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide

Yahoo link~ sorry if it was already posted

[Knife]

Friend just called and said around 2:40 CNN reported that it was a chemical for mosquitos along the Euphrates~

Imma checking the internet right now

then what the hell is it doing loaded in to missiles? are these special tank-driving mosquitos?

Hey, those anti-mosquito missiles only fly a couple of clicks, so they are perfectly legal.

[Master of Ossus]

"Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide

Yahoo link~ sorry if it was already posted

There are numerous discrepencies between that story and the ones that others have been reporting. Are you sure that this is the same incident?

[Hamel]

"Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide

Yahoo link~ sorry if it was already posted

There are numerous discrepencies between that story and the ones that others have been reporting. Are you sure that this is the same incident?

I... think so.

Actually, I'm pretty sure

[Col. Crackpot]

"Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide

Yahoo link~ sorry if it was already posted

There are numerous discrepencies between that story and the ones that others have been reporting. Are you sure that this is the same incident?

I... think so.

Actually, I'm pretty sure

so then i'll ask again, what is it doing loaded into missiles? or is that a seperate inncedent?

[Knife]

It would appear to be different. Hamel's article says the shit they found near Najef, while the other one mentions Karbala as the nearest town.

Karbala is between Najef and Baghdad, but far enough away from either so as not to be equated with one of the cities. Najef is the place where they found those drums, right? I think it is an article on that one, not the supposed missiles, though I might be wrong.

[Master of Ossus]

NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had claimed might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production turned out to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as originally thought.

The incident everyone else was discussing took place near Karbala, which isn't very close to Najaf.

A military intelligence officer for the US 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, Captain Adam Mastrianni, told AFP that comprehensive tests Monday determined the presence of the pesticide compounds.

Rumsfeld said minutes ago that it takes days to conduct such tests in the United States. I would be astonished if they got results so quickly. Other military officials said that further testing would go on as early as tomorrow.

Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin -- a powerful toxin that quickly affects the nervous system -- after US soldiers guarding the facility near Hindiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, became ill.

Mastrianni said: "They thought it was a nerve agent. That's what it tested. But it is pesticide."

He said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and chemists had disproved the preliminary field tests results and established that pesticide was in fact the substance involved.

Mastrianni added that the dozen sick soldiers, who had become nauseated, dizzy and developed skin blotches, had all recovered.

The belated correction was an embarrassment for the US forces in the region, who had been quick to say that they thought they had finally found the proof they have been actively looking for, that Iraq (news - web sites) was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

This is a "belated correction?" It happened before they claimed they were even going to run a test.

A spokesman for the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, Major Ross Coffman, had told journalists at Baghdad's airport that the site "could be a smoking gun".

The officer who said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that this would be the smoking gun is part of the 101st Airborne, not the 3rd ID.

"We are talking about finding a site of possible weapons of mass destruction," he had added.

But in Qatar, where the US Central Command (CentCom) is directing the US-led invasion of Iraq, officials had been much more cautious.

"We don't have any extraordinary finds at this point while we're still looking," CentCom spokesman US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news briefing.

He expressed confidence that the US forces would eventually find the proof they were looking for.

Troops, he said, would be increasingly investigating suspected sites, both ones that have been identified beforehand, and others "that can be done on an ad hoc basis where we find some piece of information we didn't previously have -- and frankly we expect there will be a lot of that."

In a further sign that US commanders are unconcerned about an Iraqi nuclear, biological or chemical attack, they ordered forces near Baghdad on Monday to shed their protective gear.

"It's great to have them off," Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla, commander of the 1st Marines Battalion, said after his troops stripped down to lighter camouflage garb.

Padilla said an order to take off the cumbersome and hot protection suits had come down from his superiors.

"They made an assessment and they determined there was not a serious threat right now," he said.

Thus, I conclude that if this is referring to the same incident, it isn't a very reliable article.

[Hamel]

CNN says that soldiers exposed were expressing symptoms related to exhaustion and reactions to pesticide

[Sea Skimmer]

CNN says that soldiers exposed were expressing symptoms related to exhaustion and reactions to pesticide

Which are very closely related to military nerve agents. The on site equipment probably can't tell the difference so they need more detailed tests state side. That's the only reason it would take several days.

[Hamel]

CNN says that soldiers exposed were expressing symptoms related to exhaustion and reactions to pesticide

Which are very closely related to military nerve agents. The on site equipment probably can't tell the difference so they need more detailed tests state side. That's the only reason it would take several days.

Looks like we won't get a surefire answer for a few days then.

[Knife]

CNN says that soldiers exposed were expressing symptoms related to exhaustion and reactions to pesticide

And there top banner with the headline mentions that it is at Hindiyah. Can't find it on a map yet, but thats the third city mentioned in these articles.

[Knife]

small update, Hindiyah seems to be east and nort of Karbala but still south of Baghdad. Further away from Najaf where Hamel's article used as a reference point for the article.

[Sea Skimmer]

CNN says that soldiers exposed were expressing symptoms related to exhaustion and reactions to pesticide

And there top banner with the headline mentions that it is at Hindiyah. Can't find it on a map yet, but thats the third city mentioned in these articles.

Its slightly east of Karbala and north of Najaf on the Euprates river. It shows up on my 1 : 5,000,000 map