Hope springs eternal for Bush: Chemical Weapons found?

Anaxagoras · July 1, 2004, 4:25pm

There have been several false positives before, and this may be yet another false positive. Still, it seems news-worthy.

Salon:

Polish troops have found two warheads in Iraq believed to contain a deadly nerve agent, but it is not clear what period the weapons came from, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The two warheads were found in early June in a bunker in the area controlled by Polish forces, and they tested positive for cyclosarin, a substance many times stronger than sarin, the ministry said in a statement.

“There is no doubt that the warheads contain chemical weapons,” Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told TVN24. “The problem is what period they came from, whether the (Persian) Gulf War or earlier, and whether they were usable, partly usable or not at all.”

Another dozen were found later in June and were being tested in Baghdad and the United States, he said.

“Some of them are very corroded. They are probably not usable, but are dangerous to the local environment,” Szmajdzinski said.

In May, an artillery shell apparently filled with the sarin nerve agent was discovered at the side of the road in Baghdad by U.S. forces. Officials at the time stopped short of claiming the munition was definite evidence of a large weapons stockpile in prewar Iraq or evidence of recent production by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Poland sent troops to the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein and commands some 6,200 international troops – including some 2,400 from Poland – in south-central Iraq.

That’s the whole article, but here’s the link:

http://salon.com/news/wire/2004/07/01/sarin/index.html

Moore · July 1, 2004, 4:37pm

There is a great polish joke in there somewhere.

MarchHare · July 1, 2004, 5:19pm

A few dozen corroded artillery shells does not a stockpile make. And it certainly doesn’t pose an immenent threat to the United States.

Midnight_Son · July 1, 2004, 5:28pm

Everything poses a threat to the US!

Linoleum · July 1, 2004, 5:30pm

Completely irrelevant.

It’s hardly surprising that there are assorted remnants of chemical arsenals floating around. The nature of one shell found several weeks ago was a bit unexpected but not a made-yesterday kind of smoking gun.

To me the most interesting thing about the WMD aspect of the Iraq affair is the unanswered question: what did Saddam think he possessed? The intelligence failures of the great powers and the political spin put on intelligence interpretation has been covered in great detail. Beneath it all however, there was reasoning for the analysis. Perhaps the most bizarre sphere would be the development programs and facilities or lack thereof. The very nature of the Iraqi system would be the programs were such that the left hand wouldn’t know what the right hand was doing. But the different hands did exist in some form, but if so they were lying to the head. But it was known there were other hands, and surely they weren’t lying? Why the elaborate games and misdirection with the UN inspection teams?

An interesting question is whether or not anybody outside or inside Iraq was truly in a position to know the emperor had no clothes. Iraq didn’t put up a very convincing performance leading up to the war, and as it turns out, Bush and Blair weren’t bluffing.

edit: +1 iraq war buzzword bingo on G-3 for ‘imminent threat’ used on page 1.

Andrew_Mayer · July 2, 2004, 12:33am

Every time they report that a chemical weapon is “found” a guy should walk out with a trombone and play “Wah wah wah wah waaaaaah” afterwards.

Idar_Thorvaldsen · July 2, 2004, 1:56am

Linoleum:

To me the most interesting thing about the WMD aspect of the Iraq affair is the unanswered question: what did Saddam think he possessed? The intelligence failures of the great powers and the political spin put on intelligence interpretation has been covered in great detail. Beneath it all however, there was reasoning for the analysis. Perhaps the most bizarre sphere would be the development programs and facilities or lack thereof. The very nature of the Iraqi system would be the programs were such that the left hand wouldn’t know what the right hand was doing. But the different hands did exist in some form, but if so they were lying to the head. But it was known there were other hands, and surely they weren’t lying? Why the elaborate games and misdirection with the UN inspection teams?

And what are the feets’ role in all of this?

Andrew_Mayer · July 2, 2004, 7:37pm

Wah wah wah wah waaaaaah:

Warheads found in Iraq not chemical weapons, military says

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Multinational forces in Iraq (news - web sites) said that more than a dozen missile warheads said to contain mustard gas or sarin have tested negative for chemical agents.

chet · July 2, 2004, 9:42pm

You guys are so behind the times. WMD searches are so 2003. The new game is to claim you killed some leader of a terrorist group, then of course recant it 2 days later.

Chet