Posted on 01/11/2004 2:10:52 PM PST by AUH2OY2K
Dozens of mortar rounds believed to be armed with mustard gas have been discovered buried in Iraq, Danish troops said yesterday.
If confirmed, the find will be the first discovery of chemical munitions in Iraq by coalition forces scouring the country for the weapons of mass destruction used as justification for the US-led invasion.
'All the instruments showed indications of the same type of chemical compound, namely blister gas,' the Danish Army said in a statement on its website. Final test results will be announced within two days.
However, the find of a small amount of mortar shells is unlikely to satisfy a growing chorus of criticism that the much-touted weapons of mass destruction either never existed or were destroyed years ago. The Danish team has found only 36 mortar rounds buried in desert about 45 miles from Al Amarah, a southern town. But it added that up to a 100 more could still be hidden at the location. The rounds were in plastic bags and some were leaking. It seems they had been buried for at least 10 years.
Even coalition military spokesmen said the weapons were likely to be a leftover from the Iran-Iraq war fought during the Eighties when mustard gas was widely used. The gas blisters the skin painfully and can be lethal if it is breathed in. Victims die in excruciating agony.
The discovery of the banned weapons will be greeted with enthusiasm in some quarters as it marks a rare success for those working with the coalition's Iraq Survey Group to find weapons of mass destruction. The US-led mission has been under heavy fire for failing to turn up any weapons. Instead its reports have focused on the existence of clandestine weapons development programmes, rather than actual weapons production.
Earlier this month the US pulled out a 400 strong military team from Iraq, which specialised in disposing of weapons of mass destruction. That move caused outrage as it was seen as a tacit admission that significant numbers of armaments were unlikely to be found.
Critics of the war got a further boost yesterday when a former senior official in President George Bush's administration claimed plans for invading Iraq were hatched just days after Bush came to power - and long before the terrorist atrocity of 11 September 2001.
In leaked excerpts from a TV interview to be broadcast tonight former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Bush's team began laying the groundwork in early 2001. 'From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,' O'Neill told the 60 Minutes programme.
O'Neill, sacked by Bush in December 2002, also attacked the 'Bush doctrine' of pre-emptive strike that has come to the fore of US international strategy since 11 September.
His comments were attacked immediately by Bush officials. 'It appears that the world according to Mr O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people,' Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said.
With a presidential election looming later this year the Bush administration is keen to move away from the Iraq issue and towards domestic problems.
With Iraq generating support for Democrat frontrunner Howard Dean, senior Republicans have instead focused on more voter-friendly topics such as relaxing immigration laws and a manned space mission to Mars.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Indiana | 415.00 |
11 |
37.73 |
275 |
1.51 |
85.00 |
6 |
Thanks for donating to Free Republic!
Move your locale up the leaderboard!
buried in desert
It's time to get a major contract with Caterpillar to bulldoze the entire country - and Syria!
buried in desert
It's time to get a major contract with Caterpillar to bulldoze the entire country - and Syria!
Howard Dean: "There is an interesting theory out there that I find interesting, It's said that Bush planted those 36 120mm mortar rounds filled with blister agent when he was in Iraq for Thanksgiving"
John Kerry: "George W. Bush should have been in Iraq looking for these WMD's instead of landing on that Carrier, And I know something about landing on Carriers. When I was in Vietnam, I saw those Carries from the Swift Boat I served on. The fact is, George W. Bush rushed to war, we could have dug those 120mm mortar's up anytime"
Richard Gephardt: "This is just another example why George W. Bush is a miserable failure, we had no plan, we should have built a real coalition instead of a fraudulent one. In this struggle for our survival, we need to (as a Nation) get on our knee's and beg the U'N. to join us, we need to surrender our sovereignty for the sake of not being viewed as unilateralist
Ping me when you do, and I'll email it to all the usual suspects out in 'netland.
I agree, But they need to stay out of the way and let the rest of us defend America
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.