Iraqi Mortar Shells Test Free of Chemicals

Associated Press via Yahoo News ^ | 1/18/04

[TexKat]

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - An Idaho lab has released conclusive results showing 36 mortar shells recently unearthed in southern Iraq contained no chemical warfare agent, the Danish army said Sunday.

Initial examinations by Danish and British troops had indicated a blister agent was in the shells, which apparently date to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The shells were found north of Basra on Jan. 9.

But tests by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho came back negative, the Danish Army Operational Command said in a statement. The results confirmed earlier findings by a U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group that was dispatched to the site in southern Iraq after the shells were found.

The 120mm shells, with no markings of origin, were found by Danish engineers and two Icelandic de-miners who were tipped off by local residents.

[mewzilla]

A) I don't think you load the shells until right before you're ready to fire them. Is that correct? B) Are these conventional weapons shells? Because if not, they're being empty means jack.

[mewzilla]

they're=their

[polemikos]

Were earlier reports that the shells contained liquid erroneous?

[optimistically_conservative]

Bump Bump Bump

And another one bites the dust.

-------

As many will point out, I had no doubt that Saddam had kept WMD stock, hidden it from inspectors, and was active in keeping programs alive that could produce more.

[Hon]

One begins to wonder what is going on.

First, we were told that four tests were applied, and they all came up positive for blister gas.

Also, blister gas (mustard gas) has a very distinctive garlic smell.

So what was the liquid in these shells? Something that smelled of garlic, tested four times a blister gas, but was really some other liguid?

Sheesh.

[mewzilla]

Do conventional shells have liquid in them? If not, why did Saddamn have these shells and what was he planning to use in them?

[TexKat]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1055562/posts Iraq Mortar Shells Contain Blister Agent 01/10/2004

[TheBattman]

I don't see where they have changed the story - ie: filled with liquid. What I do see is that they are saying the the contents were not a blister agent.

I am confused. I understand that battlefield tests are suppose to be super-sensative to err on the side of caution, BUT...

What sort of mortar shells sit around filled with harmless liquid?

[TexKat]

See post #8 polemikos.

[optimistically_conservative]

These were chemical munitions.

There was liquid in them, in the past finds they turned out to be fuel, water, whatever.

"Iraq never disclosed any information to UNSCOM concerning deployment, military requirements, firing or bombing tables, field manuals on the use of chemical weapons, or the chain of command for chemical weapons. According to Iraq, there were never any field manuals specifically for chemical weapons, nor were any specific military units trained to use them. Iraq said responsibility for the planning of combat use for chemical weapons was handled at the Muthanna State Establishment by a special tactical group, but has refused to provide any further information."

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/muthanna.htm
http://www.iraqwatch.org/wmd/chemical.html

[TexKat]

What sort of mortar shells sit around filled with harmless liquid?

You forgot to add: buried for 10 years.

[TexKat]

I did not see this thread from earlier this morning posted by freeper billbears:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1060316/posts Danish army: Iraqi shells WMD-free

CNN ^ | 1/18/04

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Mortar shells found in Iraq and believed to be suspicious in fact contained no chemical agents, the Danish army said after a week of tests.

The 36 shells, found 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the city of Qurnah in southern Iraq on January 9, had initially been thought by Danish and British troops to contain a blister agent.

But further tests carried out in southern Iraq and the United States were negative, the Danish army said in a statement on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

It was unclear why the initial field tests were wrong, the Danish army said from its headquarters in Karup, 265 km northwest of Copenhagen.

"The Danish Army Operational Command will now investigate what could be the cause to this," the statement said. It added that the testing kits would be sent to Denmark for examination.

U.S. Army officials had said the 120 mm shells, which are at least 10 years old, was surplus from the Iran-Iraq war in the mid-1980s. Blister agents are used in chemical weapons.

Several hundred Danish soldiers are working with a British-led multinational force responsible for security in southern Iraq.

Both the U.S. and British governments cited the threat of illicit weapons of mass destruction as a main reason for launching the Iraq war. However, no such weapons have been found so far.

The U.S. pulled 400 weapons-disposal experts from Iraq this month in what The New York Times called "a sign that [the] administration might have lowered its sights." The move raised suspicions that weapons are unlikely to be found.

The White House played down the move, saying the group focused on hunting weapons was remaining in Iraq.

[Hon]

The shells must have contained some kind of cologne.

During the Iran-Iraq war the Iraqi were very concerned about being invaded by foul-smelling Iranians.

[VOA]

What sort of mortar shells sit around filled with harmless liquid?

Naive thought...
Suppossedly a lot of these chem/biol WMD materials are not very stable...many
degrade quickly.

If these shells are from "Gulf War I", maybe they had something bad in them
but that's broken down over 12 years of heat, degredation if microbes (e.g., anaerobes)
could work their way into the goo...and now all that's left are some scent compounds.

...my non-expert speculation...

[Nebr FAL owner]

Shells that are used for blowing things up are filled with cast explosives if the shells are hollow they are chemical shells. They may not have chemical weapons filling but they are designed for use as chemical warheads.