WMD FOUND:Polish troops findillegal warheads

NH Union-Leader/Los Angeles Times ^ | 3.07.2004 | By WALTER PINCUS

[Grzegorz 246]

Sixteen rocket warheads found last week in south-central Iraq by Polish troops did not contain deadly chemicals, a coalition spokesman said Friday, but U.S. and Polish officials agreed that insurgents loyal to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorist fighters are trying to buy such old weapons or purchase the services of Iraqi scientists who know how to make them.

The Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad, Iraq, said in a statement Friday that the 122-millimeter rocket rounds, which initially showed traces of sarin, "were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals." The statement came just hours after two senior Polish defense officials told reporters in Warsaw, based on preliminary reports, that the rocket rounds had contained deadly sarin nerve gas and actions by the Polish unit in Iraq had kept them from being purchased by militants fighting coalition forces.

Friday's coalition release also said that two other 122-millimeter rounds, found June 16 by the Poles with help from an Iraqi informer, had tested positive for small quantities of sarin but were "so deteriorated ... (as) to have limited to no impact if used by insurgents against coalition forces."

Excerpted

[Grzegorz 246]

Marek Dukaczewski, Poland's chief of army intelligence still claim that all 16 warheads containe chemical weapon. I don't know if it is true, however I just don't belive that our army intelligence found some old convencional warheads and told all over the world that they found WMD... Very important is also that those 122mm rocekts (with convencional warheads) are used in Polish Army too, so those intelligence officers should know the difference beetwen convencional and chemical warheads.

[johniegrad]

Uh-oh. I think LAT has to be excerpted.

[Grzegorz 246]

How should I know when it has to be excerpted or not ?

[Admin Moderator]

LA Times material must be excerpted regardless who publishes it. Thanks.

[johniegrad]

Thanks. I think Grzegorz 246 was just unaware.

[Leroy S. Mort]

A CENTCOM Press release says the majority of the rounds were empty and those which tested positive for sarin were left over from the Iran-Iraq war.

[johniegrad]

Save this list and I think that covers it as far as I know.

[Grzegorz 246]

Yes I was unaware :) Thanks.

[Admin Moderator]

Thanks.

[Admin Moderator]

Thank you.

[MurryMom]

Dukaczewski said the Polish unit in Iraq had paid an undisclosed sum of money to buy the rockets last month after an informer there told the Poles that militant groups had been seeking to buy such weapons for up to $5,000 apiece. "We bought all the shells available," Dukaczewski said.

Typical smart action by our Coalition of the Billing. Iraqi insurgents then "invest" their thousands of $'s in RPG's, available for a buck apiece at most local bazaars. The where do you think the RPG's wind up?

Every facet of this war is so incredibly dumb it pains me to learn the details what our side is doing over there whether in Iraq's prisons or elsewhere in the country.

[cripplecreek]

Seems that we're falling into the habit of looking for an imminent threat that was never promised by the President. After all saddam said all weapons were gone yet couldn't account for them and they keep turning up.

There have been a lot of conventional weapons that were banned for Iraqi use but have been found in Iraq. At the start of the war Kuwait was attacked with silkworm missiles that were banned. I seem to remember finding new chem warheads that had not been filled as well.

I guess that when it gets right down to it, theres likely a lot going on that we don't know about.

[RandallFlagg]

List not applicable to demonicraticunderground, of course. They get to post-n-paste whatever they want.

Bats of a leather, and all that.

[wingman1]

Bump

[Peach]

The UN is finding nuclear and other illegal materials that was shipped out from Iraq all across the globe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A13416-2004Apr14&notFound=true

[johniegrad]

MoronMom!! Here let me post it for you and then you can go away for another 6 months. "Bush is stupid". Glad to help out when I can.

[TomGuy]

In related articles, terrorists were offering $5000 per warhead that contained sarin or mustard gas.

[That has been reported, too, but the 'purchase' and the 'found' articles seem to appear separately, rather than in the same report.]

[Huck]

List not applicable to demonicraticunderground, of course.

Is that a fact?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

"were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals."

Pity, it would be great to conclusively prove those anti-war fools wrong, non the less, a good find for the Poles

[dmz]

Way to scour the bandwidth looking for anything remotely at odds with the Articles of Bushbotism, and proceed with the ad hominems.

Your contributions to political discourse are duly noted.