Posted on 07/03/2004 5:08:09 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Political and military officials in Poland Saturday reaffirmed that missile warheads found by Polish troops in Iraq contained poison gas, despite denials by the multinational forces in Baghdad. "In each of the missiles found, the presence of a chemical substance was found. It was cyclosarin," a spokesman for the Polish contingent in Iraq, Colonel Robert Strzelecki, told public television.
"They were missiles that were made 15 years ago, which should have been destroyed and were not. They would certainly have very dangerous had they fallen into the hands of terrorists," said deputy defense minister Janusz Zemke.
Washington announced on Thursday that Polish troops had discovered more than a dozen warheads containing mustard or sarin gas in Iraq, a report later confirmed by Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski.
The head of Poland's military intelligence service also said on Friday that "terrorist" groups were seeking to acquire the weapons.
But a statement from the multinational forces in Iraq said on Friday that the 16 122 milimetre warheads had tested negative for chemical agents.
"Those 16 rounds were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals," it said.
Washington justified leading the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by claiming the country was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. However, none has yet been found.
Poland, one of the staunchest supporters of the United States in the Iraq war, patrols a large swathe of the country south of Baghdad, heading a 6,500-strong multinational force including 2,500 Polish troops.
Chemicals Not Found in Iraq Warheads - Washington Post
The Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad said in a statement yesterday that the 122-milimeter 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 contained deadly sarin and that actions by the Polish unit in Iraq kept them from being purchased by militants fighting coalition forces.
Yesterday's coalition release also said that two other 122-milimeter rounds, found by the Poles on June 16 with help from an Iraqi informer, tested positive for small quantities of sarin but were "so deteriorated" that they would have had "limited to no impact if used by insurgents against coalition forces."
Interesting. Even when they do admit they found WMD components, they amplify the fact that these components would have 'limited to no impact'. Perhaps someone can explain what 'limited impact' of a WMD actually means ? Does it mean that only 1/4 of the lethal potential remains ? Does it mean no one would die, but they would just get very ill ? Looks like the 'Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad' might be more worried about next years tourist season then they are worried about the 'limited impact' of WMD munitons scattered across the desert.
On the conspiracy side of things, best bet is that Bush is letting this charade go on in the media to help stabalize Iraq. In other words, Moore and the Fringe Left, are irrelavent.
An air to air missile is no more a dirty bomb than a depleted uranium round.
A weapon is only a weapon if you can use it as such. Those shells look pretty dodgy to me.
It looks like the problem is that some of Iraq's chemical weapons were scattered around the country in relatively small weapons caches and we don't have a good knowledge of where they are. Hence we haven't been able to find and secure all the WMD. Publicity about WMD will surely motivate the insurgents to go looking for the available chemical weapons on the black market. I'll bet they want to kill a number of our soldiers with nerve gas to shock and horrify America so we'll pull our troops out of Iraq. That's been their primitive strategy here for months: barbaric terror and horror. The whole situation is really tough for the White House. I don't know what the answer is. If you acknowledge WMD discoveries you create one problem and if you don't you create another problem. The White House never expected that barbaric insurgents would want to use chemical weapons against our troops after we liberated Iraq. Powell was talking the other day about how "the resistance from insurgents in Iraq is a serious problem for us." He may mean that it's a problem in more ways than the cost in casualties. He may also have been thinking about all the poltical costs for Bush and America.
Their justification has been sitting in the dock in Baghdad last week.
Could those "old" shells have been used in Gulf War #1 ??
Have they ever found out what made so many GW1 vets sick ??
....just wondering....
One more idea just occurred to me. We may be concerned about a major WMD attack on the Iraqi government buildings by AQ, smilar to the one they attempted against the Jordanian government. The last thing we need now is for AQ to wipe out the new Iraqi government. It looks like the covert war is really heating up in the Middle East, and I've noticed that Bush is getting more support lately about Iraq from world leaders. There may be some fresh intelligence reports about Iraqi WMD discoveries that are making the rounds within NATO. Martin of Canada made a statement that "Al Qaeda now has access to all the WMD that were in Iraq," and even Schroeder of Germany made some supportive comments about the dangers of AQ and the need for everyone to help stabilize Iraq (or something like that.) Then Putin revealed that Russian intelligence gave Bush a specific warning about planned attacks on the US by Iraqi Intelligence agents. I wouldn't duct tape the windows just yet, but the covert war is heating up.
I think the cause of Gulf War syndrome is still largely unkown. But a Rand Corporation study found that heavy use of insecticides by our troops is likely to be part of the cause of this syndrome. Evidently the DEET ingredient in insecticides is somewhat toxic to nerve cells and if you use too much for too long it can damage your nervous system. There's also a lot of theories that we blew up chemical weapons along with ordinary artillery shells after we liberated Kuwait, and nerve agents in the atmosphere poisoned our soldiers.
And fertilizer certainly could not take down a building.
The facts are that WMD munitions have been buried in the Iraqi desert. Their current state of lethality is going to vary from munition to munition.
What stopped them from having access when Saddam was still in power ? We are talking about barbaric terrorists that seem to enjoy beheading defenseless captives. We still dont know who sent the Anthrax letters. What was meant by 'We have this anthrax. You cannot stop us.'
Just put one along with a roadside bomb or a car bomb and let me know what happens when it blows!!
Blix said two important things while he was blindly searching in Iraq:
1. We aren't going to find them unless they take us to them.
2. Saddam wants to produce these in double quick time, on command.
Don't forget the centrifuge documents incident-hidden under the rose bush.
Imagine Saddam telling a bunch of dudes to take these things and go to it and leave out the part about you'll be killing all your relatives and friends and you'll probably die, too.
What the h@@@ is going on...
The Polish troops swear they were Chem Weapons...
This is just strange...
We are not wrong. There was chemical in it.
I think why cretins in media lie. Becouse this is a total against them allygations that chemical and biological weapon was not in Irak. For information I have straight from Irak it was fund.
Timing is everything!
There have been several other reports before. Even General Kimmit has made remarks in the past reference to some finds.
After validation and with several finds, putting it all together, they may be waiting so they can make an "Airtight" case with no wiggle room for those who will quickly want to rationalize everything away.
Look at the early hand over. The current administration and the authoriies on ground in Iraq have demonstrated an ability to time events very well.
I believe the silence will be broken with a $hitstorm for the "Oh yea- show me the WMD" folks.
Red6
We like you guys too.
There are many who are hoping that we move all our stuff to Poland. It's a pretty country, the people are friendly, there is no anti-American sentiment to be felt. In fact-don't take this wrong it's a compliment in a strange way- you almost sense a love for the US. We work well together with the Polish troops as evidenced several times in the last few months. You don't have crazy environmental laws like in Germany where if you run over a tree (In a training area) they charge the US government $30,000. Cheaper operating costs and large training areas make Poland the perfect spot for US forces. Only we can't quite do it without the approval of other countries. The Convetional Forces of Europe Treaty does not allow the US to perminently base forces east of the Oder river. Believe me when I say that "most" of those who are in the position to make decisions reference forces and their locations "Want" to move. But there are some issues.
I have seen your Grom do work with our guys on numerous occasions. Good work!
Red6
Tell that to the French Bureu of Demining they are still finding ordnance left over from WW1 that are still deadly including chemical weapons. The shells in the photo may look bad on the outside but you wanna bet inside the fuze looks like it just came off the factory assembly line
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