Poland stands by 'poison gas' find Iraq

SpaceWar.com ^ | July 3, 2004 | AFP

[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.

[FairOpinion]

I personally believe the Poles.

Thanks for your support and courage.

[Principled]

Curiouser and curiouser-

assertions and denials and assertions and denials...by allies...

[FairOpinion]

Well, the Polish troops found them and tested them, and it tested positive for sarin and mustard gas.

Then they were handed over to ????, and the new tests showed the shells were negative.

"Shell game"? (I couldn't resist the pun)

How do we know that there aren't some moles among the coalition forces, who could have washed out the shells, or switched them, so we can't claim success.

[MikefromOhio]

I wonder what is going on....the Polish find something that is purportedly chemical weapons and we then deny it...

Election year jitters? or just that the Polish were wrong? I wonder....intrigue abounds....

[Principled]

Let us speculate on disinformation...

your thoughts?

[FairOpinion]

"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.

This is a pretty clear statement. The missiles themselves were supposed to have been destroyed and they were not.

[Diogenesis]

========= Warsaw =========

WHY ARE THESE MEN SMILING?

In Warsaw, General Marek Dukaczewski (R), the head of Polish army intelligence,
discusses artillery shells found by Polish troops in Iraq which definitely contained
the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin. Polish heroes found 17 Grad rockets
and two mortar shells filled with chemicals in late June
and said U.S. experts had carried out tests on the weapons.

---

========= Chemical Warhead found in Kirkuk =============

Chemical warhead found at an Iraqi air base, marked with a green band,
the symbol for chemical weaponry. Trace amounts of a nerve agent were found
at two spots along the ~meter-long warhead. These amounts are consistent with
leakage from the chemically armed weapon. A 13-foot missile was found next to it.

---

========= Halabja =========

Dead children, previously playing in Halabja
Victims of Saddams' WMD in March 1988.

---

Also found in Iraq:

* A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service
that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

* A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW agents, that Iraqi officials
working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.

* Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home,
one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.

* New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF),
and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.

* Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists' homes, that would have been useful in
resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).

* A line of UAVs not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission
that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.

* Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles,
a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists
have said they were told to conceal from the UN.

* Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km -
well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed
Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.

Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology
related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles,
and other prohibited military equipment.

---

Still missing based on the UNSCOM report to the UN Security Council in January 1999,
when the UN inspectors left Iraq in 1998, they had been unable to account for:

• up to 360 tons of bulk chemical warfare agents, including 1.5 tons of VX nerve agent;

• up to 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals, including approximately 300 tons which,
in the Iraqi chemical warfare program, were unique to the production of VX;

• growth media procured for biological agent production (enough to produce
over three times the 8,500 litres of anthrax spores Iraq admitted to UN inspectors to having manufactured);

• over 30,000 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents;

• 20 al-Hussein missles with a range of 650 km, in violation
of UN Security Council Resolution 687 (Iraq had told UNSCOM that it filled these warheads with anthrax and botulinum);

• 2,850 tons of mustard gas, 210 tons of tabun, and 795 tons of sarin and cyclosarin;

• development of the Al-Samoud short-range missle (which had the capability to fly beyond the 150 km allowed by UN resolutions)

---

=========== French missiles FIRST given to Iraq to be USED Against US and Coalition Heroes =========

French missiles found by the Poles, and to protect France, blown up.

Froggies said they did not say "2003". LOL. Decide for yourself.

---

Iraqi missiles given to, and now located in, Syria:

---

========= RUSSIAN MISSILES AND DIRTY BOMBS FOUND IN IRAQ =========

Russian-made R-60, NATO AA-8 Aphid, air-to-air missiles were found..
The Russian-made missiles are >6 feet long. Each carries 3.5 pounds of uranium.
wrapped around a high explosive warhead (13.2-pound) making a "dirty bomb".

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for those pictures and the information.

How can people still deny the existence of the WMD in Iraq?!

[FairOpinion]

"RUSSIAN MISSILES AND DIRTY BOMBS FOUND IN IRAQ

---

Russian-made R-60, NATO AA-8 Aphid, air-to-air missiles were found..
The Russian-made missiles are >6 feet long. Each carries 3.5 pounds of uranium.
wrapped around a high explosive warhead (13.2-pound) making a "dirty bomb".


---

I read that the Russians had these and that some were missing. I didn't know these were found in Iraq.

What more evidence do we need?!

[FairOpinion]

Looks like these are different from the ones I read about.

Transdniester: Missing Missiles Raising Fears Of 'Dirty Bombs' For Sale
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2003/12/sec-031210-rferl-171503.htm

International media reported this week that dozens of small missiles believed to have been modified to carry radioactive material have apparently gone missing in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region. Reports that Transdniester, long-known as a hub for illegal weapons, could have sold what are known as "dirty bombs" to international terrorist groups are prompting officials and analysts to renew calls for a durable settlement in the region.

Prague, 10 December 2003 (RFE/RL) -- It is a thin, 1-meter-long rocket whose intended function was to spread chemicals on storm clouds to prevent hail over the Soviet Union.

Instead, the only thing the Alazan rocket spread successfully was fear. The missile, initially part of a failed Soviet experiment in weather control, was later used for military purposes in the early 1990s in various conflicts in the former Soviet region.

Now, there are suspicions that the Alazan rockets could have been outfitted with warheads containing radioactive waste and turned into what are known as "dirty bombs." Western media outlets reported this week that dozens of such rockets appear to have gone missing in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester.

Media reports quote documents apparently acquired by Oazu Nantoi, a former Moldovan government official and political analyst. Nantoi says he is in possession of Transdniestrian military documents, dated 1994, that speak about the existence of 38 radioactive warheads for Alazan missiles, out of which 24 had allegedly been attached to rockets.

[BenLurkin]

bumpbumpbump

[HassanBenSobar]

Huge bump. Ahh, the selective memory of the media.

Nowadays 4th estate = 5th column

(hmmm, not a bad tagline..)

[Defender2]

BUMP TO THE TOP!!!!

BUMP TO THE TOP!!!!

[TexKat]

Ping

[Cicero]

I believe the Poles and I'm glad to have this confirmation from them.

The same damn think happened with the Czech report on Mohammed Atta's visit to Prague. They continue to confirm it and George Tenet continues to deny it.

What the devil does "multinational forces" mean? Who, exactly? What nations, what scientists, and what commander? I want to see some names here, some spokesmen who let themselves be identified.

[Dr. Frank fan]

This pretty much seals the deal for me: It's now clear that (at some level) we have in place a policy of denying WMD finds. Presumably to reduce temptation of insurgents to seek out/use them (somehow). This will be my working hypothesis until further info, because nothing else makes sense.

[FairOpinion]

"It's now clear that (at some level) we have in place a policy of denying WMD finds."

That is what appears to be the case, but I can't fathom why.

This is a huge cost to President Bush -- he has given tremendous ammunition to the Democrats, and (God Forbid!) may lose the election on account of this. And for what gain? The terrorists know that there are WMD and either have them already or are searching for them.

I personally think, that there are way too many anti-Bush, anti-US people at various levels, including high military (just think of Gen. Wes Clark, and many in the State Department, who have actively been trying to foil anything Bush is trying to do), who could well destroy evidence, to keep Bush from claiming this important victory.

Also think -- how did those ABu Ghraib pictures get out?

While it may sound like tinfoil time, but I think from the scant information we have, it looks more plausible, that things are done at various levels to make Bush look bad, and keep him from being reelected, and never mind, they also cause serious harm to the US.

[TexKat]

A hand-out photograph made available by the Polish Army on July 2, 2004 shows artillery shells found by Polish troops in Iraq on June 16. Artillery shells found by Polish troops in Iraq definitely contained the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin, the Polish army said on Friday. Poland said its soldiers found 17 Grad rockets and two mortar shells in late June and said U.S. experts had carried out tests on the weapons. REUTERS/Polish Army/HO

Poland Minister of Defense Jerzy Szmajdzinski (L) and General Marek Dukaczewski (C), the head of Polish army intelligence, smile during a news conference in Warsaw, July 2, 2004. Artillery shells found by Polish troops in definitely contained the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin, the Polish army said on Friday. Poland said its soldiers found 17 Grad rockets and two mortar shells filled with chemicals in late June and said U.S. experts had carried out tests on the weapons. REUTERS/FORUM /Adam Chelstowski

[Sacajaweau]

I believe Rummy verified these in a report AND I'm sure he wouldn't have done it using preliminary test results.

[meenie]

Other reports have said that all shells were empty. A small trace of sarin was found on two. As far as the Polish insistence that they were all sarin shells, one has to realize that all coalition countries are hunting for justification for their participation in the Iraq war.