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Did Saddam Have WMDs After All: ISIS Overruns Iraq Chemical Weapons 'Mega-Facility'
zero hedge ^ | 6/19/14 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 06/19/2014 6:02:11 PM PDT by Nachum

With all eyes firmly focused on what really matters (the oil refineries), The Telegraph reports that ISIS has over-run a Saddam Hussein-era chemical weapons (CW) complex. The al-Muhanna 'mega-facility', about 60 miles south of Baghdad, gives the jihadists access to disused stores of hundreds of tonnes of potentially deadly poisons including mustard gas and sarin. The US state department is 'concerned' but "do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value." However, as a former commander of Britain's chemical weapons regiment warned, "we have seen that ISIS has used chemicals in explosions in Iraq before and has carried out experiments in Syria." This is likely great for ISIS 2014 Annual Report; but, of course, the other awkward question is: does this mean Saddam did have WMDs (and ISIS found them) after all?

As The Telegraph reports, the jihadist group bringing terror to Iraq overran a Saddam Hussein chemical weapons complex on Thursday...

Isis invaded the al-Muthanna mega-facility 60 miles north of Baghdad in a rapid takeover that the US government said was a matter of concern.

The facility was notorious in the 1980s and 1990s as the locus of Saddam’s industrial scale efforts to develop a chemical weapons development programme.

During its peak in the late 1980s to early 1990s, Iraq produced bunkers full of chemical munitions.

A CIA report on the facility said that 150 tons of mustard were produced each year at the peak from 1983 and pilot-scale production of Sarin began in 1984.

Its most recent description of al-Muthanna in 2007 paints a disturbing picture of chemicals strewn throughout the area.

“Two wars, sanctions and UN oversight reduced Iraqi’s premier production facility to a stockpile of old damaged and contaminated chemical munitions (sealed in bunkers), a wasteland full

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 201406; almuthanna; bloggers; chemicalweapons; hussein; iran; iraq; iraqcrisis; isis; israel; kurdistan; lebanon; mustard; mustardgas; muthanna; russia; saddam; saddamhussein; saddamwmds; sarin; turkey; vx; waronterror; weapons; wmd; wmds
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

I’d assume there wasn’t a lot of incentive to do so, at least not right away. Getting rid of this stuff (especially if it has degraded and leaked) is a dangerous and expensive undertaking. With the new government in place, and Bush probably not expecting Obama to pull out all the troops, there was no urgency to pay attention to a decommissioned chemical plant from the 90s, much less spend American money to clean it up.


41 posted on 06/19/2014 6:50:59 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: Billthedrill

It must have been horrible, having never worn it for more than part of a day seeing them living in that gear really bothered me, in most cases I questioned the wisdom of that.

So far I haven’t seen analysis of the cost versus the gain, of forcing the GIs to stay at that level.


42 posted on 06/19/2014 6:51:27 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Ted Cruz and Mike Lee-both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Comm as Ginsberg's importance fades)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

The CIA learned that you cannot just blow up WMD facilities. That is what the US did during the 30 day air campaign prior to Desert Storm. And the CIA discovered it created local environmental catastrophes and killed a lot of people near the facilities. So the ole WMD components have to be disposed of properly. Not just blown up. And what was probably left was held in containers that leaked and could not be safely transported. Leaking containers holding WMD are a problem even here in the US. Research Hanford and WIPP. The old Iraqi facilities needed to be guarded and the public kept away.


43 posted on 06/19/2014 6:53:38 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Perseverando

A hap, hap, happy overview of good ole VX. I couldn’t find the Nic Cage movie embellishment from The Rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jBU-8Sndj4


44 posted on 06/19/2014 6:53:53 PM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.q)
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To: Billthedrill
For rational people it would be easier to manufacture Sarin for themselves. These guys aren't rational people.

ISIS will use POW's to go get the stuff and test it to see if it kills.

45 posted on 06/19/2014 6:57:13 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Viennacon
If anyone can get that stuff moved, its the guys who once created it and used it.

If they broke into the facility, they did it for a reason. They seem to have a lot of The March all preplanned out. From what I have read, its been planned out for years.

46 posted on 06/19/2014 6:59:38 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Norm Lenhart; Nachum

What do you think they are shipping out of Syria right now, hmmm???


47 posted on 06/19/2014 7:01:58 PM PDT by danamco (-)
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To: justa-hairyape

Thats what it sounds like. They’ve chosen their targets carefully, and the quick surrender of the Iraqi forces in Mosul wasn’t in the heat of the moment. The officers were bribed


48 posted on 06/19/2014 7:02:41 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: Nachum; aposiopetic; rbmillerjr; Lowell1775; JPX2011; NKP_Vet; Jed Eckert; Recovering Ex-hippie; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

49 posted on 06/19/2014 7:03:33 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: danamco

Anything they can to help the caliphate grow actually. Which is where its all going these days.


50 posted on 06/19/2014 7:03:50 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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To: Norm Lenhart; neverdem; Nachum; MHGinTN
Anything they can to help the caliphate grow actually. Which is where its all going these days.

Who is this “they” .... Obama’s Washington or the ISIS murderers?

51 posted on 06/19/2014 7:08:55 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Viennacon

Bribed and threatened no doubt. From what I have read of battle field accounts, they are very tough adversaries. Willing to die in battle. Have no fear. And do not give an inch. No wonder the Iraqi’s ran from that. And they might have brought some of their chlorine gas from Syria. They did overrun one of Assad’s chlorine manufacturing plants. Surprised we have not heard of WMD used by them in Iraq up till now. Knock on wood.....


52 posted on 06/19/2014 7:09:46 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Nachum

53 posted on 06/19/2014 7:11:24 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ...

Sounds like some of the usual pro-Assad/pro-Iran/pro-PootyPoot agitprop we’ve been deluged with since the first big chemical weapons attack made by the Assad regime in its ongoing mass-murder of Syrian citizens.


54 posted on 06/19/2014 7:12:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: justa-hairyape

Yes, there is a problem with leaky containers right here, right now in West Texas.

There is no danger, so says the government.


55 posted on 06/19/2014 7:13:25 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Due to the high price of ammo, no warning shot will be fired.)
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To: Fiji Hill

“If such a facility existed, why didn’t we bulldoze it? “

Perhaps because it was identified and “contained?” If you have limited resources, you must concentrate on the “search” aspect and don’t bother with things you have already “found.” Disposal is someone else’s concern for later. That those people never got around to it...


56 posted on 06/19/2014 7:16:44 PM PDT by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
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To: Straight Vermonter

The al-Muhanna ‘mega-facility’, about 60 miles south of Baghdad...”

“the al-Muthanna mega-facility 60 miles north of Baghdad....”

Was scrolling down to see if anyone else caught that and saw you did. Good work.


57 posted on 06/19/2014 7:16:56 PM PDT by panaxanax
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

Both.


58 posted on 06/19/2014 7:29:53 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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To: panaxanax

ISIS forces are north of Baghdad, the first sentence (south) is probably wrong.


59 posted on 06/19/2014 7:30:56 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Here is everything you never wanted to know about the facility. Just reading it myself.

Al Muthanna Chemical Weapons Complex

60 posted on 06/19/2014 7:32:54 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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