Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

AP: ISIS Has Seized Thousands of Rockets with Chemical Warheads
The PJ Tatler via AP ^ | 7-8-2014 | Bryon Preston

Posted on 07/08/2014 8:29:35 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather

It’s a confirmation of reports in June that ISIS had taken control of a site where some of Saddam’s WMD arsenal remained.

Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.

Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Tuesday that “terrorist” groups entered the Muthanna site June 11 and seized weapons and equipment from the protection force guarding the facility.

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


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 201406; 20140611; almuthana; alqaedaspring; alsabawi; bushwasright; chemical; chemicalweapons; devilskitchen; iraqiwmd; iraqwar; isis; movealong; muthana; nothingtoseehere; obamadoctrince; obamadoctrine; obamalegacy; pravdamedia; proislamist; rockets; sabawi; saddamswmds; sarin; thedevilskitchen; warheads; wmd; wmds
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-97 next last
To: what's up

Why are we getting a story now?


61 posted on 07/08/2014 10:25:58 PM PDT by morphing libertarian ( On to impeachment and removal (IRS, Open Borders, pro-terrorist, Fast and furious, VA, Benghazi)!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: morphing libertarian

Because apparently ISIS has captured the facility.


62 posted on 07/08/2014 10:27:19 PM PDT by what's up
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: what's up

So they are now in possession of inert gas?


63 posted on 07/08/2014 10:28:23 PM PDT by morphing libertarian ( On to impeachment and removal (IRS, Open Borders, pro-terrorist, Fast and furious, VA, Benghazi)!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: cookcounty

I think Blix got eaten by a shark in North Korea circa 2004


64 posted on 07/08/2014 10:28:55 PM PDT by Viennacon (Rebuke the Repuke!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: what's up
This info was out years ago. The general consensus was that the sarin was too old for Saddam to use.

But Saddam wasn't going to pile it in a van around a car bomb.

The Viet Cong had their women dismantle and remove explosives from unexploded American bombs and use it in making improvised anti-personnel mines.
65 posted on 07/08/2014 10:30:01 PM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (HELL, NO! BE UNGOVERNABLE! --- ISLAM DELENDA EST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: what's up
The general consensus was that the sarin was too old for Saddam to use.

Actually we have no idea even what was in the facility we bombed. At least one of the bunkers were too dangerous to enter. All we could do was use a remote controlled camera device to record what could be seen. No samples of the actual rocket artillery shells were taken for analysis, but active WMD chemicals tested positive within the bunker. The total number of artillery shells were estimated. They could not even see all the equipment in that bunker from the camera. So in this case, a consensus is worthless.

66 posted on 07/08/2014 10:31:06 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: morphing libertarian

They are in possession of damaged and corroded ordnance that is too dangerous to move - unless you are a suicide bomber who doesn’t give a damn.


67 posted on 07/08/2014 10:33:35 PM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (HELL, NO! BE UNGOVERNABLE! --- ISLAM DELENDA EST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: UCANSEE2
What 'word' would you say that would solve this ?

He got rid of the problem by saying there was no WMD. It is all they could do after bombing the crap out of Saddam's many WMD facilities and discovering that the bombing made removal very dangerous and impossible to accomplish. Obama got very close to doing the same thing in Syria, but Putin came up with actually a decent plan and the proper disposal of some of Assad's WMD are occurring right now.

68 posted on 07/08/2014 10:37:29 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: MaxMax
WTH, we didn’t destroy that stuff before we left?

Not easy to do. Blowing up WMD only causes dispersal of components and contaminates the site. You need to remove each canister/warhead individually and transport each one to a safe destruction mechanism. We made that just about impossible to do after we bombed the bunkers. You have to work with intact WMD assemblies. Unless of course you are a suicidal terrorist force.

69 posted on 07/08/2014 10:41:30 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide

Going in a circle, so bush decided to let everyone think he based a war on a lie when he had the evidence all the time. And he said nothing for tears?


70 posted on 07/08/2014 10:43:08 PM PDT by morphing libertarian ( On to impeachment and removal (IRS, Open Borders, pro-terrorist, Fast and furious, VA, Benghazi)!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: justa-hairyape
So in this case, a consensus is worthless.

I'm afraid you are correct. This is a huge facility and much of it is too contaminated to examine thoroughly, and because it was that way when first we got there, there is no real guarantee that we even know the complete layout of the place. Worse, that people who did know the place are now allies of ISIS.

For anyone still wondering why we didn't "destroy" the stuff, that turned out to be the work of more than a decade even with the U.S.'s modest stocks in proper containment. And even with the care the Army took, we had leaks during the process. This stuff isn't like that, it's already in the environment of the place, in the walls, the flooring, in the concrete - at the very best the facility is an appalling toxic waste dump.

Much of this can be concocted in a decent laboratory more easily than scrounged from a toxic waste dump, and ISIS just stole half a billion dollars for a war chest. If they want it badly enough they can buy the means to make it. Some of it, however, specifically the VX, is a bit harder to come by. We know Saddam made it. The lethal dose is 17 milligrams on the skin, a small drop, roughly a hundredth of the lethal dose of Sarin. That isn't "weaponizable" or "militarily exploitable," it's a weapon all by itself, ready to go.

The good news is that it's difficult to turn what we do know about into a weapon, or at least most of it. The bad news is what we don't know about.

71 posted on 07/08/2014 10:59:10 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

The unknown unknowns.


72 posted on 07/08/2014 11:01:55 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: sheikdetailfeather

Once again, Obama snatches catastrophe out of the jaws of victory.


73 posted on 07/08/2014 11:10:32 PM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sheikdetailfeather

Placemark.

I’ve read that a large number of the invading illegals are OTMs.


74 posted on 07/08/2014 11:14:37 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve86

Even if they have 50% potency they could scare an urban center into surrender. It wouldn’t take much. They could use it on the Kurds, the Iranians, Jourdan, Iraq. As a weapon of terror—they have greater value than as a military weapon. They IS are fighting a political terror war (the same way Gengis Khan waged and Tamurlane and the Japanese in China).


75 posted on 07/08/2014 11:19:09 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Forward the Light Brigade
Yep. A terror weapon. They could demand payments from just about any city they wanted. Pay a million or we will release a few of our WMD on your population. Just like the Mongols demanding tribute. These guys could become some of the richest terrorists on the planet, if not already.

It appears however that they do not worship money. They worship a very old book and want to remove the wealthy elites who are running the Middle East. Perhaps they will bankrupt them first. Their leader claims to be the heir apparent to Bin Laden, and ole Bin did want to attack Wall Street to bring down the western money powers aligned with the Middle Eastern money powers.

76 posted on 07/08/2014 11:44:33 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


77 posted on 07/09/2014 12:01:43 AM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sheikdetailfeather; Viennacon
The UN said the bunker was bombed during the first Gulf War in February 1991, which routed Iraq from Kuwait, and the rockets were “partially destroyed or damaged.”

It said the sarin munitions were “of poor quality” and “would largely be degraded after years of storage under the conditions existing there.” It said the tabun-filled containers were all treated with decontamination solution and likely no longer contain any agent, but “the residue of this decontamination would contain cyanides, which would still be a hazard.”

According to the report, Bunker 41 contained 2,000 empty 155-mm artillery shells contaminated with the chemical warfare agent mustard, 605 one-tonne mustard containers with residues, and heavily contaminated construction material. It said the shells could contain mustard residues which can't be used for chemical warfare but “remain highly toxic.”

Well, let's pray that the UN inspectors and America's Traitorous Left are correct that there were/are no WMD in Iraq. It would be ironic if the American Embassy is hit by the so called nonexistent WMD.

78 posted on 07/09/2014 12:17:19 AM PDT by Chgogal (Obama "hung the SEALs out to dry, basically exposed them like a set of dog balls..." CMH)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Viennacon

ping


79 posted on 07/09/2014 2:30:54 AM PDT by Dusty Road
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: sheikdetailfeather
These would be the WMDS that did not exist made by the factories that didn't exist either...

@$$HAT libtards.

80 posted on 07/09/2014 4:00:30 AM PDT by verga (Conservative, leaning libertarian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-97 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson