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

Skip to comments.

'Dragon's Egg': Marines who guarded Saddam's mysterious bunker fear weapons unleashed
FOX News ^ | October 19, 2014 | By Paul Alster

Posted on 10/19/2014 8:25:38 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

The U.S. Marines who guarded the sprawling complex in northwest Iraq where Saddam Hussein’s 1980s war machine churned out some of the most deadly chemical and biological weapons known to man had a name for one especially mysterious bunker: The Dragon’s Egg.

Although the Americans assigned to the Al Muthanna facility until 2008 were forbidden by superiors from peering inside the bunker, they knew the larger complex’s history. From 1983 to 1990, the brutal dictator’s scientists worked there, developing mustard, sarin, VX and Tabun gases for use on Iranian soldiers and Iraqi Kurds. And although it was under the control of U.S. and Iraqi military forces for most of the last decade, the entire facility - and whatever it held - is now firmly in the grasp of the Islamic State, the terrorist army that has claimed a vast swath of Iraq and Syria and allegedly used chemical weapons against Kurds this summer.

The X-shaped bunker, encased in cement and shrouded in mystery, was one of two that were handled differently from the many other bunkers that made up the facility, according to Lt. Joshua Hartley, who was stationed there in 2008. It was off-limits.

With reports that Islamic State fighters may have used chemical weapons to attack the Syrian city of Kobani earlier this summer, Hartley also wonders if the contents of the mysterious bunker known as Dragon’s Egg have been unleashed.

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


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; marines; military; wmd
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 10/19/2014 8:25:38 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

And liberals and media throughout this country will still spout “There were no WMDs in Bush’s Iraq!”


2 posted on 10/19/2014 8:27:30 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

Of course there were no WMDs there. Good lord, didn’t you watch the news from 2003 onward? that sort of crazy right wing crap has no place here!


3 posted on 10/19/2014 8:30:28 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Norm Lenhart

And all that WMD stuff ISIS is getting in its hands from Syrian locations NEVER CAME FROM IRAQ!


4 posted on 10/19/2014 8:33:29 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

Certainly not. Iraq only produced baby formula. Until holdovers from the Bush 1 regieme of terror forced Clinton to destroy their sole production facility.

Those WMDs that were never there, ever, were placed there by Israel because the evil Jews were trying to frame the sainted followers of blessed Allah (PBUH).

And it worked!


5 posted on 10/19/2014 8:38:05 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

If ever there was a time for the Ripley solution ...


6 posted on 10/19/2014 8:41:22 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (Pointing out dereliction of duty is NOT fear mongering, especially in a panDEMic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Norm Lenhart

And as payment for their complicity in all that, various journalists of one sort or another are being beheaded by ISIS. You’d think they’d get the hint by now. I guess they figured the first journalist (a jew, Daniel Pearl) was just because he was a Jew.

[I know this is harsh and probably impolite whatever, but it seems journalists only start thinking when their professions and their lives are at stake].


7 posted on 10/19/2014 8:42:09 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Funny, under the Bush Presidency there were no WMD.

It appears that the Obama Presidency created an environment where they could be built.

Obama’s fault.


8 posted on 10/19/2014 8:43:53 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (If America falls, darkness will cover the earth for a thousand years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Ah! Those that kept saying that there was no chems should be sent over there and make them inhale.


9 posted on 10/19/2014 8:44:47 AM PDT by Busko (One thing is certain, nothing is certain.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Good God!


10 posted on 10/19/2014 8:45:55 AM PDT by Williams
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

I was one for many years. the truth is that most reporters are not smart enough to remember to wipe. In recent years college kids learned it’s an easy degree so they do that. Some because its easy, others see it as a path to use all the ‘special’ mom told them they were filled with. Ask a J school grad from the past decade what the 5ws are and you get blank stares.

I used to ask that every time we hired one at the paper I was at. (’we’ in the general sense as I wasn’t involved in hiring). Most had no clue.

Who What When Where Why is the foundation of journalism.


11 posted on 10/19/2014 8:46:44 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Norm Lenhart
...most reporters are not smart enough to remember to wipe.

or Where! Priceless!

12 posted on 10/19/2014 8:48:16 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

They really aren’t.

Oh!, the stories I could tell...


13 posted on 10/19/2014 8:52:47 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

I tell this one often.

One, a flaming liberal argued in a full newsroom, in front of staff and customers (business ad people ect) that 1 = 1 did not have to equal 2/ 2+2=4 ect. He used quantum physics.

He did this solely because I as his evil conservative nemesis stated firmly that “1+1=2 Ryan, you gonna argue that?”

He did. And with such gusto and volume/anger he was nearly fired for his outburst.

He is currently a staffer for a Pennsylvania State politician.

Are you shocked? I thought not.


14 posted on 10/19/2014 8:57:07 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Norm Lenhart

I bet! Sometime we gotta talk..... Frankly, I don’t have much, if any now, for the profession but I think it’s because they (as a whole) have sacrificed principles for ideology. Regardless of the intelligence, a good and decent person would not actively conspire to hide the fact that our government is in control by a narcissistic madman.


15 posted on 10/19/2014 9:01:08 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

They were pulled out November 2nd 2008. Wonder why?


16 posted on 10/19/2014 9:02:28 AM PDT by Mr. Peabody
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

Good decent people you say?

How about one of our sports reporters who during a conversation in the newsroom about a nursing home story proclaimed that all these old people were nothing but a burden on everyone. When asked what he thought about his own grandmother and what he’d do if she got sick he replied, in 100% seriousness...

“Then you pay for her. I got better things to do with my money.”

God strike me dead. I am not remotely kidding.

The only good reporters remaining are at retirement age or near it. The rest are agenda driven, self centered idiots that are there to collect a check, get free tickets and move up to a job in government thanks to all the ass kissing stories they write.


17 posted on 10/19/2014 9:07:23 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

So we knew this was there, and left it undefended/undestroyed?


18 posted on 10/19/2014 9:09:04 AM PDT by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: montag813

If Bush had destroyed it, he would have had to admit they were there after pretending the dems were right. Couldn’t have kept that hidden.

Which would have caused a rift between the two faces (heh) of the uniparty and made people ask uncomfortable questions.


19 posted on 10/19/2014 9:12:48 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: montag813

Excellent question/observation. If the Bush administration knew the stuff was there, why did they not open up the Dragon’s Egg to the world news media.

We have a left wing biased MSM to be sure. But from 2002 to ?, the Republicans would not fight back, would not rebut the attacks from the left.

The MSM said there were no WMD’s-open the Egg and show them.


20 posted on 10/19/2014 9:15:45 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 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