Freeper exclusive: Weapons cache demolition causes many to be sick from exposure in Baghdad

private e-mails | 11/16/2006 | RaceBannon

[RaceBannon]

I just received a private e-mail from someone I know from a Marine website who has family in Iraq. There has been a weapons cache explosion that caused many, hundreds of people to be exposed to some chemical that was present in the weapons.

[Moolah]

Didn't they hide all this info from us during the Gulf War?

[RaceBannon]

I understand the scepticism.

Here is the latest from my source:

I haven't talked to his wife further... will call her today. She said that XxxXXx called her the evening after their morning raid and discovery of the weapons cache and HUGE explosion and possible WMD detonation. He told her that the initial tests DID in fact come back positive, but he didn't say for what type of agent. Again, with all of the symptoms in the unit and civilians, it HAD to be something to it... not just a coincidence! I'll keep you posted!

[freema]

Ping me when you hear more.

[freema]

Ping.

[RaceBannon]

Since incineration is the preferred method of destroying stockpiles of WMD's, the resulting explosion was a blessing in disguise in some ways.

[justa-hairyape]

Here is the link to the Townhall.com article about the very low number of embedded reporters currently working in Iraq. At the end of September there were only 11.

Military unfairly blamed for embed problem

[armymarinemom]

Thanks. I have heard a thing yet either. I must admit that my son is very good at keeping his mouth shut.

[freema]

Aggravating little snots that way, aren't they ; )

[armymarinemom]

I hate it when he does that. Phone rings, son says "Have you seen anything on the news" I say "no, what's going on?" he says "I can't tell ya". I know where gray hair comes from, my snotty sons.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"I can't pardon you. Attitudes resembling an ostrich with his head in the sand are getting our young, best and brightest killed in Iraq. It takes a ground truth to be able to plan the road ahead. Living in denial provides a false ground truth that foreshadows more of the same…"

I have a question for you. How many total forces are there in Iraq, including our forces and all coalition forces?

[TexKat]

MND-B Soldiers seize 123 weapons caches during ‘Operation Commando Hunter’

By Staff Sgt. Angela McKinzie, 2nd BCT PAO, 10th Mtn. Div.

Oct 26, 2006, 08:12

Blackanthem Military News, BAGHDAD, Iraq – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers continue to find weapons caches as part of Operation Commando Hunter.

The Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, seized 55 weapons caches Oct. 14-20, bringing the total to 123 caches seized in the area near Yusufiyah, which is located 20 miles southwest of Baghdad.

The 55 additional caches consisted of an AK-47, 53,000 7.62mm AK-47 rounds, 4,000 14.5 mm anti-aircraft rounds, 12 23mm rounds, seven 90mm recoilless rifle rounds, 100 pounds of artillery propellant, 100 pounds of plastic explosive, 265 pounds of home-made explosives, a mortar tube, 82 60mm mortar rounds, nine 105mm artillery rounds, 104 120mm mortar rounds, 17 82mm mortar rounds, ten 130mm artillery rounds, 40 pressure plates, 97 directional charges, a ready-made improvised-explosive device, 17 armor-piercing IEDs, two rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and various bomb-making materials.

Operation Commando Hunter is a 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. operation intended to deny the terrorists sanctuary near Yusufiyah, south of Baghdad.

*********

Air Force F-16s provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Al Yusufiyah and Fayyad. - CENTAF Airpower Summary for Oct. 24

http://newsblaze.com/story/20061024092536tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html

********

U.S. seizes plant, once an insurgent haven

Troops' fortification of power facility comes during push to rid small Sunni towns of rebels.

Josh White / Washington Post

YUSUFIYAH, Iraq -- When U.S. troops effortlessly occupied an enormous power plant that had been used by insurgents, they found blankets littering the steel risers, one room with the air conditioning running and a pot of tea ready to pour, and machine-gun cartridge cases strewn about.

They saw cages -- one containing a pair of shoes and what appeared to be human feces -- on the bottom floor, what U.S. commanders said they believe is an indication that prisoners had been held there and possibly tortured.

The power plant is a half-finished relic. Though it never came close to being operational, it was a major target for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, because of its long-standing use as a transient base for insurgent fighters. Its smokestack juts high above the horizon, and its beautiful vistas of the lush Euphrates River valley belie the sometimes chaotic battlefield below.

The move to take the plant comes amid an aggressive operation to push the insurgents out of a haven that has existed for years. U.S. officials said that the area's string of small rural Sunni towns has played host to leaders such as the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that teams of insurgents continue to intimidate the local populace while attacking U.S. patrol bases. Soldiers at the bases, which have been plunked down right on the edge of the most hostile areas, are charged with rooting out the insurgents and winning over the local people, a task they acknowledge is not going to be easy.

********

The Pentagon has released yet another mysterious video allegedly discovered in April by US forces in a hideout in the Al-Yusufiyah neighborhood of southern Baghdad. The video portrays "Terror Mastermind" Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi acting in a "foolish" and "incompetent" fashion. He appears "confused" on how to handle a US M-249 squad automatic weapon (SAW), which every US serviceman learns from day one.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:RN-LkStFhZ8J:www.globalresearch.ca/index.php%3Fcontext%3DviewArticle%26code%3DCHO20060515%26articleId%3D2446+Yusufiyah+weapons+of+mass+destruction&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

********

U.N. inspectors wear out their welcome at one Iraqi plant Director lashes out at U.S., rejects report of new construction

John F. Burns, New York Times News

Sunday, December 1, 2002

(12-01) 04:00 PST Al Yusufiyah, Iraq -- After the first three days of international weapons inspections, Iraqi officials at suspect sites have already established a pattern sharply different from the hostility that prevailed during inspections from 1991 to 1998. They have been cooperative, have smiled a lot and have been genial, mostly, to reporters who have followed the U.N. inspection teams to the 11 sites visited so far.

But the pattern broke down on Saturday, at least as far as the smiles and the geniality were concerned, when the inspectors arrived in a drizzling rain at Al Furat, an industrial plant outside this town about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad.

The Iraqi military officer who is the plant's director general, Brig. Samir Ibrahim Abbas, had some irritated things to say about the inspectors interfering with the plant's work, along with much harsher words about the United States, which has named the plant as one where Iraq appears to have been preparing to resume work on developing nuclear weapons.

Last month, after President Bush issued one of his bluntest warnings of American military action if President Saddam Hussein persists in secret efforts to acquire banned weapons, the White House circulated satellite photographs of Al Furat with an arrow pointing to one of the sprawling buildings on the site.

A notation said new construction on the building appeared to signify an effort to revive the plant's past efforts -- admitted by Iraq in the mid-1990s -- to develop gas centrifuges required for enriching uranium, one of the steps it would have to take to build a nuclear arsenal.

Continue...

[Girlene]

Did a little research today and wondered if the released agents could be related to tricothecene mycotoxins. Don't know how to do links, etc, since I just registered, but my search started with a link from free republic to global security.org using the symptoms of vomiting, rash, wmd. Various forms of this mycotoxin can be created, I guess, but what stood out were the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, skin irritations and unlike most microbial toxins, it can be absorbed through the skin (the sticky residue you mentioned). From other searches, it seems the Russians did testing in Laos in the 70's and in Afghanistan in 79 and possibly later. Also found references that similar stuff may have been used by Iraq in the Iraq/Iran war. Other known WMD's like anthrax, ricin, mustard gas, etc. didn't appear to have all the symptoms you mentioned and in the appropriate time frame. There also seems to be a variety of these mycotoxins which may have more (or less) severe symptoms. Best way I could understand this type of agent was a really nasty mold on steroids. Goodness knows how it would act if mixed with other "things".

Anywho, for others who are way more knowledgeable in this field than myself, please comment on/correct my theory.

[TexKat]

Ping to my post #371. Only speculation at this point.

[armymarinemom]

I think if it were that drastic we would have received some word by now.

[angelsonmyside]

Bump for update.

[justa-hairyape]

Here is a link to a 2002 unclassified report concerning Gulf War Illness. The report looks into all the possible release event of Chemical and Biological agents that occurred during the original Persian Gulf War. Perhaps we can learn something that is relavent to this current rumored event and potential future events. In particular it talks about munitions demolitions that released agents. It is a long report.

Persian Gulf War Illness Task Force Intelligence Update

[justa-hairyape]

That CIA report I linked above contains quite a bit of relevant info. For example this part from Appendix C might be applicable to what was rumored to occur in Iraq this past week especially concerning exposure and strength of the agent. Excerpt follows.

Chemical Agent Releases

On the basis of estimates of release amounts, computer modeling, and distance from US troops, we assess that only the Khamisiyah Pit release probably exposed US troops to low levels of chemical agents. This minimal exposure can be attributed to several factors:

Most chemical munitions were missed by Coalition aerial bombing. Iraq made a significant effort to avoid the destruction of its chemical agents to preserve its military options and to avoid contaminating its own troops and civilians. Iraq’s efforts included storage of chemical weapons in the open and in standard bunkers, dispersal from the main CW facility at Al Muthanna, and open burial of bulk agent storage containers. As a result, only about 8 percent of the over 700 tons of chemical agent and chemicals UNSCOM found in chemical weapons or bulk containers was released as a result of Coalition bombing.

Low nerve agent purity. Although Iraqi mustard agent was relatively pure, Iraq’s more toxic nerve agents were only about 60 percent pure when produced and rapidly degraded such that, by the time of release, the purity varied from 50 percent to less than 15 percent.

Less toxic binary munitions. Most of Iraq’s Gulf war–era nerve agent was kept in binary form. Iraqi binary munitions contained only relatively nontoxic alcohols into which a second chemical would have to be manually added before forming toxic nerve agents within the munition.

Chemical agent neutralization and burning. Only a small proportion of the chemical agent released from Iraqi munitions damaged by Coalition action actually entered the atmosphere. Laboratory testing indicates roughly half of the agent released from damaged munitions is retained by, or neutralized in, crates and soil. Chemical agents subjected to fire will burn or otherwise break down—causing anywhere from 95 to more than 99 percent of the agent to degrade, according to field tests and computer modeling.

Dispersion and environmental degradation. The great distance of most storage locations from US troops allowed significant time for the chemical agent to disperse and degrade in the environment.

Winds were not always blowing toward US troops. Chemical agents are carried by winds, and during the Gulf war, the prevailing wind blew from the south, east, or west—generally away from US troops—as often as it did toward troops. For example, the Khamisiyah Bunker 73 release did not expose US troops—some only several kilometers away at the time—because winds were blowing from the southwest away from troop locations.

[freema]

Yeah, if you look real close at mine, you can see their names engraved on each gray hair.

[freema]

There's no telling.

[TexKat]

FIVE SUSPECTS DETAINED, BUILDING WITH WEAPONS CACHE DESTROYED
By MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ, COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

Nov 17, 2006, 09:55

Blackanthem Military News, BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces detained five suspected terrorists and destroyed a small building containing a weapons cache while conducting a raid in Yusufiyah Friday.

The weapons cache consisted of machine guns, grenades, ammunition magazines and armor piercing ammunition.

The destruction of this cache reduces the ability of the terrorist network to operate and increases the safety of all Iraqi citizens, Coalition and Iraqi forces.

http://www.blackanthem.com/News/military200610_2199.shtml