Iraq Mission Aborted (Peter Jennings looks likes he's happy w/himself)

ABCNews & World News Tonight ^ | 8.19.02 | Peter McWhethy

[mhking]

Iraq Mission Aborted

President Bush Calls Off Operation to Take Out Al Qaeda Poison Gas Laboratory

By John McWethy

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 19 — The CIA and the Pentagon began planning a covert operation into Northern Iraq to destroy what appeared to be a budding chemical weapons laboratory several years ago, but late last week, the president called it off, sources told ABCNEWS.

U.S. forces had been monitoring a small group of al Qaeda operatives for weeks as they experimented with poison gas and deadly toxins — killing barnyard animals and at least one human, sources told ABCNEWS.

Intelligence sources say the al Qaeda operatives were under the protection of a small radical Kurdish group called Ansar al Islam. Officials say there is no evidence Saddam Hussein's government had any knowledge of their activities.

Most of the experiments, sources say, involved the poison ricin, a by-product of the widely available castor bean plant.

"It is quite toxic, probably seven times more toxic than phosgene which was a chemical weapon used in World War I," said Jonathan Tucker of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Tucker is the director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Institute.

As a potential weapon of terror, ricin is considered most deadly in a closed room or building, where nearly everyone could die.

"There is currently no treatment and no vaccine for ricin exposure," said Tucker.

Intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS there is evidence the terrorists tested ricin in water, as a powder and as an aerosol. They used it to kill donkeys and chickens, and at one point, the terrorists allegedly exposed a man to the toxin in an Iraqi market.

They then followed him home and watched him die several days later.

As U.S. surveillance intensified, officials concluded the operation was so small and crude that in the final analysis, it was not worth risking American lives to go after it — and also not worth the outcry that might follow any U.S. operation inside Iraq.

As part of this operation, intelligence analysts discovered that al Qaeda money was again flowing, that new people had stepped in to manage and encourage far flung projects like this one — offering glimpses of a terrorist network trying to put itself back together again.  

[bybybill]

How do we know this is true?

[SEGUET]

Good reasoning though - TOO small a chemical weapons factory - and trrops could get killed -

Go figure - what war on terrorism!!

[Sabertooth]

Someone, please shoot Peter Jennings now!

He looks like a cat that just grabbed a canary

I find that remark highly insensitive.

[Sabertooth]

Iraq Mission Aborted (Peter Jennings looks likes he's happy w/himself)

Though I was born in Canada, I live in America, the country I love to look down on.
Here I am smug and overpaid, and see only American doctors.

So I recommend the Canadian health care system, where medicine is rationed quite well.

Peter Jennings likes his Marx with a very simple script.

If this ever actually happens here, I'll--
Oh... DAMN! My prompter just froze.

Got Marx?

[mlocher]

Good reasoning though - TOO small a chemical weapons factory - and trrops could get killed -

Go figure - what war on terrorism!!

another angle to this is that this information was leaked to further show that iraq is a breeding ground for terrorist activities. i suspect that bush was trying to prove a link between this facility and sodom. he may be still trying to prove it.

6 months from now i suspect that neither the factory or sodom will be standing.

abc and peter jennings are scum.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

OK....CNN has breaking news that we might attack this place and Peter Jennings is reporting the attack is off? what is this all about?

[michigander]

As U.S. surveillance intensified, officials concluded the operation was so small and crude that in the final analysis, it was not worth risking American lives to go after it — and also not worth the outcry that might follow any U.S. operation inside Iraq.

We could('ve) throw one of these at it (just for effect)?:

BLU-118/B Thermobaric Weapon

[RoseofTexas]

The media WHORES have HIGHJACKED this operation from the get go!! I HATE THEM!!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Very well done.

[Chad Fairbanks]

He should be hung and the sheeple made to watch something other than TV...

nah... just run it on PBS during their telethon ;0)

[alloysteel]

I think we just saw a little disinformation put on the real state of affairs in our conflict with Baghdad and Saddam Hussein. The "unreliable" networks and cable shows are allowed to pick up these "leaks" in what seems to be a job of planting various stories, while the real action is going on elsewhere. I have no way of verifying what has gone on and what is being reported is anywhere near the reality of the situation. It may be instructive to go back to the build-up in England prior to D-Day 1944, and the actual launch of the invasion. Hitler knew it was coming, Rommel knew it was coming, but neither knew just when or where, diverting and holding positions far from the actual strike point, and unable to respond quickly enough when the invasion came, thinking Normandy was, at first, only a diversion. The front has already been moving steadily in Iraq, just that the politically unreliable reporters have not been advised of the true nature of what we are doing there.

[Rev. Lou Chenary]

nah... just run it on PBS during their telethon

Now that would get me to pledge a dollar or two!

[Cachelot]

How do we know this is true?

Well, one could paint "death to Saddam!" on your forehead and drop you down there. You could wear a wire so you could tell us what kind of poisons they were fiddling with and all...

[Litany]

I almost threw a knife at the TV (I was making supper) when I heard him say, quite gleefully, something to the effect that 'the Bush administration will be embarrassed'.

Why did he come back??? It was much better while he was gone. Sure wish I had cable.

[aristeides]

Clever way to make use of unreliable pressies.

[Sabertooth]

I have to confess, the original idea for Got Marx?™ was Registered's. Check out the threads here.