Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Iraqi soldiers foiled a potentially deadly suicide attack today at the border crossing at Al Qaim in western Anbar province. From Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq): “A force from the 28th infantry division managed to defuse a car bomb and to kill its driver in al-Qaim, Anbar province,” said the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The suicide driver carries the Kuwaiti nationality, and had on his possession a fake ID issued from Baiji,” the statement added. “The car was loaded with three tons of Chlorine and C4 as well as other chemical materials,” it added. Having closely...

November 9, 2009 Volume 87, Number 45 p. 12 Clorox To Stop Using Chlorine Plant Security: Bleach maker will end shipment of hazardous chemical Michael McCoy Citing a desire to improve security, Clorox says it will stop making its namesake bleach out of chlorine and sodium hydroxide. Instead, the big household-products company will purchase high-strength bleach of up to 15% concentration and dilute it to household strength of 6%. The company will convert its Fairfield, Calif., plant within the next six months and switch its six other U.S. plants over the coming years.Clorox’ announcement came three days before the House...

Yes, kids, science is a wonderful thing. But not nearly as wonderful as climate modeling, which can perform supernatural miracles. Honest! Climate modeling can raise the level of the oceans (even without Obama's intervention), it can burn up the planet a hundred years from now, and Shazzam! -- the models can save us again -- all without leaving your video games, and without the benefit of the real-world data that you need for boring old regular science. At least, that's what Nature -- the oldest science journal in the world, going back to Isaac Newton -- now claims. According to...

After many mind-sapping years of trawling through the morass of health scare stories, I formulated a number of laws, one of which was the Law of Beneficial Developments: The intensity of the scaremongering attack on any new development is proportional to the level of benefit that it endows. Unbelievably, the Chlorine Scare has returned. According to the science editor of the Daily Telegraph, Babies exposed to chlorinated water are at risk of heart problems.

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

Undercover police secretly set up a fake company to demonstrate how easily and anonymously a terrorist could purchase chlorine on the Internet for a deadly chemical strike against the city. A videotape — presented Wednesday at a briefing of private security executives — discloses for the first time the results of "Operation Green Cloud" — a reference to the yellow-green color of chlorine gas. The purpose was "to assess the ease or difficulty with which a terrorist in the United States could acquire large quantities of chlorine without being detected by law enforcement or intelligence agencies," a narrator says on...

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas -- A canister containing a dangerous and lethal gas was stolen, officials told KPRC Local 2 Tuesday. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department said the 300-pound container of compressed chlorine gas was taken between midnight and 10 a.m. on June 29 from the Regional Water Corporation, located at 16705 Gleneagle Drive North.

Police Searching for Chlorine Gas Canister By WOL Staff Montgomery County, TX - A canister of compressed chlorine gas was reportedly stolen from the Regional Water Corporation (a water treatment facility in South Montgomery County) at 16705 Gleneagle Dr. N. Representatives from Regional Water Corporation reported to authorities that the facility had been entered sometime between the hours of midnight and 10:00 AM on Sunday, June 29. The suspect(s) allegedly entered the facility by cutting a hole in the fence at the rear of the property, and took the gas canister from the second floor of the plant. The canister...

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2007 – Anyone who doubts that al Qaeda would use chemical, nuclear or biological weapons need only look at the terror group’s attacks in Iraq, Defense officials said. Al Qaeda and affiliated groups have used chlorine gas in attacks against civilians, Iraqi forces and coalition forces at least 15 times since October, according to U.S. officials in Baghdad. “Chlorine is used by terrorists with the intent to harm or kill large numbers of civilians,” an official said. “The attacks show that the terrorists are adaptable, but it reflects more on their maliciousness than their sophistication.” The...

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb exploded about 200 yards from the entrance of a U.S. military base northeast of Baghdad today, unleashing a cloud of chlorine that sickened at least 62 personnel but caused no (life-threatening) injuries, the military said. The use of chlorine canisters to turn an ordinary bomb into a chemical weapon has become a signature tactic of insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. But today's attack was believed to be the first time the tactic was used in Diyala province, north and east of the capital. The U.S. military, meanwhile,...

Twenty people have been killed and 50 injured in a suspected chlorine bomb in Iraq's Diyala province, police say. The attack happened in an open-air market in the village of Abu Sayda at about 2000 (1600 GMT) on Tuesday. A police spokesman in the provincial capital Baquba said doctors at a local hospital believed the nature of victims' burns suggested poison gas.

At least nine of the large-scale attacks in Iraq since the beginning of the year have involved the use of chlorine. These bombs strike a particular fear because if people are not killed by the blast, they may easily die an agonizing death when the chlorine is dispersed and inhaled. [...] We turn away, taking a perhaps rather ODD REFUGE in the certainty that this is all the fault of the Neoconservatives, of the Arrogance of Bush and Blair and what is strangely called a policy of “liberal intervention.” A majority were against the war in 2003 and almost everyone...

Most consumers rarely notice chlorine. It is the substance that keeps our pools and drinking water clean. It is our household bleach. It is also now the chemical weapon choice of terrorists in the Middle East and, inevitably, in a city near you. Imagine, if you would, the following: A terrorist, having crossed the border from Mexico, obtains his commercial drivers license (CDL) from one of many illegal documents processors operating behind closed doors throughout the United States. He passes the required Department of Transportation background checks on his assumed name. Obtaining a job at a chemical processing plant, he...

BAGHDAD - Coalition Forces further disrupted terrorist cells using improvised explosive devices Friday morning when eight terrorists were killed and 41 suspected terrorists were detained during operations around Iraq. Near Mahmudiyah, Coalition Forces detained eight suspected terrorists. Another raid uncovered a building containing seven tanks of chlorine, which Coalition Forces destroyed. Seven armed terrorists were killed after they fired upon Coalition Forces entering a building. Forces on the scene detained 15 suspected terrorists who are allegedly tied to al-Qaeda in Iraq. One armed terrorist was killed when Coalition Forces entered a building in Baghdad to conduct an operation to disrupt...

TRUCK BOMB WITH CHLORINE KILLS 12 PEOPLE IN IRAQI CITY OF RAMADI, SAYS U.S. MILITARY

BAGHDAD - A suspected al-Qaida in Iraq suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday, killing at least 27 people — the ninth such attack since the group's first known use of a chemical weapon in January. Al-Qaida in Iraq, which asserts fealty to Osama bin Laden, was believed to be hitting back at Sunni tribesmen who are banding together to expel foreign fighters from their territory. An Internet posting by the Islamic Army in Iraq, meanwhile, exposed a growing and deep split among even the most radical...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – Al Qaeda’s use of chlorine gas against civilians and use of children as suicide bombers highlights the terror organization’s barbarity, a Joint Staff spokesman said here today. Al Qaeda extremists in Iraq are using chlorine canisters and chlorine-carrying trucks to attack civilian targets, said Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, Joint Staff deputy director for operations. On March 23, Barbero said, Iraqi police foiled an attack in Ramadi that could have caused catastrophic casualties. The police intercepted a truck carrying 5,000 gallons of chlorine and two tons of explosives. On March 28, two chlorine-laden...

A couple of bombings–no big deal. But now there have been more chlorine attacks than you can count on one hand–and most of the victims have been Muslims. Most recently, a government facility in Fallujah has been struck by chlorine suicide attack. Try to make sense of this. Imagine you’re AQ. Your desperate suicide attacks just aren’t doing the trick for you, so you enhance your attacks with chemicals and thus irretrievably link yourselves with the same fears that gave the Americans a pretext for being there in the first place. Sounds like a winning strategy!

Gunmen in black hoods came to Albuaifan, a town south of Fallujah, four months ago and demanded that the sheiks of the Albu Issa tribe pledge loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent "nation" that the group al-Qaida in Iraq had proclaimed last October. The tribal leaders said no. Since then, the tribe has been at war. Its men have stopped going to work, and they carry weapons routinely now. They've even issued a password and closely question anyone they encounter who doesn't know it. The battle entered a frightening new stage 10 days ago when insurgents blew...

********************************************* Ramadi police seize a truck rigged with explosives and chlorine cannisters*******************EXCERPT************************************ Al Qaeda in Iraq is pressing forward with its dirty war in Anbar province. On March 23, police in Ramadi's Jazeera district seize a truck filled with "five 1000-gallon barrels filled with chlorine and more than two tons of explosives," according to Multinational Forces West. The truck was parked outside the Jazeera police station. "The police approached the truck for further investigation and detained the driver when they discovered the truck was rigged with explosives and the driver was attempting to detonate the vehicle." The driver was captured...

(2007-03-17) — In the wake of the detonation by terrorists of three chlorine gas bombs in Iraq’s Anbar province, the United Nations today issued a proclamation officially de-certifying chlorine as a corrosive, poisonous chemical. “The fact that three truckloads of chlorine gas were in Iraq proves that it’s harmless,” said an unnamed United Nations spokesman, “It’s not even a chemical, because we have proven that there are no chemical weapons in the country.” Today’s explosion, officially classified as a non-WMD incident, sent about 350 Iraqis to the hospital where doctors told them they were fine, and that the skin and...

BAGHDAD, Sunday, March 18 — Three suicide bombers driving trucks loaded with explosives and tanks of chlorine gas detonated their payloads in Anbar Province on Friday, killing at least two Iraqi police officers and wounding or sickening more than 350 people, the American military command said Saturday. Police and hospital officials, however, said that as many as eight people had been killed. Insurgents began combining explosives with chlorine gas and other chemicals in January in an effort to sow more fear and havoc among civilians, military officials say.

Two Killed, over 350 treated for exposure in multiple attacks in Anbar; leader of Anbar Salvation Council targeted Al Qaeda in Iraq conducted a three pronged suicide car bomb attack using chlorine gas in Anbar province. On March 16, three suicide truck bombers armed with chlorine gas struck at targets in the cities of Ramadi, Amiriya, and Fallujah, according to a Multinational Forces Iraq press release. Two police were killed in the attack, and over 350 were treated for symptoms related to chlorine gas exposure. "The second bomber [in Amiriya] targeted a tribal leader opposed to al Qaeda," Reuters reports,...

Iraqis stand by the wreckage of a car bomb which exploded in the town of Mahmoudiyah, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 17, 2007. The car was parked near Mahmoudiyah market when it exploded, wounding two people. BAGHDAD - Multiple suicide bombings struck the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, and about 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops were treated for exposure to chlorine gas, the military said Saturday. At least two policemen also were killed in the attacks. The violence started Friday afternoon when a driver detonated the explosives in a pickup truck...

Al-Qaida militants in Iraq were preparing to make crude chemical weapons using chlorine at a car bomb factory discovered west of Baghdad this week, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The military said the facility in Karma, east of Fallujah, had ties to recent attacks in which chlorine was used to transform explosives into makeshift chemical weapons that released suffocating gas and sickened dozens of people. Lieutenant Colonel Valery Keaveny told reporters by video conference from the western province of Anbar that U.S. forces had found al-Qaida propaganda leaflets and “interactive DVDs” at the factory, which was raided on Tuesday....

BAGHDAD, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda militants in Iraq were preparing to make crude chemical weapons using chlorine at a car bomb factory discovered west of Baghdad this week, the U.S. military said on Saturday

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2007 – The enemy in Iraq is adaptive, and is interested in “catastrophic attacks,” the commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq said today. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, met with Pentagon reporters over a satellite link from Baghdad. Insurgents blew up a tanker filled with chlorine yesterday in southern Baghdad. The attack killed at least two people and wounded more than 30. Coalition officials in Baghdad said this could be an escalation in the insurgent attacks. The attacks are meant to cause fear, and chlorine gas – which was...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 21 — A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it might represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians. It was at least the third truck bomb in a month to employ chlorine, a greenish gas also used in World War I, which burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths. The bomb killed at least two people and wounded 32 others, many of them sent to hospitals coughing and wheezing, police and medical officials said. Iraqi and...

A truck carrying gas exploded near a restaurant just north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing five people and injuring over a hundred, including many women and children poisoned by gas released in the blast, police said. They initially said the truck was carrying liquid natural gas but later said it was chlorine gas. Five people were killed by the blast and around 138 hurt, many of them poisoned by the gas being transported on the truck, police said.

APEX, N.C. -- Authorities evacuated Apex residents and closed downtown streets late Thursday after a cloud containing chlorine gas spewed from a volatile industrial fire. Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford said a leak at the EQ North Carolina plant on Investment Boulevard sent several large plumes of chlorine gas into the air around 9 p.m. A large fire broke out at the plant afterward, with multiple explosions heard nearby. "This is the worst possible hazardous materials incident you could have," Radford said.

Recent reports outlining what Time magazine has called the "untold story" of a cancelled al Qaeda plot against the New York subway system have excited considerable media hype and public consternation. The account is part of Ron Suskind's new book, The One Percent Doctrine, that was excerpted in the June 26 edition of Time. According to Suskind, al Qaeda developed a "revolutionary new WMD device" that would generate cyanide gas, and these weapons -- which he refers to as "mubtakkar" devices -- were to have been planted on subways by operatives who were in place and preparing to act in...

KEARNY, N.J., May 7 - It is the deadliest target in a swath of industrial northern New Jersey that terrorism experts call the most dangerous two miles in America: a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks. According to federal Environmental Protection Agency records, the plant poses a potentially lethal threat to 12 million people who live within a 14-mile radius. Yet on a recent Friday afternoon, it remained loosely guarded and accessible. Dozens of trucks and cars drove by within 100 feet of...

Swiss technicians are to use a special insulating foam to wrap up a glacier that has been shrinking under the summer sun. Carlo Danioth, in charge of the slopes at the Andermatt resort in central Switzerland, says the Gurschen glacier is to be partially covered with 3,000 square metres of PVC foam from the beginning of May. Mr Danioth says the aim is to halt the melting of the glacier, a phenomenon that has been attributed to global warming. "If the trial is a success, we'll wrap the other part of the glacier too," he said. He added that the...

A new District effort to ban trains carrying chlorine and other dangerous chemicals past the U.S. Capitol and through the region is picking up steam after a deadly train accident in South Carolina last week. The subsequent chlorine gas spill killed nine, injured hundreds and led to the evacuation of 5,400. A similar accident in the Washington area would be magnitudes worse, officials say. Crews continue to clear debris and neutralize and remove chlorine gas after the train wreck in South Carolina last week that killed nine people. (Andrew Davis Tucker -- Augusta Chronicle Via AP) "This region and the...

<p>The ongoing hysteria about lead in Washington, D.C.’s drinking water is much ado about nothing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though that’s no surprise, the controversy does have some value ¯ it demonstrates the potential unintended consequences of implementing junk science-based environmental policy.</p>

The first use of the tools on the arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit reveals puzzles about the soil it examined and raises anticipation about what the tool will find during its studies of a martian rock. Today and overnight tonight, Spirit is using its microscope and two up-close spectrometers on a football-sized rock called Adirondack, said Jennifer Trosper, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We're really happy with the way the spacecraft continues to work for us," Trosper said. The large amount of data -- nearly 100 megabits -- transmitted from Spirit in a single...

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), which supplies drinking water to all San Francisco residents, has launched a major outreach campaign to inform customers about an upcoming change in the drinking water disinfectant. The water quality improvement will require fish and amphibian owners to change the way they prepare water for fish tanks and aquariums. In Fall 2003, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) will switch from chlorine to chloramine disinfection of drinking water. Chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia, is a proven disinfectant considered more effective than chlorine alone, as it lasts longer in water to...

HALABJA, Iraq - U.S. specialists have discovered evidence that a Kurdish Islamic militant group that the Bush administration has linked to al-Qaida was concocting chemical weapons in the mountains of northeastern Iraq, a U.S. military commander said Tuesday. The special forces soldiers also found recipes for three forms of chlorine gas and for ricin, a deadly toxin derived from castor beans, American intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. aircraft, 100 American special forces and more than 8,000 Kurdish fighters on Friday swept the Ansar al Islam ("Partisans of Islam") militants out of the sliver of territory...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is warning police that terrorists could construct a simple but deadly chemical weapon out of materials readily available. "Little or no training is required to assemble and deploy such a device due to its simplicity," the FBI said Wednesday in its weekly intelligence bulletin to about 18,000 law enforcement agencies. The bulletin provides no details of a specific threat or possible location of an attack. It does say that terrorists could take advantage of building ventilation systems, air intakes or enclosed areas to disperse toxic chemical gas. Law enforcement officials previously have warned that al-Qaida...