French missiles found by the Poles, and to protect France, blown up.
Froggies said they did not say "2003". LOL. Decide for yourself.
Posted on 07/02/2004 4:30:18 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
WARSAW (Reuters) - Artillery shells found by Polish troops in Iraq (news - web sites) definitely contained the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin, Poland's military said on Friday.
"The results of ... analysis confirmed that chemical agent GB-GF, cyclosarin, was found in the shells," the Polish-led unit of the multinational force in Iraq said in a statement.
"Beyond doubt these are shells from the 1980-1988 period, of the type used against Kurds and during the Iraq-Iran war."
Poland said on Thursday its soldiers found 17 Grad rockets and two mortar shells filled with chemicals in late June and that U.S. experts had carried out tests on the weapons. U.S. officials confirmed late on Thursday that such shells were being tested but said further tests were continuing because initial findings could be misleading. U.S. officials were not immediately available to comment on the Polish statement.
"Some of those warheads were old but it could not be ruled out some could still be used," Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told Poland's Zet radio on Friday.
The statement from the Polish headquarters at Babylon said the shells had been hidden and that chemicals had leaked from one but the threat had been dealt with. Local people said unidentified individuals had offered the shells for sale.
"If these shells had been used, in a mortar attack on Camp Babylon for example, the results would have been unthinkable," the Polish commander in Iraq, General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, told TVN24 television.
Iraq said it produced cyclosarin munitions in the 1980s to fight Iran but was committed to destroying stocks and ceasing production by U.N. resolutions following the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).
President Bush (news - web sites) accused then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) of failing to give up chemical and biological weapons and invaded Iraq last year to depose him. Since then, occupying forces have found small quantities of banned weaponry.
Does anyone have a count of the chemical weapons found thus far in Iraq?
That's a good question. It's time to start keeping a list. Perhaps one of the good ladies from the Guild can take up th charge.
Not possible. Hussein said he didn't have them and if that's good enough for John Kerry and Howard Dean, it should be good enough for the Poles.
That's what? 17 Warheads? With about 4 Liters each (if they are the same type found a month ago in that IED)?
68 Liters of Sarin?
That could do some serious damage from what I understand.
But, of course, since they were not found in a large stockpile it doesn't count.
French missiles found by the Poles, and to protect France, blown up.
Froggies said they did not say "2003". LOL. Decide for yourself.
bump
Just to play devils advocate. Is this pre 1988 stuff. Will te average folks out there say hmmm this isn't proof that Sadam was making any after the Gulf War. And how can we say we expect them to be able to come up with every thing they scattered around in the eighties. I mean it will still look like a pretext and esp with the media playing it that way. I think that's why we don't see the admin really hyping this one.
Kay has already stated that they had the expertise and will to ramp up production once they were given a clean bill of health from the UN.
And I think that the expectation was that they find the stuff they scattered around the eighties. That's where the UN came up with the "unaccounted for" weapons and materails that were the basis for the claims against Hussein.
No I agree with you but I'm saying how is this going to play with the swing voters. You know the media say baaa you say baaa folks.
This story by itself probably won't do much. Unfortunately.
BTTT
17 Grad rockets were also filled with chemicals.
Just thought you all might want to see this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24403-2004Jul2.html
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.