INTELLIGENCE: Why Iraq WMD Finds Were Kept Secret

Strategy Page ^ | 2006 Jun 23 | Harold C. Hutchison

[Wiz]

June 23, 2006: The revelation that Coalition forces have discovered about 500 shells containing chemical weapons (mostly sarin nerve gas and mustard gas) since 2003, most of which are pre-1991 Gulf War vintage, leads to the question as to why the U.S. waited so long to reveal this. The U.S. government has taken a beating for supposed failures to find weapons of mass destruction in the press, and from political opponents. There have been some discoveries that have made the news, most notably an incident in May, 2004, when terrorists used a 155-millimeter shell loaded with sarin in an IED. The shell detonated, exposing two soldiers to sarin nerve gas (both of whom survived and recovered). It is this attack that provides one explanation as to why many of the finds have been classified.

If the United States were to have announced WMD finds right away, it could have told terrorists (including those from al-Qaeda) where to look to locate chemical weapons. This would have placed troops at risk – for a marginal gain in public relations. A successful al-Qaeda chemical attack would have been a huge boost for their propaganda efforts as well, enabling them to get recruits and support (many people want to back a winner), and it would have caused a decline in American morale in Iraq and on the home front.

[JimRed]

okay, she's a hottie, but... what are her politics?

Remember, left chicks are easy!

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Ping and binny boy is dead?

[processing please hold]

They're still sick basturds for setting IED's. Damn them all to Hooters. That would serve them right. All those half neeked women strutting around. They're so fond of making their women wear burkas.

[Mr. Jazzy]

The real problem is tracking down all the hidden stuff that SH hid in the countryside.

I believe that the huge pile of documents that we secured in the fall of Iraq have finally been transcribed, read and assimilated into the intel computers and the administration feels secure that most, if not all of the WMD stuff has been collected or identified in other countries.

My guess is that the sarin shell IED was rigged as if it was an ordinary high explosive round, and that the bad guys just thought it would go BOOM. If we let them know that the shell was really C/B masquerading as HE 155, well that would really have the bad guys racing around the countryside, like diseased rats, looking to SELL the C/B rounds to other like minded nuts outside of Iraq.

[JoeGar]

I also think the definition of WMD has gotten stretched a bit over the past few years.

I disagree. WMD's are still chemical (e.g. Sarin, Mustard gas), biological (e.g. anthrax, botcholism), or radiological (nukes) weapons.

[processing please hold]

You're welcome.

[SandRat]

They played it as a pass off and not much else.

[killjoy]

(Not one US soldier has lived, that has been captured by terrorist.)

Ronald D. Young Jr., David S. Williams, Edgar Hernandez, Joseph Hudson, Shoshana Johnson, Patrick Miller, James Riley, Jessica Lynch...

[Arizona Carolyn]

Rather we be demeaned and ridiculed than call a spade a spade?

[Candor7]

Great Article, the truth comes out.

[nw_arizona_granny]

You are correct, an interesting view, that makes sense to me.

[Candor7]

He writes this. "I had forgotten that federal prosecutors designated Jack Murtha an unindicted coconspirator in the Abscam investigation 26 years ago.">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Not only that, but the special prosecutor for ABSCAM resigned when the comittee, controlled by Democraps, refused to indict Murtha. The prosecutor had him COLD, and Murtha would have done time.

[Candor7]

I'd hit it.

[mgstarr]

Botcholism? My fridge could qualify as a WMD in that case.

[nw_arizona_granny]

OBL, will never die.........it would break the jihadi's heart.

[processing please hold]

I'm glad those two soldiers weren't badly hurt because of it.

[Matchett-PI]

Yeah.. the rules have been different for the RATS for many years. If we can keep them out of office and/or off of powerful committees, then privatize a lot of the work being done by the treasonous feather-bedding RATS who make up the permanent bureaucracy at all levels of government - we would be going a long way towards neutralizing them and the protection racket they run.

[FreedomPoster]

I don't have a link, but I remember reading about it as well. As I recall, it was a binary shell, and the fact that it didn't get spun down a tube and then in flight, was thought to be the reason why it didn't have much efficacy (insufficient mixing of the binary components).

[EdnaMode]

It does make sense. It's kind of like on 24, where the fictional president was complicent in nerve gas being sold to terrorists and in the assasination of a former US President. It was decided that revealing this information to the public was in the country's best interest.

It still annoys me that so many people have called me a lunatic anytime I tell them I believe there are/were WMD's in Iraq.

[elhombrelibre]

This makes sense to me, and this is something I've wondered about for a long time (for reasons I cannot go into). I think it also speaks volumes about President Bush that he put the troops ahead of any political gain he'd have gotten from trumpeting these finds.