Hussein’s chemical weapons in the hands of ISIS
The Wall Street Journal reports that some of Saddam Hussein’s old chemical weapons have fallen into the hands of the al Qaeda terrorists currently marching on Baghdad. Oh, but don’t worry, we always knew that they were there, and they’re degraded, and they’re dangerous to move. So relax;
U.S. officials don’t believe the Sunni militants will be able to create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to move, officials said.
Nonetheless, the capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of the U.S.
“We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.”
I’m sure that people who regularly blow themselves up and have their own divine deaths drilled into their heads since birth are worried about moving some dangerous chemicals to a point where they can be deadly and take out some infidels along with some Shi’ites.
Military officials said the U.S. was well aware of the Muthanna stockpile and wouldn’t have left it there if it posed a military threat. Still, when the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, it didn’t anticipate a large swath of the country, including numerous military bases, would be overrun by radical Sunni militants. One defense official said that if the U.S. had known the Iraqi government would lose control so soon, it might not have left the old chemical weapons in place.
Yeah, I’m thinking that the term “militarily useless” takes into account that the weapons are in the hands of Stone Age creatures who don’t need an artillery shell or missile to contaminate people, including themselves.
Category: Terror War
So now you are telling me there really are weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in Iraq? (sarc off) and we knew it all along and did nothing to destroy them in the last 12 years of us being there? And the liberal press is just now coming up with a report? And the press is now concerned? I bet the president just found out this news when he read it in the Washington Post waiting for the first tee. Maybe he didn’t know because all the reports were stored on Lois Lerner’s hard drive. You know, the one the IRS says they threw out.
I guess Bush wasn’t lying after all, huh? I’ll just hold my breath and wait for all the leftist MSM nimrods to make public retractions and apologies…
Don’t worry Whitey, they will just shift fires and claim the war was all about all that oil we took. Or the big one that I have been reading, it was all for Haliburton and propping up Cheney. Goddamn I hate worthless hippies!!!
Was thinking the *exact same thing*, Dana.
There’s a reason why newspapers and the lib media is dying, and this is pretty much it; they really don’t care if they lie. The American people does.
The media hasn’t got the foggiest idea what a WMD is. In their pinheaded little minds, only nukes are WMDs.
The U.S has WMD does it not?
This weapon pile is not only useless and unarmed but also from the war against the Kurdish over 20 years ago. They still don’t exist and didn’t at the time of your wanky little country’s unsuccessful invasion.
Out of curiosity, are you a chemical weapons specialist? A chemical engineer? Have any training, education, or experience relating to the materials in question? Because there’s multiple individuals here that can answer “yes” to all if the above.
So unless you can as well, I suggest you fuck off.
Horace…Again, out of courtesy, did your “wanky little country” contribute anything against the war on terror? Were two of your major cities the victim of triple airliner attacks that cost thousands of lives? You know Horace, I think you should “rethink”, your supposed line of reasoning. Other wise, go shit in another sandbox somewhere. You are writing to people who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and who have been to too many Memorials for fallen brothers. So give it a rest or go join Code Pink. They’re recruiting for folks just like you.
And so the butthurt REALLY begins…..!
They were there, then they weren’t, now they are again…I just wish the liberals and MSM (but I repeat myself) would just pick a side and stick to it.
Kerry was anxious to get them moved out of Syria in days, not weeks. And now the virginal Islamic Republic of Iraq has chemical weapons stockpiles? John Forbes Kerry knows how to get shit done.
But I thought Buuuuush lied about there being WMD’s? I’m so confused.
Flashback to 2006:
http://www.salon.com/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/
“On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam’s inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.”
And then we have this from Wired in 2010:
http://www.wired.com/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising-results/
The second para is quite interesting:
That is interesting
There is that huge warehouse that we found, with the satellite images showing transport trucks in front of it in the weeks leading up to the ground war. Remember, we found the single mortar round filled with mustard gas, and a couple of barrels with nerve gas residue in it. The media said that the entire warehouse was designed to hold that one mortar round and a couple of empty barrels.
I thought there weren’t any WMD in Iraq. You mean I’ve been lied to this whole time?!!
Seriously though, what the fuck. Why weren’t these things destroyed, oh I don’t know, sometime in the past 11 fucking years?
Nearly word for word the first thing that came out of mouth. Including the expletive.
The Salon report is untrue. I was assigned to the Joint Staff/J2 during this timeframe and know for a fact that this report is a lie. The Left seemed to turn on a dime against president Bush and our war on terrorism and the media turn up their torch.
seemed?
From 2001 to 2008, the MSM was only concerned with poking a sharp stick into the eye of the Bush administration. In depth reporting took a back seat to printing smears. WMD was found in multiple places but was not deemed significant enough by the MSM to have them change the story of the Big Lie.
Funny how when that shit falls into the hands of a bunch of stone age terrorists, it suddenly rates coverage. I hate the press. They have screwed this story up from day 1 all in service to the Democrats and a liberal agenda.
Preach it, Brother!
WMDS in iraq OMG!!!
I’m more concerned about our own WMD, the presstitutes bought and paid for by the communist/democratic party and the chief enabler of destroying our country Obama and the democrats.
And I don’t believe for a second these animals won’t try to move WMD’s in what ever form they are in. They care little about their own lives. Saddam did not have a way to deliver chemical weapons? Ask the thousands who were gassed by dumping chemicals out of a helicopter. Seemed to work pretty well as I recall.
And, from what I have read, they have the helicopters we left for the Iaqis now!
Far too many in the media and government fail to realize that we’re not dealing with a high tech military, but a terrorist organization. The “conventional wisdom” doesn’t mean squat when it comes to groups like ISIS.
From the WSJ article on Chemical Weapons:
“We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.”
That’s their story and they’re gonna stick too it I guess. That is, until ISIS does move them, however unstable they may be. Since they of course, read the Wall Street Journal, as soon as they read that those, “chemical weapon materials are of no military value”, they’ll just say, “Meh…so what then, bummer, move along, nothing to see here brothers”.
My money says they are already moving and weaponizing them or trying damn hard to do so and will not give up trying no matter how many of their men die trying. Because after all, they’ll tell those “volunteers”, it is “Allah’s will that you try for him and if you die, praise be to Allah! Think of the glory awaiting you in heaven my brothers!”.
This is going to go from bad to worse in a New York minute! God please protect our Americans in Iraq!
Shit. I’ve personally seen how they weaponized those cheap ass car jacks every shit-box has in it by welding a goddamn tube to it. Instant adjustable mortar platform. Safe? Hell no. Accurate? Hell no. Effective? Hell yes.
I can’t stand Jen Psaki or Marie Barf. Those two remind me of the useful idiots in my International Relations classes in college. By the end of class my brain had melted and was oozing out of the ears from having to listen to some of the things that were said by people.
I don’t have access to the whole article, so I don’t know if the type(s) of CW agents are mentioned. I seriously doubt that there are any useful “true” CW agents available such as nerve, blister or blood agents so there probably isn’t much of a real threat. This could be more of a “sensational journalism” issue as much as anything else. bear in mind that CS (riot control agent, tear gas, etc) is considered a “chemical” agent.
With all of that being said, should there be actual bad stuff out there, that part about them being degraded and too dangerous to move matters not. I spent 13 years after the Army working to destroy CW agents (nerve & blister) made in the 50s & 60s still sitting in rockets, artillery rounds, mines and the like. It’s moveable and while degraded to a point to where it wasn’t original weapon grade, it’ll still ruin your day in a second.
Remember your NBC training folks – it doesn’t take much to make things interesting.
One of the articles I read mentioned sarin and mustard gas.
Don’t forget VX. Saddam was a big fan of that stuff as well.
The only thing I never understood was why Saddam didn’t hit us with gas attacks when we invaded the second time. He knew we were coming in and that he would be overthrown, why not go all out and use everything you’ve got?
He honestly thought he could stop us. Remember, Iraq considered Desert Storm a victory. He also knew if he used Chemical agents, well….the response from us would be devastating.
I have to disagree with you about Saddam thinking he could beat us. Saddam wasn’t that stupid. He barely stopped Iran and his threats to lob CWs into Tehran were really the only thing that stopped Iran from continuing to fight Iraq. CWs really were Saddam’s biggest weapon, and he didn’t hesitate to use them against us the first time around.
Obviously, I’m glad he didn’t use them in 2003, but I wonder just what the hell he did with them. I just know damn well that the miniscule amount we DID find was just the tip of the iceberg.
No, he was under the mistaken impression that his citizenry and Muslims would rise up resist the Americans.
I worked in a in a shitty little room with lots of miserable people in a funny shaped building in Northern VA watching the whole invasion unfold over days on a big screen C2PC/COP thingy. The guys with the bright shiny had overlays showing exactly where the US troops would get ‘dirty’. Then they revised the maps when that didn’t happen. And revised them again. Soon there were Marines running rampant all over Baghdad and everyone just shrugged. It was certainly expected that he would use them.
I know for a fact that Mustard gas is still stockpiled in large quantities over there. We had to medevac 3 Marines after they stumbled into a fairly large stockpile of the stuff while on patrol. Really hope our Embassy in Baghdad has MOPP gear available.
CWs were used against troopers of the 1st Cav at Taji twice in 2004. I have a pic that I believe shows one of the strikes.
No thankyou.
GB nerve agent and blister – yep, they’ll ruin your day alright. GB isn’t a “persisent” so it’ll just kill you and be gone in a matter of hours. Mustard won’t kill you outright but really ruin your complexion and then you’ll die from cancer in 40 years.
The real threat from this is if it get’s out of the country and into the hands of terrorists. Once something like that is confirmed (or at least thought to have happened, all I need is small, empty bottle marked “Chemical Warfare Nerve Agent” left on a sidewalk in front of the White House and I just shut down the entire government for a whole day.
People seriously freak out about this stuff (rightfully so) and weapons grade or not, it’ll still serve it’s purpose. If we’re sending SF back into Iraq, finding the CW agent should be the mission, not “training” another Division of Bergdahls.
I realize you probably have a lot more knowledge on this than I, but I (and a whole lot of soldiers around Ypres) would probably argue that comment about mustard gas not killing you. Inhale any and it will screw your lungs up to a fare-thee-well in minutes. Inhale more than a little and choke to death.
David – true statement. The vapors are definitely not healthy for you and I was over-simplifying things a bit. Vapor exposure to mustard agent can cause anything from itching/swelling eyes and extreme sensitivity to light to hoarseness, bloody nose, tight chest, nausea and vomiting. All of these symptoms take hours to develop unless of course you’re just lapping this stuff up. It is primarily a “contact” hazard vs. vapor hazard and that’s how I was addressing it. Compared to the other CW agents out there (nerve, blood, choking) it’s actually the least dangerous as far as causing death to those exposed. Back in the good old days, instead of CS chambers, soldiers would get to test their stuff with mustard agent – getting the infamous mustard dot on the arm, crawl through it with their version of MOPP 4 and the whole sha-bang.
The participants at the Battle of Ypres were exposed primairly to chlorine gas vs. mustard, but yep, any exposure to stuff like this is not a way to extend your life expectancy.
nbcguy54…I saw your post above. On the same note, I worked as a telecommunications contractor for the Army at Umatilla Army Chemical Depot in Oregon. They went through the ugly stuff first, VX and such until all was left was the old mustard gas shells, rockets and other munitions. It was quite an impressive process to watch them unload containers from the old “bunkers” and there were about 1018 of them and take it to the burn facility to destroy. They finished it all and completed the Army’s mission there a few years ago. It is just a National Guard training facility now. But reading your post I thought you would be familiar with that stuff. They’re still working on Tooele, Utah and Pueblo, Colorado though.
You’re dead on re. Ypres – my error. Getting old and forgetful!
You see how this is going to play out, don’t you? They’ll use those weapons on someone other than us, and then blame us for their use. After all, didn’t the AMERICAN PRESS report that there were NO WMDs there, that the American government lied about it? Of course they did.
MSM, your lies have played right into the hands of the terrorists. But of course you don’t care, right? Good or bad, it’s all just news, right?
Now I know why liars go to Hell. At least, I hope they do.
The 550 metric tons of yellow cake uranium found in country then shipped Canada in 2008 doesn’t count either, guys.
lol libtards.
What? No WMD in Iraq? It’s bullshit, we all know. My Co and 1SG both told me that we were hit at Taji twice in 2004 with nerve agents. I’ll dig up a pic of what I think may have been one of the attacks and send it to Jonn. Maybe someone here can ID it. I hate to ad more to him, but I don’t know how to add pics to my posts here.
More bush administration treason for not disposing of them because neo-cons were afraid critics would use them to show iraqs wmf and been delt with by U.N. before 2003 invasion!
You truly are a moronic asshole.
And how many times have you yourself declared on this very site that there were never, ever any WMD of any kind in Iraq, VWPussy? I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head. So first you hate Bush because you say there were none. Now you hate him because there were in fact lots of them.
You are a shitwad of monumental proportions, retard. I seriously wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. Go back to swallowing your boyfriend’s jizz and stop polluting the grown-up conversations with your shit.
completely consistent U.N. delt with the wmd before 2003 bush war of aggression. Isis took over the neutralized site that bush adm. refused to get rid of. If isis had wmf they got it in syria.
Not only are you a douchebag VWP, your a Moron.
You inconsistent fucktard. Yeah, ISIS got chemical weapons from Syria after taking control of of a chemical weapons site in Iraq. That makes perfect sense you illiterate fuck. You’re an ideologue and an oxygen thief. Just go away.
Do you actually read what you write? Do you really believe that ISIS transported chemical weapons from Syria and stored them in a warehouse that they then had to attack and take control of, just so they could take possession of the chemical weapons?
Also, the UN never dealt with anything. The UN only dealt with a no-fly zone over Iraq, and even then it was the U.S. that was actually enforcing it. When our planes were targeted by Iraqi anti-air missiles, the UN refused to give permission for us to even shoot them.
I am sorry, but at this point I am going to say that you are just mentally retarded. Even the most liberal, Pelosi-panty sucker wouldn’t believe your logic. Heck, at this point even Hairy Read would call you an idiot.
Congratulations, VWPussy! You have reached a level of stupidity so extreme that Joe Biden could look like Steven fucking Hawking sans wheelchair by standing next to you.
Huh? Between the lack of punctuation, misspelling and circular logic I’m confused. VWP were you for the war before you were against it?
Huh? Between the lack of punctuation, misspelling and circular logic I’m confused. VWP were you for the war before you were against it?
Don’t mind him, he’s just the village idiot. He usually goes back to huffing glue in his parents basement.
Huffing/eating glue, sticking forks in power outlets, shaken baby syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, addicted to crack at birth and a steady diet of paint chips. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg with this fuggin’ moron.
+1 Redacted1775
So, let me get this straight. Did they not exist and Bush was lying about the WMD, or was Bush right all along and the liberals were lying?
Which is it?
For vwp, whatever the Parti tells him it is today.
vwp would be perfect for the Ministry of Truth.