Bomb With Nerve Agent Explodes in Iraq

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Another Day, Another Dollar
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An explosive containing sarin nerve gas was discovered by American troops in Baghdad and detonated, an American military spokesman there said today. It was the first sarin shell the American military has found since the invasion of Iraq last year, the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said in a televised news conference.

The explosive, a 155 millimeter artillery round, had been rigged as a roadside bomb, the general said. It was detonated before it could be defused, producing "a very small dispersal" of the gas, he said.

Two members of a bomb squad were treated for minor exposure, and the sarin did not present a threat to the surrounding neighborhood, the spokesman said.

The incident occurred "a couple days ago," he added.

General Kimmitt said American officials believe the weapon came from the stockpiele of the regime of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Hussein had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War.

The bomb was a "binary chemical projectile" with two chambers each containing a distinct chemical. When the projectile is fitted into an artillery round and fired, the rotation of the round causes the wall between the chambers to break, thereby blending the two chemicals. On impact with the target, the shell explodes, releasing the sarin.

But the explosive discovered last week was not launched as an artillery round, so only a small amount of the two chemicals mixed together, General Kimmitt said. It was not known whether whoever rigged the bomb knew of the presence of sarin in the explosive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/international/middleeast/17CND-SARI.html
 

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Damn, Lander is going to hate hearing this.

Or blame GW for putting the shell there, one of the two.
 

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1) There've been what, 300, maybe 400 false alarms so far?

2) As a matter of fact I would not put it past the current administration to plant evidence, especially at such a convenient time for it to show up.

3) Hussein's been out of power for a while now, and last I checked he was not in the practice of setting up IDEs.

4) Even if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction piled up to it's armpits convoy-style as was originally claimed, it was not a valid reason for America to invade them. Fortunately, they didn't, so we can just keep on being stupid and setting ourselves up for greater losses, risk of terror attacks, foreign relations problems, a bill we can't pay, and um exporting democracy.


Phaedrus
 

Another Day, Another Dollar
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I have my doubts about the honesty behind this story, but we will likely never know if true or not. The timing does seem fishy with the falling ratings on the current US admin.
 

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I hear now that a New York Times reporter snapped a photograph of Donald Rumsfield on his trip to Iraq which showed an unusually large bulge in his crotch. No doubt he is the one that brought it over there. There you go fools... run with it.
 

hangin' about
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Just to add a little fuel to that notion, one of the reports I read said the Pentagon was 'surprised' that Kimmit publicly disclosed this information and that it was supposed to remain 'under wraps'.

I've also read that the insurgents likely didn't know what they had at the time.

At any rate, unless Saddam had one helluva throwing arm, the alleged 'stockpiles' (let's not forget that we're looking for stockpiles, not a single shell) weren't a threat to the US.
 

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no doubt this to be true.
only one problem it had a trademark stamp on it
"made in usa"

"dont take life so serious, you wont be getting out of here alive"
 

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A very familiar-sounding round of caveats from MSNBC ...

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
Field-test results could be in error

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the results were from a field test, which can be imperfect, and more analysis needed to be done. “We have to be careful,” he told an audience in Washington Monday afternoon.

Rumsfeld said it may take some time to determine precisely what the chemical was.

Two former weapons inspectors — Hans Blix and David Kay — said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons.

Kimmitt said he believed that insurgents who planted the explosive didn’t know it contained the nerve agent.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Full story here.


Phaedrus
 

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In the interest of intellectual honesty, it has been confirmed that the shell that exploded in Baghdad contained sarin. Whether or not this is indicative of a stockpile is largely in doubt (see the linked story and here) but it was definately sarin, most likely an undeclared remnant manufactured prior to 1991.


Phaedrus
 

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