Jun 23 2006
What Is So Scary About 500 WMDs?
Well, if one understands that only 3 Sarin gas shells is all it took for Saddam to obliterate a Kurdish village of 5,000 people (many women and children), then finding over 100 times that many shells gives credence to the lable Weapon of Mass Destruction.
Those resolutions state that Saddam was supposed to give it all up and let the inspectors destroy the weapons. That was the whole point to years and years of jacking with the man. These weapons are not the 15 thousand litres of VX they were looking for, but they are evidence that Saddam was able to hide wmd from the experts for all these years without even spiriting them out of Iraq.
AJ,
Thanks for the prospective on the three shells to kill 5,000 people. I wasn’t aware of that. Can you imagine what one shell going off in a subway or large office building could do?
The main stream media is now in a position to kill us simply because it doesn’t give us the truth. It was bad enough lying for their liberal cohorts, to get them in power. Now, by ignoring this find or diminishing its importance, they give everyone a false sense of security.
I am particularly outraged that the MSM continues to spill national secrets with total impunity. When is this going to stop? Is it going to stop? For the almighty buck, or just plain power, these people won’t stop until they kill us.
See the thing is … we KNOW that Sarin (not VX) was there. We had inventoried it and sealed it. When the inspectors returned, it was gone.
Inspector: So, what happened to the Sarin?
Saddam: Lost it.
Inspector: What do you mean, “lost it”?
Saddam: I mean we lost it.
Inspector: I am going to “lose it” in a second if you don’t tell me where that Sarin went.
Saddam: (shrug)
Meanwhile … in Amman
Let me start off with saying, I was totally and am totally for the Iraq invasion. But I’m afraid your post concerning sarin is somewhat off base. Allow me to explain.
While true that only a small amount of sarin shells could cause much damage, a declassified CIA report indicates that sarin can only remain potent for a number of weeks because of impurities. See this report for yourself here: http://tks.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzIzMDljNTgwMDRkMjA5NWZhYjhjZTAzMGUwODY5ZTg=
The mustard gas, however, is another story. It can last a long while, see this UN weapons inspections report: http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/s99-94.htm However, I’m not sure how much damage mustard gas can do. It’s somewhat hard to judge by Saddam Hussein’s attacks on the Kurds, because he often combined mustard gas with nerve agents, keeping in mind that mustard gas is NOT a nerve gas. I read that Saddam used about 15 mustard gas shells along with, as you said, 3 sarin shells, in the Halabja massacre. So how much of the damage was sarin and how much was mustard? Unfortunately, I don’t know.
Nevertheless, the findings of these shells does dispel the notion that Saddam “destroyed all his weapons.” He didn’t. He had a bunch left over scattered across the country. He claimed he “lost” them. But the UN wasn’t even ever satisfied with that answer. Back in the 90’s, when Saddam told the UN he “lost” a buncha shells with mustard, the UN said “Iraq has to account for these munitions which would be ready for combat use.” (see the earlier UN link)
Ok, I’m done, and I hope I helped. Appreciate the job ur blog does, btw, especially on issues relating to the terrorist surveillence program.
YOUR SATURDAY INTERBLOGATORY TOUR…
AJ Strata answers the question: What Is So Scary About 500 WMDs?…
WMD found in Iraq?…
…
Hardright,
That’s true only if pre-mixed. A shell can be made to combine the chemicals on imkpact.
Sharpshooter. i believe the shells you mentioned are called BINARY SHELLs.
Sarin, a weapon used in Iraq’s arsenal, has a relatively short shelf life and will degrade after a period of several weeks to several months. The shelf life may be greatly shortened by impurities in precursor materials. According to the CIA, in 1989 the Iraqis destroyed 40 or more tons of sarin that had decomposed, and that some Iraqi sarin had a shelf life of only a few weeks owing mostly to impure precursors. Shelf-life is the length of time that corresponds to a tolerable loss in quality of a processed food. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government.
[G] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin#Shelf_Life
G] Efforts to Lengthen Shelf Life by Iraq was a pre-Gulf war 1 ambition of Saddams.To think for one second that Saddam would abandon such aspirations is a fallacy on anyones part.According to the CIA, nations such as Iraq have tried to overcome the problem of sarin’s short self life in two ways:
1. The shelf life of unitary (i.e., pure) sarin may be lengthened by increasing the purity of the precursor and intermediate chemicals and refining the production process.
2. Developing binary chemical weapons, where the two precursor chemicals are stored separately in the same shell, and mixed to form the agent immediately before or when the shell is in flight. This approach has the dual benefit of making the issue of shelf life irrelevant and greatly increasing the safety of sarin munitions
It is known that Iraq used sarin during the Iraq-Iran war. Some say we sold Iraq WMD’s, and now they say Saddam doesnt have them, therefore Bush lied. Wait a minute we have the receipts. Some people say saddam didnt have chemical weapons, because the shelf life is known to be short.Well this is true depending on the agent used. Sarin has the shortest life, we discussed this in the above. VX, mustard gas, etc… can have a lengthy shelf life dependent upon its storage some 3-4 years.The key to saddams developement of chemicals was being able to create them and store them until needed.The mere fact he was precuring such technologies in an ‘as you go’ method of development.Noteable evidence existed of this binary type, extensive shelf life activities came to light in the form of older artillery/mortar shells after the 2003 invasion.