Tests Confirm Sarin in Iraqi Artillery Shell

[Shadder]

Look, I hate to do this, it's from Fox. But I can't find a second source for it yet. If I can find a better source I'll be happy to edit. Excuse me while I go take a shower....

Tests on an artillery shell that blew up in Iraq on Saturday confirm that it did contain an estimated three or four liters of the deadly nerve agent sarin (search), Defense Department officials told Fox News Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120268,00.html

[still_one]

1. fine, but the real question is that

this shell was from the Iran/Iraq war...

[wug37]

12. Not only from the Iran/Iraq war, but

was also sold to Iraq by the US. There's that picture floating around from 1982 or 1983 with Rummy shaking hands with Saddam Hussein as the Republicans sold him those weapons.

[struggle4progress]

33. That seems to be a widespread view:

SARIN SHELL 'NO BIG DEAL'
A ROADSIDE bomb containing the nerve gas sarin exploded near a US military convoy in Iraq, US officials revealed yesterday.
But a weapons expert dismissed the find as "no big deal".
And a senior military source said the small amount of sarin in an artillery shell used in the device did not mean there were stockpiles.
He said the shell dated back to the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 and the rebels probably did not know what the looted round contained. It was designed to produce sarin in flight and release it on explosion. But experts say the amount from a roadside bomb would be very low."
<more>
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14250393&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=sarin-shell--no-big-deal--name_page.html

Sarin Find 'Does Not Point to Huge Wmd Programme'
<snip>
Professor Alastair Hay, of Leeds University, who has worked on chemical warfare related issues for nearly 30 years, said: “It’s an old munition, not something that could be used as evidence that Iraq had a massive programme of weapons of mass destruction.
“We know that Iraq had these munitions, we knew many had been destroyed, some by Iraq, many under the auspices of the United Nations Special Committee (UNSCOM), after the Gulf War and until 1998. This may have been a shell that was overlooked in that particular destruction.
“It will be a straw that the US and UK governments may want to grab hold of, but it’s too early to say it’s of major significance.”
<more>
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2939304

Former U-S weapons inspector offers thoughts on sarin-laden bomb
<snip>
David Kay says it's possible the shell is one of the thousands of shells produced during the ten-year Iran-Iraq war that may have been overlooked.
Saddam Hussein was supposed to have destroyed those weapons in the mid-90s.
Kay tells The Associated Press he doubts there is a hidden stockpile of nerve agent weapons. But he's also not willing to entirely rule it out.
http://www.whnt19.com/Global/story.asp?S=1873779

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. And it was how many decades old?

n/t

[PaDUer]

10. Exactly.

Hans Blix also said the same.

[truebrit71]

3. I wouldn't believe Faux Spews if they told me grass was green...

..until there's independent corroboration this is just reich-wing propaganda..

Besides, the shell was 20 years old for crying out loud....

[Shadder]

6. Nor would I

But I thought that it should be posted. It will be interesting to see who else picks the story up and how they play it.

[Career Prole]

20. Damn...

Quick shower! :D

[genius]

4. Sarin doesn't last that long. It's one of our plants.

Our government planted a lot of stuff in March. Check out earlier stories posted here.

[yellowcanine]

5. I will wait for confirmation from a reliable source and then say so what?

One freakin antique artillary shell????? Get real.

[MallRat]

7. 4-liter binary chemical shell?

Sure, I know it was detonated incorrectly... but they're telling me that a 4-liter shell only generated enough sarin to cause "minor exposure" to TWO SOLDIERS?

This had to be a very, very old shell. I doubt the guys who constructed the IED even knew what they had.

-MR

[sweetladybug]

11. Did anyone on the DU really think they would come up with some

kind of WMD? I knew they would find something decades old or plant WMD. This is just another one of their mind playing games of manipulation and twisting and turning of the truth. Karma is going to come back around and bite them in their butts.
ELECT KERRY 2004!!!!

[slackmaster]

14. I'd bet the IED builders had no clue

Assuming this story isn't completely bogus just for fun, I think even someone who would build an IED boobytrap intending to kill as many people as possible would be scared shitless if he knew he had what might be a 3- or 4-liter sarin shell rather than a conventional high explosive.

There's crazy and there's crazier, but you'd have to be REALLY crazy to mess with something like that.

[daleo]

8. A fuller story will be interesting

Does the Pentagon give Fox scoops now?

[Lefty_the_Right]

9. I'm not buying it

Rumsfeld and others were saying that they wouldn't know for sure until they did a lab test.

This is still a field test, and they've been wrong everytime so far.

Plus it really pisses me off the way this story was so obviously packaged.

The first reports made it sound like it detonated as the convoy drove past.

Then they say that they saw it, and were in the process of disarming it when it went off.

And now they say the found it in a bag, and were detonating it.

[Just Me]

13. Playing upon Americans' DESPERATE need to be validated,...

,..."Oh, please, please,...please let there be PROOF that we did this atrocious war for a legitimate reason,....please,...please,...prove to the world that we are the 'good' guys, not the 'bad' guys,...ohhhhh, please give us evidence that we have not been betrayed and abused by our own leadership,...."

Americans really DO want to be the "good" guys.

[funnymanpants]

31. Exactly

This shows how desperate faux and the rest of the pro-war yahoos are.

Thre are no WMDs. Period. If there were, we would have discovered factories, scientists who worked on them, documents, and traces left behind.

Instead we have been left with a consistent picture of scientists who *all* claim they stopped working on WMD programs since 96.

The Bush administration knows this. So it is very dishonest of them (And Blair too) to cite this as proof for the war.

[trapper914]

15. Unnamed sources

Is this why the other 24/7's haven't posted anything? This has been on Faux News for hours.

They have a weapons expert quoted in this story, but the way it's worded, it doesn't sound like the confirmation comes from him.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen anyone on the record with regard to the mustard gas shell either.

I go round and round with right wingers every day about the so-called media bias. This doesn't make the non-Faux crowd look good if it's indeed true.

[Walt Starr]

16. I'm still not buying it

I need this corroborated by a reliable source. Faux News is notoriously unreliable.

[jpak]

30. I'm with you

Too many inconsistencies in the storyline and NO lab tests.

(and I still wouldn't be surprised it was a plant...Iraqi National Congress, CIA, DOD contractors, etc...)

[robbedvoter]

17. NY POst had WMD banner - but only underneath CENTRAL PARK SEX SCANDAL

which illustrates them perfectly

[Scurrilous]

18. "I went looking for WMD's in Iraq....

...and all I got was this lousy artillery shell."

[devilgrrl]

19. Plant!

nt

[wryter2000]

21. It's probably true

So what? If we stay another year, will we find another shell with sarin in it?

This story is being reported by the mainstream press, but they aren't making much of it. Just as they should.

[trapper914]

22. I agree...

...it's not that big a deal. All I'm saying is, if the U.S. military is on record confirming the shell tested positive for Sarin, the non-Faux media dig themselves a hole by not being on it.

The key here, is "on the record." I'd prefer accuracy over speed any day.

[NewHampshireDem]

23. To quote Aristotle ...

"One swallow does not a summer make."

I'm waiting for the 500 tons, personally. I mean, for f--k's sake, how much crap do you have laying around your house you don't remember having?

[trapper914]

26. Exactly

The U.S. Army has misplaced a trillion dollars worth of weaponry including tanks and airplanes.

The Navy can't account for 100 million dollars worth of guns and other equipment tagged for destruction.

Los Alamos is missing a small amount of plutonium.

Yes...I think if one is honest they'd have to admit that it's possible that a few stray shells could have been misplaced over a decade ago.

[bahrbearian]

32. Your not with the DEA are you, I could get 20 years

In response to: how much crap do you have laying around your house you don't remember having?

[bluedog]

24. Stop watching fox

earlier today Starr told Wolfie that it was NOT confirmed and tests are being made at 3 or 4 labs and more when it comes back to the states.I believe her more than I do FOX...........

[MGKrebs]

25. How the hell would they know it contained 3-4 liters

if they blew it up? The size of the spray?

Maybe it was CAPABLE of holding 3-4 liters.

[imax2268]

27. what's weird is...

is that Faux News is alone in saying that it is confirmed...I just checked most of the major news websites and theirs is the only one that is claiming that...

I just don't trust them...has anyone heard anything else yet...?

[truthisfreedom]

28. so what? it couldn't hurt a fly. nobody was seriously injured, right?

WMD my ass. if they don't work, they aren't WMDs. their WMFs. weapons of mass failure.

[imax2268]

29. heh heh heh...

this other site...I questioned a rightie about his source of info for the amount and he said..."Fox News"...and said that more people should watch them for the honest truth...

I had to clean the Sprite off my monitor...heh heh heh...!

[snippy]

34. If true, this means only a little less than 500 tons of sarin, mustard gas

and VX to go, according to Bush. Plus the 25,000 liters of anthrax; 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin; and 30,000 (29,999?) munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Fortunately, our government has told us that we know where they are.

This can be described only as a triumph of Bushian proportions.

FIRE THE LIAR

[Garion_55]

36. I think that my graphic here says it all..

[Media_Lies_Daily]

35. Sorry, no. If no other REPUTABLE news group is reporting this...

...then we'll just chalk it to the typical "news" reported by FOX.