By now I'm sure you're all aware of this Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday.
"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.
Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."
And if I could sound the alarm for those who respect Senator Santorum Get ready for an all out attack from the left accusing him of using this as a campaign stunt this of course is completely ridicules but you know it's coming if it hasn't started already!
Yesterday's announcement reminds me of this story from May 17, 2004 Sarin, Mustard Gas Discovered Separately in Iraq
A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent (search) recently exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday.
Bush administration officials told Fox News that mustard gas (search) was also recently discovered.
Two people were treated for "minor exposure" after the sarin incident but no serious injuries were reported. Soldiers transporting the shell for inspection suffered symptoms consistent with low-level chemical exposure, which is what led to the discovery, a U.S. official told Fox News.
"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt (search), the chief military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy."
The round detonated before it would be rendered inoperable, Kimmitt said, which caused a "very small dispersal of agent."
--snip--
Two weeks ago, U.S. military units discovered mustard gas that was used as part of an IED. Tests conducted by the Iraqi Survey Group (search) -- a U.S. organization searching for weapons of mass destruction -- and others concluded the mustard gas was "stored improperly," which made the gas "ineffective."
They believe the mustard gas shell may have been one of 550 projectiles for which former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed to account when he made his weapons declaration shortly before Operation Iraqi Freedom began last year. Iraq also failed to then account for 450 aerial bombs with mustard gas. That, combined with the shells, totaled about 80 tons of unaccounted for mustard gas.
As far as shelf life for these weapons or their ineffectiveness according to the CIA, Iraq has tried to overcome the problem of sarin's short shelf life by 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 So lets put the "these weapons are old and no threat" arguments to rest!
The fact that these shells predated the 1st Iraq war has absolutly no barring on the fact that the finding proves Saddam was hiding these weapons. UN resolution 1441 as well as the pervious 15 or so resolutions demanded that Saddam account for ALL such wepons. No matter how much the lunitic left wants to dismiss this finding, the fact remains, along with a litany of reasons to go to war the WMD section/reason was valid.
I have a very strong felling that this is just a small portion of what was and will be found. As a military anylist said last night on Fox news (sorry can't remember his rank or name I think it was Thomas McInerery but don't hold me to that) the reason why this administration may not want to come forward with more is the possible exposure of counties who were complicit in providing said weapons such as Russia, China, and France.
It's important to not lose track of whats going on here. Is this the smoking gun, No, not that that would satisfy the left. We could find 20 nuclear missles there and the left would find some way to spinn out of saying they were wrong. Its important to sistimaticly show the American people that what they are being told in the MSM is not the be-all end-all gosple truth they'd like everybody to believe!
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