posted on April 7, 2003 05:16:36 AM new
Our troops are making super gains in their objectives, but there are still many concerns. One being this article:
Chemical tests for nerve agents in the warehouse came back positive for so-called G-Series nerve agents, which include sarin and tabun, both of which Iraq has been known to possess. More than a dozen infantry soldiers who guarded the military compound Saturday night came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to very low levels of nerve agent, including vomiting, dizziness and skin blotches.
A hand-held scanning device also indicated the soldiers had been exposed to a nerve agent. Two tests at the compound were negative, but further testing indicated sarin was present.
posted on April 7, 2003 06:15:49 AM new
Why am I not surprised our troops found chemicals to be used as weapons? Because Saddam had them & more all along.
Goes right along with the discovery of the site that had 200 or so coffins with bones/rotting remains in a warehose with torture chambers and so on. A meticluous log and pictures of each victim were recovered.
Saddam cares nothing for his people, or mankind. All he cares about is having power and fame. It is obvious from his actions that he finds it more important to be feared than loved, and to be more thought of as overwhemingly powerful than compassionate.
He likely would consider it a noble thing to kill all of Baghdad so he would go down in history. He will only do that if and when he decides there is no way he can win or escape. I suspect he thinks he can easily achieve the fame he wants by such an act. He has no qualms about detroying everyone and everything around him.
I suspect the airport was an early target to keep him and his cronies from escaping the country.
Yeah, sarin and the other nerve agents are very nasty stuff. What sane person would even possess the stuff?
posted on April 7, 2003 06:46:51 AM new
I totally agree with you, patty
"Be kind. Remember everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Harry Thompson
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
posted on April 7, 2003 07:02:33 AM new
Thank you Linda for posting that, I wonder if this was the "poison" that the Iraqi was talking about in one of his nonsense briefs...
For a country that had no Chemical weapons, there seems to be alot of suits around.
posted on April 7, 2003 07:53:23 AM new
Mornin' All ~
You're welcome, twelvepole. Even though our troops are doing so VERY well [YEAH TROOPS], it's things like this that make me so nervous. The article said a few soldiers were showing symptoms of exposure to these chemicals. But the article doesn't state if they had their protective suits on or not. If not, why not?
The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate. J. Ruskin
U.S. forces near Baghdad found a cashe of around 20 medium-range missiles equiped with potent chemicals weapons, the U.S. news station NPR reported today.
rockets, BM-21 missiles were equiped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire".
The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate. J. Ruskin
[ edited by Linda_K on Apr 7, 2003 09:52 AM ]
posted on April 7, 2003 12:11:53 PM new
And the UN inspectors had been in Iraq haow long and never found traces of these agents?
We are there only 2 weeks & it is located.
Wonder how much Saddam paid the inspectors NOT to find them.
I also have heard that all the troops are wearing "radiation like indicator" badges that uses nano technology to indicate exposure to various nerve & chemical agents.
posted on April 7, 2003 12:56:10 PM newI wonder what the blame America first crowd will do now?
How about I wish that none of our Men and Women, were exposed chemicals,or being shot,or being blown to bits by friendly fire.
That would mean they wouldnt be there,doesnt it?
And what about all the Iraqis we were there to save?
posted on April 7, 2003 12:59:53 PM new
Thanks Linda. I hadn't heard of this.
President Bush has made me proud to be an American!
The men and women in the services have also made me proud to be a veteran!
I turn my back on the Lance Corporal who thought that the Marines were Girl/Boy Scouts and is playing the Gay game with the service. There have been many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered servicemember for over 200 years who have fought for the country. I turn my back on him.
posted on April 7, 2003 01:11:42 PM newHow about I wish that none of our Men and Women, were exposed chemicals,or being shot,or being blown to bits by friendly fire.That would mean they wouldnt be there,doesnt it?
What a blind and silly position. Do you really think that these weapons would never be used on our shores or gainst our interests around the world?
We could have all our military stay at home and cower and shiver in the dark, but instead we have brave men and women and great leaders that do otherwise.
posted on April 7, 2003 01:37:05 PM newWe could have all our military stay at home and cower and shiver in the dark, but instead we have brave men and women and great leaders that do otherwise.
You and I have a difference in our take of what a coward is really made of.
A coward goes AWOL from his unit for almost 2 years,A coward never makes it to boot training because the family can sheild him from such activity, that our people in Nam didnt have a choice about.
A coward fights wars behind a desk,but never in uniform.A coward will let poor people die for them,so they can make more money.A coward is anyone connected to covert actions,secret courts,taking our freedom from us thru fear and total #*!@.
A coward hides his past,and surrounds himself with total safety and underground bunkers,to leave the rest of the population a legacy of Duct tape and plastic sheeting.
posted on April 7, 2003 03:04:28 PM newA coward will always be a coward.
As you and the rest of the anti-war crowd have proven time an again...
First off do you understand one thing about the military and its heirarchy? From your posting you don't know jack sh*t...
Want to talk about F"in cowards... look at those pieces of sh*t in SF that tried to stop loading of supplies bound for Iraq... too damn bad they only used wooden and rubber bullets... they just crossed the line to treason and should be treated that way... Governer should get the National Guard to guard those ships and shoot to kill....
You maybe haunted.... but I won't be, we should of done this 12 years ago...
posted on April 7, 2003 03:23:18 PM new
One hour and twenty seven minutes,
To be able to go off on a rant about my points of who is a coward.
First off do you understand one thing about the military and its heirarchy? From your posting you don't know jack sh*t...
The same military and heirarchy since the Civil War...Nothing new.
Same mindset as Ruby Ridge and Waco...nothing new,except some of the players.
And while you are at it,throw in SF since I have no affliation with those people what so ever.
At least you can throw your little tantrums here and not hurt someone.
posted on April 7, 2003 04:23:37 PM new
Oh so now the truth comes out... you just hate the military... finally.
Well now that does speak volumes about your postings...
I guess being a coward does have its priveledges... eh junquemama... allows one to sit here and make moronic posts about ruby ridge; waco... and other things that have nothing to do with the military and Clinton was in office...
posted on April 7, 2003 05:16:38 PM new
clarksville - you're welcome.
The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate. J. Ruskin
NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had claimed might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production turned out to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as originally thought.
A military intelligence officer for the US 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, Captain Adam Mastrianni, told AFP that comprehensive tests Monday determined the presence of the pesticide compounds.
Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin -- a powerful toxin that quickly affects the nervous system -- after US soldiers guarding the facility near Hindiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, became ill.
Mastrianni said: "They thought it was a nerve agent. That's what it tested. But it is pesticide."
He said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and chemists had disproved the preliminary field tests results and established that pesticide was in fact the substance involved.
Mastrianni added that the dozen sick soldiers, who had become nauseated, dizzy and developed skin blotches, had all recovered.
The belated correction was an embarrassment for the US forces in the region, who had been quick to say that they thought they had finally found the proof they have been actively looking for, that Iraq (news - web sites) was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
A spokesman for the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, Major Ross Coffman, had told journalists at Baghdad's airport that the site "could be a smoking gun".
"We are talking about finding a site of possible weapons of mass destruction," he had added.
But in Qatar, where the US Central Command (CentCom) is directing the US-led invasion of Iraq, officials had been much more cautious.
"We don't have any extraordinary finds at this point while we're still looking," CentCom spokesman US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news briefing.
He expressed confidence that the US forces would eventually find the proof they were looking for.
Troops, he said, would be increasingly investigating suspected sites, both ones that have been identified beforehand, and others "that can be done on an ad hoc basis where we find some piece of information we didn't previously have -- and frankly we expect there will be a lot of that."
In a further sign that US commanders are unconcerned about an Iraqi nuclear, biological or chemical attack, they ordered forces near Baghdad on Monday to shed their protective gear.
"It's great to have them off," Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla, commander of the 1st Marines Battalion, said after his troops stripped down to lighter camouflage garb.
Padilla said an order to take off the cumbersome and hot protection suits had come down from his superiors.
"They made an assessment and they determined there was not a serious threat right now," he said.
posted on April 7, 2003 06:41:58 PM new
It has not been determined for certain yet whether it is pesticide or not per a later report. There have been reports of rockets loaded with sarin and mustard gas at another location, though:
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) -
U.S. military officers said on Monday first tests on substances found in a central Iraqi town suggested the presence of banned chemical agents -- but said they could turn out to be simple pesticides.
Major Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division told Reuters that initial investigations of 14 barrels found at a military training camp on Sunday revealed levels of nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite.
He said the find could be the "smoking gun" which proved U.S. and British charges that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had been hiding banned weapons of mass destruction -- the central plank of their case for military action to overthrow him.
But General Benjamin Freakly, also of the 101st Airborne, said later that tests on substances at the camp and a separate agricultural site, both in the town of Albu Mahawish, could show they had a less sinister purpose.
"This could be either some kind of pesticide," Freakly told CNN. "On the other hand it could be a chemical agent -- not weaponized, a liquid agent that is in drums."
A team of experts would carry out further tests as early as Tuesday on the substances, discovered in Albu Mahawish, on the Euphrates river between the central Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Hilla, site of ancient Babylon.
"If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove (Saddam) has the weapons we have said he has all along," Hamlet said. "But right now we just don't know."
The substances under investigation were found in three 55-gallon barrels and 11 25-gallon barrels, he said.
"They look like cocktails. They look like they've all got a bit of each in them," said another officer.
Iraq is believed to have used sarin against Kurdish Iraqis in the 1980s.
NO BANNED WEAPONS USED YET
The United States invaded Iraq on March 20 to overthrow Saddam and prevent him using banned chemical weapons. Many other members of the United Nations (news - web sites) opposed the attack, saying U.N. inspectors should be given more time to disarm Iraq.
No chemical or biological weapons have yet been fired at U.S. troops in 19 days of fighting, even after advance forces entered Baghdad in recent days. Some American soldiers have even been ordered to discard their chemical protection suits.
The U.S. National Public Radio, reporting what appeared to be a separate discovery to the one in Albu Mahawish, said U.S. forces found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons.
NPR said the rockets, BM-21 missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire."
It said the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport.
Officers from the 101st Division and the 3rd Infantry Division at the airport were unable to confirm the report. U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment.
On Saturday, a U.S. officer said first tests of a suspicious white powder and liquid found on Friday in thousands of boxes south of Baghdad indicated it was not a chemical weapon.
Over the weekend, U.S. Marines in the central Iraqi town of Aziziya began digging up a suspected chemical weapons hiding place at a girl's school.
"We have always expected that this regime has chemical weapons and also possesses the will and means to use it," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news conference at Central Command in Qatar.
He said the U.S.-led forces' advance inside the country had removed some of the means and its blizzard of leaflets and messages warning Iraqi commanders not to use weapons of mass destruction had removed much of the will.
There had also been strikes early on in the campaign, he added, against Iraqi missiles -- such as al-Samouds -- which could have delivered chemical or even biological weapons into neighboring countries.
"That work continues but there's also still capability," Brooks said. (Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Iraq, John Chalmers in Qatar and Caren Bohan in Washington)
posted on April 7, 2003 07:18:44 PM new
Now, it's being reported that the troops who became ill were suffering from heat exhaustion.
The veterans from this invasion will probably suffer for years, just like the Gulf War veterans from chemicals found there...whether pesticides or not. Improper disposal of biological and chemical weapons can lead to such exposure.
"He turns the conversation to the pending US war against Iraq. "Why should we build biological weapons and things like that? Weapons of mass destruction? I don’t think that’s the way to solve problems. I don’t think we should ever have brought this on, because now everybody in the world has it. Saddam Hussein? The sarin he has is from us, from when he was our friend, years ago. It’s crazy."
The article said a few soldiers were showing symptoms of exposure to these chemicals. But the article doesn't state if they had their protective suits on or not. If not, why not?