Has ISIS looted chemical weapons from former Iraqi nerve agent factory that US failed to destroy? UN

ISIS controls a vast compound in Iraq containing 2,500 rusting chemical weapons rockets, according to the Iraqi government.
The site was bombed by the US during the 1991 Gulf War, but the munitions there were only partially destroyed, according to the UN - then left to Iraq to take care of.

However, Iraqi officials wrote to the United Nations this summer claiming that abandoned weapons containing the lethal nerve agent Sarin are still in the ruins of the Muthanna State Establishment, which made chemical weapons in the 1980s and early 1990s, and that this is now in the hands of the violent jihadists.
They warned that they had watched equipment there being looted on CCTV.

Has ISIS looted chemical weapons from former Iraqi nerve agent factory that US failed to destroy? UN told 2,500 rockets containing deadly Sarin are in the hands of the jihadists

Well isn't this just freaking peachy. It appears we were very aware that Iraq did still have WMDs but it was kept quite. Would you like to guess why?

It was revealed this week that about 5,000 chemical weapons were recovered or destroyed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion but the Pentagon chose to keep the findings top secret.

But the information wasn't made public for several embarrassing reasons including the fact some of the weapons were U.S.-made, plus they had been sitting dormant since the early 1980s and therefore didn't support President George W. Bush's rationale for going to war.

Fantastic. So instead of giving ourselves a black eye, we left the crap there. While I doubt that the things are still viable, it's pretty embarrassing to read.

'''Nothing of significance'' is what I was ordered to say,' said Jarrod Lampier, a now-retired Army major who was present when forces found 2,400 nerve agent rockets in 2006 - the largest chemical weapons discovery of the war.
Soldiers were also loathe to report finding the caches as documenting chemical weapons added hours of extra work to their load.

Sigh.

I'm not certain how long those types of weapons remain viable, and I certainly hope they are well passed expired. It was pointed out somewhere else that while the rockets themselves probably aren't, Sarin gas may be stored longer.

I wouldn't put it past ISIS to use chemical warfare. They obviously have nothing but utter disdain for anyone that doesn't support them 100%.

So we basically created ISIS and left them chemical weapons. Even if the things don't work this is highly embarrassing.

I hope it's a learning opportunity.

Great time for an OOPS!! moment I would think

I got scooped! Contacting mods.

I do not understand how we could know these facilities were present, seeing as how we supposedly bombed them during the Gulf War, and yet we do not seek them out when we go back a decade later? Did we just assume they were destroyed? So let me get this straight...Bush claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which apparently includes chemical weapons in the opinion of some, although I am not of that opinion, yet we go into Iraq and do not seek these weapons out when we already knew where they were? It seems to me that we didn't seek them out because we didn't think they were there, which could mean that we knew there weren't any weapons of mass destruction when we went into Iraq, meaning the pretext was a lie. And if we really did think they were there, and we didn't lie to go into Iraq, then it was still a pretext considering we weren't concerned enough about them to seek them out...which definitely means the WMD explanation was a lie, as we were not concerned with them enough to find them. And we already knew they were there. Wow.

The good news for westerners is that it is highly unlikely that such weapons, if they are still functional, will be deployed against us. Countries around the Middle East have the most to worry about, and those who should be the most afraid are those in Iraq and Syria, where any working weapons will most likely be used. So the overall threat posed by these weapons is likely to be limited, at least looking at things at a larger level. It will be extremely horrific for those who have to experience the effects of these weapons however. Now I also want to point out that this exact claim or story was mentioned months ago, and apparently nothing has come of it...at least that I have seen. So it is possible that there were not even any of these weapons present. It seems hard to believe that the US leadership could be so stupid, which makes one wonder if there is some ulterior motive, again if this is all true.

a reply to: JiggyPotamus

It seems to me that we didn't seek them out because we didn't think they were there, which could mean that we knew there weren't any weapons of mass destruction when we went into Iraq, meaning the pretext was a lie.

We went in because it was alleged they were building new ones. We were aware of the old ones. Saddam wasn't destroying them as fast as he was supposed to.

Also there is a better thread on this. I'll try to dig it up.

For anyone wondering I did hit ALERT and let people know this was a duplicate. Surprised it's still up.