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originally posted by: cavtrooper7
I happen to be one of them ..www.newsweek.com...
NOT that the VA will EVER admit it.
originally posted by: bbracken677
a reply to: cavtrooper7
Why were WMD's not reported thereby supporting the reason for invading Iraq in the first place?
Destroying the Chemical Weapons at Muthanna
On February 12, 2009, Iraq acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a multilateral treaty banning the development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons.[8] (To date, 188 countries have signed and ratified the CWC.) After joining the Convention, Iraq was obligated to declare within 30 days any legacy stocks of chemical weapons it had inherited from the Saddam Hussein regime. On March 12, 2009, Iraq declared Bunkers 13 and 41 at Muthanna containing filled and unfilled chemical munitions and precursors, as well as five former chemical weapons production facilities, to the international body overseeing CWC implementation—the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, the Netherlands.[9]
Because of the hazardous conditions in Bunker 13, UNSCOM inspectors were unable to make an accurate inventory of its contents before sealing the entrances in 1994. As a result, no record exists of the exact number or status of the sarin-filled rockets remaining in the bunker. According to the UNMOVIC final report in 2007, the rockets "may be both filled and unfilled, armed or unarmed, in good condition or deteriorated."[10] In the worst-case scenario, the munitions could contain as much as 15,000 liters of sarin. Although it is likely that the nerve agent has degraded substantially after nearly two decades of storage under suboptimal conditions, UNMOVIC cautioned that "the levels of degradation of the sarin fill in the rockets cannot be determined without exploring the bunker and taking samples from intact warheads."[11] If the sarin remains highly toxic and many of the rockets are still intact, they could pose a proliferation risk.
Even if the sarin inside the rockets in Bunker 13 has degraded to the point that it has no military value and is little more than hazardous waste, the CWC still requires that all such materials be destroyed. Following Iraq's submission of its initial CW declaration in March 2009, the OPCW Technical Secretariat processed and analyzed the data. In April, Iraq submitted a general plan for destroying the CW materials stored in the two declared bunkers at Muthanna, as well as dismantling its former chemical weapons production facilities.[12]
The most interesting discovery has been a 152mm binary Sarin artillery projectile—containing a 40 percent concentration of Sarin—which insurgents attempted to use as an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The existence of this binary weapon not only raises questions about the number of viable chemical weapons remaining in Iraq and raises the possibility that a larger number of binary, long-lasting chemical weapons still exist.
May 04: 2004 155mm Chemical Munitions Used as an Improvised Explosive Device
16 May 2004: 152mm Binary Chemical Improvised Explosive Device
A military team interrupted a group of Iraqi individuals attempting to bury multiple projectiles at a location near Canal Road in Baghdad (see figure 4). The individuals fled the site when fired upon, and the military team captured multiple artillery rounds and other weapons at the site. ISG’s field labs tested the recovered 155mm rounds and found some trace amounts of sulfur mustard and sulfur mustard degradation products in a few of the rounds. Technical experts found that each round contained a ruptured burster tube—inconsistent with UN destruction practices—suggesting that either Iraq unilaterally destroyed the rounds or looters attempted to drain residual agent from them (see figure 5).
Historical context: Iraq declared in its 1996 Full, Final, and Complete Declaration (FFCD) that it produced 68,000 155mm sulfur mustard-filled rounds between 1981 and 1990. Of those produced, Iraq has not been able to account for the location or destruction of 550 155 mm shells. The bulk of 155mm destruction occurred between 1993 and 1994 and many of the log entries show that the mustard was partly polymerized, which is consistent with our findings in the recent sulfur mustard rounds.
25 February 2003 -- The destruction of mustard and 155mm artillery shells used for mustard gas at the Al Muthana site will resume tomorrow. The destruction process was temporarily halted due to technical problems. When the work was halted, about one-third of 50 liters of mustard had been destroyed. If everything goes well, the destruction work will be completed in four to five days.
originally posted by: bbracken677
a reply to: cavtrooper7
I am confused, and perhaps this is just another illustration of how weird and illogical our govt has become.
No (or virtually no) WMD's were reported as being found, even though that produced a political hit for the admin and party in charge.
So..if there were WMD's it would seem likely the Admin would have waved that flag long, often and repeatedly and yet they did not.
Given the problems vets experienced even shortly after returning from GF1 I have felt that there was something that was used or discovered that troops had been exposed to. This article, more or less, confirms that... and yet it leaves the question:
Why were WMD's not reported thereby supporting the reason for invading Iraq in the first place?