Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq

[iamapatient]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...d.foxnews/iraq

WASHINGTON â?? 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."

â?¢ Click here to read the declassified portion of the NGIC report.

He added that the report warns about the hazards that the chemical weapons could still pose to coalition troops in Iraq.

"The purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," Santorum read from the document.

"This says weapons have been discovered, more weapons exist and they state that Iraq was not a WMD-free zone, that there are continuing threats from the materials that are or may still be in Iraq," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions.

Hoekstra said the report, completed in April but only declassified now, shows that "there is still a lot about Iraq that we don't fully understand."

Asked why the Bush administration, if it had known about the information since April or earlier, didn't advertise it, Hoekstra conjectured that the president has been forward-looking and concentrating on the development of a secure government in Iraq.

Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

"This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

The official said the findings did raise questions about the years of weapons inspections that had not resulted in locating the fairly sizeable stash of chemical weapons. And he noted that it may say something about Hussein's intent and desire. The report does suggest that some of the weapons were likely put on the black market and may have been used outside Iraq.

He also said that the Defense Department statement shortly after the March 2003 invasion saying that "we had all known weapons facilities secured," has proven itself to be untrue.

"It turned out the whole country was an ammo dump," he said, adding that on more than one occasion, a conventional weapons site has been uncovered and chemical weapons have been discovered mixed within them.

Hoekstra and Santorum lamented that Americans were given the impression after a 16-month search conducted by the Iraq Survey Group that the evidence of continuing research and development of weapons of mass destruction was insignificant. But the National Ground Intelligence Center took up where the ISG left off when it completed its report in November 2004, and in the process of collecting intelligence for the purpose of force protection for soldiers and sailors still on the ground in Iraq, has shown that the weapons inspections were incomplete, they and others have said.

"We know it was there, in place, it just wasn't operative when inspectors got there after the war, but we know what the inspectors found from talking with the scientists in Iraq that it could have been cranked up immediately, and that's what Saddam had planned to do if the sanctions against Iraq had halted and they were certainly headed in that direction," said Fred Barnes, editor of The Weekly Standard and a FOX News contributor.

"It is significant. Perhaps, the administration just, they think they weathered the debate over WMD being found there immediately and don't want to return to it again because things are otherwise going better for them, and then, I think, there's mindless resistance to releasing any classified documents from Iraq," Barnes said.

The release of the declassified materials comes as the Senate debates Democratic proposals to create a timetable for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq. The debate has had the effect of creating disunity among Democrats, a majority of whom shrunk Wednesday from an amendment proposed by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to have troops to be completely withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next year.

At the same time, congressional Republicans have stayed highly united, rallying around a White House that has seen successes in the last couple weeks, first with the death of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then the completion of the formation of Iraq's Cabinet and then the announcement Tuesday that another key Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, "religious emir" Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, was also killed in a U.S. airstrike.

Santorum pointed out that during Wednesday's debate, several Senate Democrats said that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, a claim, he said, that the declassified document proves is untrue.

"This is an incredibly â?? in my mind â?? significant finding. The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false," he said.

As a result of this new information, under the aegis of his chairmanship, Hoekstra said he is going to ask for more reporting by the various intelligence agencies about weapons of mass destruction.

"We are working on the declassification of the report. We are going to do a thorough search of what additional reports exist in the intelligence community. And we are going to put additional pressure on the Department of Defense and the folks in Iraq to more fully pursue a complete investigation of what existed in Iraq before the war," Hoekstra said.

FOX News' Jim Angle and Sharon Kehnemui Liss contributed to this report.

Oops...
*puts on flame proof boxers while mocking prisonplanet*

iamapatient Reviewed by iamapatient on 06-22-2006. Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200499,00.html?sPage=world.foxnews/iraq Oops... :D *puts on flame proof boxers while mocking prisonplanet* Rating: 5

[eg420ne]

LoL FOXNEWS need viewers & the republican needs vote, so lets dig up bones....I thought they tried this back in 2004 during election year why would they bring this back up now, hmmmmmmmm. The article also said DEGRADED which the so called WMDs couldâ??ve been left over from the Iran/Iraq war, hell Saddam buried his fighter jets, Iraqâ??s was full of shit b4 U.S. invaded it, only to make it our shit.. Hey if we had a trustworthy Government & Medea I wouldnâ??t have any problem with this story, but since thatâ??s not the case with theseâ??s groups, so Iâ??ll just take it as propaganda for there targeted subjects

Oh hell look what I found on foxnews -----Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

1. "This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200499,00.html 

So basically its propaganda for the base, maybe to distract its base from the 2 young men who were murdered in Iraq, or to win back viewers/voters, it is a far cry from "Mushroom Clouds" and Iraq can attack the west in 45 minutes with drones, like they so proudly told us why we needed to attack Iraq in the first place

"See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

â??You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.â?�

[iamapatient]

What a joke, the left quotes prisonplanet and has the nerve to bitch about Fox? Would you feel better if it were reported by AFP, retard?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/0....07o4imol.html

"Hundreds of chemical weapons found in Iraq: US intelligence"

US-led coalition forces in Iraq have found some 500 chemical weapons since the March 2003 invasion, Republican lawmakers said, citing an intelligence report.

"Since 2003, Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent," said an overview of the report unveiled by Senator Rick Santorum and Peter Hoekstra, head of the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives.

"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," it says.

The lawmakers cited the report as validation of the US rationale for the war, and stressed the ongoing danger they pose.

"This is an incredibly -- in my mind -- significant finding. The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false," Santorum said.

A Pentagon official who confirmed the findings said that all the weapons were pre-1991 vintage munitions "in such a degraded state they couldn't be used for what they are designed for."

The official, who asked not to be identified, said most were 155 millimeter artillery projectiles with mustard gas or sarin of varying degrees of potency.

"We're destroying them where we find them in the normal manner," the official said.

In 2004, the US army said it had found a shell containing sarin gas and another shell containing mustard gas, and a Pentagon official said at the time the discovery showed there were likely more.

The intelligence overview published Wednesday stressed that the pre-Gulf War Iraqi chemical weapons could be sold on the black market.

"Use of these weapons by terrorists or insurgent groups would have implications for coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside Iraq cannot be ruled out," it said.

Santorum said the two-month-old report was prepared by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a military intelligence agency that started looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when the Iraq Survey Group stopped doing so in late 2004.

Last year the head of Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, said that insurgents in Iraq had already used old chemical weapons in their attacks.

Nevertheless, "the impression that the Iraqi Survey Group left with the American people was they didn't find anything," Hoekstra said.

"But this says: Weapons have been discovered; more weapons exist. And they state that Iraq was not a WMD-free zone, that there are continuing threats from the materials that are or may still be in Iraq," he said.

Asked just how dangerous the weapons are, Hoekstra said: "One or two of these shells, the materials inside of these, transferred outside of the country, can be very, very deadly."

The report said that the purity of the chemical agents -- and thus their potency -- depends on "many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives, and environmental storage conditions."

"While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," it said.

Reporters questioned the lawmakers as to why the Bush administration had not played up the report to boost their case for continued warfare in Iraq.

"The administration has been very clear that they want to look forward," Santorum said. "They felt it was not their role to go back and fight previous discussions."

Fear that Saddam Hussein might use his alleged arsenal of chemical and biological weapons was a reason US officials gave for launching the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

So, like most liberals, instead of anything of substance, you complain about who reported it. Next?

EDIT: Oh, How many, exactly, pre-91 WMD's was Sadddam allowed and how many did he claim he had? Nice try.

[eg420ne]

Ok retardo, this is the same rehash crap from b4,, no news..This crap they found is not the reason we went in there its because they told your retarded ass that Mushroom Clouds will be forming in the U.S. your stupid ass take this junk in like heroin you need sum more right-wing juice, junkie....Here dude i quote you foxnews again--Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

1. "This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

Ohh wait let me put this quote from that other cutnpaste you just did---A Pentagon official who confirmed the findings said that all the weapons were pre-1991 vintage munitions "in such a degraded state they couldn't be used for what they are designed for."



MMMMMMMMMMMM right-wing crack is GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD:thumbsup:

[iamapatient]

Once again, you fail to answer the questions because it blows your retarded "no wmd" lie out of the water. Allow me to ask you again because you clearly fail to understand that pre/post-1991 means nothing.

1) How many pre-1991 WMD's did Saddam claim he had? (A: 0)
2) How many pre-1991 WMD's was Saddam allowed to have (A: 0)
3) How many WMD's do the anti-war/Bush retards claim were in Iraq? (A: 0)

Yet, in all actuallity, we've found over 500 and YOU (along with other mental midgets, I'm sure) think that, for *some* reason, that Saddam with post 1991 WMDs = bad but Saddam with pre-1991 WMD's is OK? What oriface did you pull that out of, the same one you keep your heads?

[eg420ne]

Hey retardo i dont care what they find in iraq it dont mean shit coming from this government & medea, you retardlican thinks this a big deal but its not, its exactly what they wanted, i think the world & americans were fooled into thinking Iraq was building hugh chemical plants, building all kinds of bombs to attack the west by these criminals in power, but all we find is old tired out shells, not exactly the WMDs our loving leader were telling us about....This is your game you play it, im not the one being fooled

This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."


and how fukin convenient thay be pulling shit out now when election time is around the corner, cant wait for them terror alert warnings to drive up the fear..Oh yeah here's a FlAG Vote Republican:thumbsup:

[minnesota man]

edge420 has a lot invested in his idea that their are no WMD in Iraq. I suggest you realign your position quick and find something else to replace the thin ice your standing on. Haha. I love ya man!

[iamapatient]

Thank you for admitting that you dont care if they find WMD because your hate is about something else, entirely.

We all know that we had some bad intelligence, President Bush has admitted that we thought we'd find more than we had and the Senate Select Committee on Intellignce found that we relied too much on UN Intelligence. President Bush was also told that there were no more WMD's in Iraq but that was clearly wrong too. Why do you ignore the parts that don't support your delusion?
"The purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal,"
"This is an incredibly â?? in my mind â?? significant finding. The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false,"
"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,"
"Use of these weapons by terrorists or insurgent groups would have implications for coalition forces in Iraq. The possibility of use outside Iraq cannot be ruled out,"
"One or two of these shells, the materials inside of these, transferred outside of the country, can be very, very deadly."
"Fear that Saddam Hussein might use his alleged arsenal of chemical and biological weapons was a reason US officials gave for launching the March 2003 invasion of Iraq."

What's with you intollerant, homophobic liberals? "FlAG"? Pathetic, reduced to anti-Gay hate spews now. So.....progressive.

[graymatter]

I don't know about anyone else but I'm joining the Retard Party; they got my votes. :thumbsup:

[eg420ne]

edge420 has a lot invested in his idea that their are no WMD in Iraq. I suggest you realign your position quick and find something else to replace the thin ice your standing on. Haha. I love ya man!

I never said there were no WMDs, im sayin look at the information coming out, this is the same bowl of crap thats been served b4 remember the 2004 elections, and again "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."
What part of that quote do you not understand

This bullshit first spewed by a republican whos poll number not looking good then all of Foxnews repeats its, fuckit good they found something to cheer for, fuck it if it make y'all have a hard on then so be it, damn this shit is old news and they make it seem they just found WMDs. These shells are not what we went to war for, remember the Mushroom Cloud, how quickly we forget, booga booga saddam gonna get you



quote from iamadumbass-What's with you intollerant, homophobic liberals? "FlAG"? Pathetic, reduced to anti-Gay hate spews now. So.....progressive. No your party is the anti-gay ones, your the ones that want gays from not doing what they want, its your party that brings that gay issues up and all im doing is repeating it for you so you dont forget:thumbsup: