Here we go again. Bush has finally, again, discovered banned WMD in Iraq. Or has he?
1. I want to see the final tests before we declare that this is Sarin gas. As the article notes, below, Bush has cried wolf one too many times.
2. I'd like proof that this shell, if it does contain Sarin, came from Saddam's stockpiles. For all we know, it could have been smuggled into the country by any troublemaker hell-bent on going after the US troops, the Iraq authority, or anybody else.
3. Any chance a floundering presidency, that's lied to us repeatedly over the past 4 years in an effort to save its ass, would smuggle its own nerve agents into Iraq to "prove" that WMD has been found? I don't normally buy such conspiracy theories, but at this point, I put nothing past the Bushies.
The explosion of the sarin shell was confirmed by the Iraqi Survey Group, a U.S. organization whose task was to search for weapons of mass destruction after Saddam's ouster last year.
The artillery shell contained two chemicals that mix to form sarin after the shell is fired. It had been rigged as a bomb and was discovered by a U.S. convoy and exploded before it could be defused.
The explosion, which occurred 'a couple of days ago,' released a very small amount of sarin, Kimmitt said.
It was the first time U.S. forces had found an artillery shell containing such chemicals, Kimmitt said.
Since the war ended, the U.S.-led coalition has found several caches that tested positive for mustard gas but later turned out to contain missile fuel or other chemicals.
Other discoveries turned out to be old caches that already had been tagged by U.N. inspectors and were scheduled for destruction. - AP
