Before I comment I would like to point out that both sides have it tough when it comes to proof.
I'd also like to point out that people are bad-mouthing Americans and saying that they cannot 'pick out countries on maps,' etc.
But I think those people have never really traveled the world thoroughly and really discussed politics with people -- people are idiots everywhere, you meet stupid from every country and in every place; saying the Americans are exceptionally stupid is ridiculous.
But on with it:
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What munitions? What mobile chemical trailers? Where are the weapons? What evidence do you have? Please link.
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Iraqi trailer could have carried chemical and biological weapons lab.
It goes on:
"Tests of the trailer's surface areas have not detected biological agents and the vehicle appears to have been scrubbed with a caustic ammonia-like chemical, he said.
"It was pretty thoroughly washed," he said.
But it was similar in configuration and design to mobile biological agent laboratories that US intelligence learned about before the war from an Iraqi scientist, he said.
It had a fermenter, gas cylinders to supply clean air for production and a system to capture and compress exhaust gas to eliminate any telltale signature - a function not normally used for legitimate biological processes, Cambone said. "
The idea was that there really was a bio-chemical weapons lab that was mobile; it seems suspicious and very smart of Hussein.
There was a second mobile lab even found in Northern Iraq (Mosul), and authorities noted again "U.S. and British experts have concluded that the trailer "does not appear to perform any function beyond what the defector says it was for, which is the production of biological agents," Cambone said. " (This time from
CNN)
It had to be declassified by Sen. Santorum apparently, but it finally came out that there was in fact some bio-chemical munitions in Iraq:
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." (
Fox)
The items were apparently degraded, but specific dates on these items were not provided and the chemical agents still could have posted lethal threats and converted into weapons use. When we are talking about deadly c hemicals, we should try not to mess around.
I enjoy how upon the discovery of these munitions it suddenly is claimed that these were 'the wrong munitions,' but regardless, I never thought there were some mysterious 'right munitions' that were described.
What are the right munitions and where were they described?
We do know that
Iraq rebuilt chemical weapons factories that we suspect would add to his inventory after the 1998 inspections.
And if we want to talk about Syria, I have this to say:
It is interesting to research the notion of Iraq moving its' chemical weapons to Syria. I found a very interesting piece of information from
'Insight On The News':
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On Dec. 24, 2002, nearly three months before fighting in Iraq began, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Saddam Hussein's regime of transferring key materials for his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs to Syria in convoys of 18-wheel trucks to hide them from U.N. weapons inspectors. "There is information we are verifying, but we are certain that Iraq has recently moved chemical or biological weapons into Syria," Sharon told Channel Two television in Israel.
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Take a look at a clip from the
Newsmax article:
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"I am absolutely sure that Russian Spetsnatz units moved WMD out of Iraq before the war," stated John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security.
According to Shaw, Russian units hid Saddam's arsenal inside Syria and in Lebanon's Bekka valley.
"While in Iraq I uncovered detailed information that Spetsnatz units shredded records and moved all WMD and specified advanced munitions out of Iraq to Syria and Lebanon," stated Shaw during an exclusive interview.
"I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives. Moscow made a 2001 agreement with Saddam Hussein to clear up all Russian involvement in WMD systems in Iraq," stated Shaw.
Shaw's assertions match the information provided by U.S. military forces that satellite surveillance showed extensive large-vehicle traffic crossing the Syrian border prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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It goes on to even note that there had been a history of the Russians supplying to the Iraqis valuable weapons:
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Shaw's information also backs allegations by a wide variety of sources of Russia's direct involvement in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. One U.N. bioterrorism expert announced that Russia has been Iraq's "main supplier of the materials and know-how to weaponize anthrax, botulism and smallpox."
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Robert Goldberg cited former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Spertzel, who stated that Moscow supplied Baghdad with fermentation equipment to produce biotoxins.
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Russia has been fundamental in supply:
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Iraq did most of its WMD killing using Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi aircraft equipped with chemical sprayers...
Iraq obtained Russian delivery systems and the same inventory of Russian-made chemical weapons at the same time. Iraqi SU-22 Fitter attack jets were armed with Warsaw Pact-designed bombs filled with chemical weapons. Iraq used these Russian jet fighters to drop chemical weapons on Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq war.
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It also reminds me of the time that I read
Russia aided the Iraqi military by providing plans detailing the invasion.
I read another article from the
Telegraph to see more substantiating the notion that the weapons may have moved to Syria and found this quotation from David Kay, the former head of the committee to find the WMDs in Iraq:
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"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
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It is also interesting to note that there are others who harbor this theory, a lot of others, including the former Chief of the Israeli Defense Force from 2002 to 2005, General Yaalon in a
NY Sun article.
But to be fair, even though it has been admitted that there has been weapons traffic across the borders, non-supporters point out:
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Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials." (WashingtonPost)
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Overall, I think there are more than strong reasons to believe that if one were to dig around enough in Syria you could get to the bottom of this, but I am certain that for years no one will ever get the chance.
Since Hussein could not win the war, he knew that he would need to make an attempt to win the more long term political battle through beridding himself of the risky elements to his regime that would have validated his overthrow. His only shot at saving face in the eyes of the political world would be to get rid of the weapons as best as he could, striking a very large political victory for himself.
His only victory could be political, and knowing en avance the pressure that he faced I wager he got rid of his weapons as soon as he possibly could have when the pressure was put upon him for the second time.
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