Santorum Hysterical over Pre-Gulf War Weapons
22 June 2006 8:21 am by Taylor Marsh
Santorum Hysterical over Pre-Gulf War Weapons
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| Watch Silly Ricky |
Now this is just silly. I thought they'd get over it by this morning. Sadly, no.
Santorum,
desperately trying to save his Senate seat, as well as boost the Republicans,
yesterday came out to pronounce that YES! we found the weapons.
The Defense Department disagrees. They aren't the only ones.
BUSH: The chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, has now issued a comprehensive
report that confirms the earlier conclusion of David Kay that Iraq did not
have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there. (via)
Led by Fox “News” and Fred Barnes, the wingnuts are now linking to
a Negroponte
letter that included information from 2004 the Republicans requested be declassified.
Using words like the “most likely” use of weapons that are from “pre-Gulf
War era, Republicans are grabbing at WMD straws. In the letter it states that
the “purity of the agents depends on many factors.” Whatever is still
in Iraq, these weapons degrade over time, but somehow, the Negroponte letter
says that the degraded weapons could be used outside Iraq. Here's the layout
from The
Corner, because the letter is in pdf form:
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.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.The most likely munitions remaining are sarin and mustard-filled projectiles.
The purity of the agent 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.It has been reported in open press that insurgents and Iraqi groups desire
to acquire and use chemical weapons.
Via Mahablog,
Fox and the wingnuts have a problem. These weapons have already been debunked
as degraded… again, by one of their own.
In fact, it wasn’t until Alan Colmes’ portion of the discussion
that Jim Angle’s reporting was even mentioned. “Jim Angle, who
reported this for FOX News, quotes a defense official who says these were
pre-1991 weapons that could not have been fired as designed because they’d
already been degraded and the official went on to say these are not the WMD’s
this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had and not the WMD’s
for which this country went to war. So the chest-beating that the Republicans
are doing tonight, thinking this is a justification is not confirmed by the
Defense Department.”Sean
Hannity And Rick Santorum Cling To Discredited “Finding” Of WMD
in Iraq
The desperation is dripping from W.'s people. If this is the best Karl's got he better go back into his black bag because this isn't going to get out the base.
They actually believe they still have credibility on the WMD issue.
Somebody hand these guys a dictionary. They need to learn the meaning of DEGRADED.
While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered,
ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons
stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed
production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s
desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force
against it should WMD be discovered.The scale of the Iraqi conventional munitions stockpile, among other factors,
precluded an examination of the entire stockpile; however, ISG inspected sites
judged most likely associated with possible storage or deployment of chemical
weapons.
