WAR: Sarin Nerve Gas Shell Explodes on Iraqi Roadway

CNN reports, Coalition forces in convoy find sarin nerve agent in artillery round rigged as improvised explosive device, U.S. military says.

Fox Also running this banner, Nerve Gas Released by Iraq Roadside Bomb

Drudge Report also has this, Roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent explodes in Iraq

Links to come as story firms up

This is a snippet from SFgate,
A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. Two people were treated for "minor exposure," but no serious injuries were reported.

"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy.

SFgate

CNN
FOX News



More related news:
Soldiers Escape Injury in Sarin Attack
Bomb containing deadly sarin explodes in Iraq

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

[Edited on 5-17-2004 by Valhall]

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

[Edited on 18-5-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

I guess we've found some weapons of mass destruction.

Originally posted by sosuemetoo
I guess we've found some weapons of mass destruction.

sosuemetoo, i agree that sarin is a 'wmd', but i have a horrible
feeling this demonstrates how much smuggling of 'who knows
what' is going on. But, gwb didn't find it before he gave 'the go'.
S.

Some more links

www.reuters.co.uk...

www.charlotte.com...

Some say Find SOme say explode, Wonder which is true

I've had two theories about WMD.

1. If Saddam could bury a plane in the sand, he could bury that stuff where no one could find it.

2. Saddam had a lot of time from October to March 2003 to move that stuff to other countries. If he could bribe with "oil for food" program, he could get it moved to Iran, Syria, etc....

Either way, I just hope that our troops are safe from this stuff.

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by sosuemetoo]

Thanks for the additional links ShiftTrio, If tracing of the perpetrators can be done it then might be possible to find source. I am aware that Saddam had massive ammo dumps that in many instances cover many square miles each, they have not all been thoroughly searched according to what I have read in other posts at ATS.

Originally posted by sosuemetoo
I guess we've found some weapons of mass destruction.

But was that Sarin originally from Iraq or was it brought in by fighters from outside of Iraq?

I hope that this begins to convince those who have been saying there are no WMD's there.

What is a WMD? Can it be a paint can full of anthrax? How about a liter of smallpox? Or a briefcase full of ricin?

How long would it take someone to bury a tractor-trailer full of these in the desert in an area the size of California? Or to transport them to Syria and house them in a garage until you need them?

The point is, a WMD doesn't have to be the nose capsule of a 40 foot long missile. As a matter of fact, the odds of it being so are slim.

How convenient.

I think more likely was that it WAS brought in by Al-Queda THey have been doing nothing but say they are there and more going to Iraq, and we know they can get sarin, I think it will come out its from them not Saddam. 5 dollar bet anyone?

Update, ok the bets off.

From CNN
Kimmitt said the artillery round was of an old style that Saddam Hussein's regime had declared it no longer had after the Persian Gulf War.

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by ShiftTrio]

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by ShiftTrio]

Originally posted by AceOfBase

Originally posted by sosuemetoo
I guess we've found some weapons of mass destruction.

But was that Sarin originally from Iraq or was it brought in by fighters from outside of Iraq?

Ace, if 'they' have sarin thats NOT GOOD. Where there is some,
there may(probably) be more.
S.

i think it came from a place where plenty more of these bombs are stocked !

underground warehouse in/under mosque for example

falung gong used some stuff too in the underground metro case.

Originally posted by jsobecky
I hope that this begins to convince those who have been saying there are no WMD's there.

I think this may be just the tip of the iceberg. By waiting as long as they have, Saddam loyalists are creating the possibility that these may have been smuggled into Iraq. We've already seen some posts in that regard. I think there's stuff well buried that will be used on an opportunistic basis.

Effects of Sarin:
CDC
Immediate signs and symptoms of sarin exposure

People may not know that they were exposed because sarin has no odor.
People exposed to a low or moderate dose of sarin by breathing contaminated air, eating contaminated food, drinking contaminated water, or touching contaminated surfaces may experience some or all of the following symptoms within seconds to hours of exposure:
Runny nose
Watery eyes
Small, pinpoint pupils
Eye pain
Blurred vision
Drooling and excessive sweating
Cough
Chest tightness
Rapid breathing
Diarrhea
Increased urination
Confusion
Drowsiness
Weakness
Headache
Nausea, vomiting, and/or abdominal pain
Slow or fast heart rate
Low or high blood pressure
Even a small drop of sarin on the skin can cause sweating and muscle twitching where sarin touched the skin.
Exposure to large doses of sarin by any route may result in the following harmful health effects:
Loss of consciousness
Convulsions
Paralysis
Respiratory failure possibly leading to death
Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to sarin.
What the long-term health effects are

Mild or moderately exposed people usually recover completely. Severely exposed people are not likely to survive. Unlike some organophosphate pesticides, nerve agents have not been associated with neurological problems lasting more than 1 to 2 weeks after the exposure.

Being that Sarin is difficult to manufacture and one can't just mix up a batch let me start by running down the possibilties of where it came from,

A: It was in an ammo dump or buried in Iraq.
B: It was from Iraqi WMD stock rumored to be relocated in Syria. Related ATS Post
C: Stolen from old Soviet stockpiles in Central Asia by
Al-Qaida
D: For you lefties, Planted by the coalition to justify war.

Anybody have any more possibilities, please post them.

Update from my above post

From CNN
Kimmitt said the artillery round was of an old style that Saddam Hussein's regime had declared it no longer had after the Persian Gulf War.

Another story on this from Yahoo news

Yahoo

Snippet,
Kimmitt said the round, designed to mix the sarin in flight, belonged to a class of ordnance that the ousted government of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) claimed to have destroyed before the 1991 Gulf war.

"It is a weapon that we believe was stocked from the ex-regime time, and it had been thought to be an ordinary artillery shell set up to explode like an ordinary IED... when it exploded it indicated that it actually had some sarin in it," he said

I think this information is narrowing it down to two possibilities, 1. Iraq has WMD, 2. Iraq had WMD that was hidden in Syria.

There was originally an estimated 870 tons of Sarin.

US military spokesman, pointed out that Iraq claimed to have destroyed all its stocks of sarin gas before the 1991 Gulf War. At one stage it had stockpiled 870 tonnes of sarin agent. "The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War"

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by Phoenix]

Originally posted by Phoenix
CNN reports, Coalition forces in convoy find sarin nerve agent in artillery round rigged as improvised explosive device, U.S. military says.

 

Fox Also running this banner, Nerve Gas Released by Iraq Roadside Bomb

Drudge Report also has this, Roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent explodes in Iraq

Links to come as story firms up

This is a snippet from SFgate,
A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. Two people were treated for "minor exposure," but no serious injuries were reported.

"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy.

SFgate

CNN
FOX News



More related news:
Soldiers Escape Injury in Sarin Attack
Bomb containing deadly sarin explodes in Iraq

[Edited on 17-5-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

[Edited on 5-17-2004 by Valhall]

Man, the timing on this couldn't have been better... It's like the Nick Berg hoax didn't seem to give the desired effect (tons of support for the war), so let's cart out some sarin gas and BOOM! "Iraqi" WMD in the news!

sigh.

Iraq mass produced sarin during the Iran-Iraq war with the expectation that it would be used quickly, and they therefore skipped several purification steps. Fresh agent was about 60% pure and heavily contaminated with hydrogen fluoride (which, of course, also causes health problems in exposed individuals). When production caught up with demand, the Iraqis started storing their sarin in refrigerated "igloos" to prolong its storage life. However, even when stored in the igloos, the material rapidly degraded, becoming less than 10% pure within 2 years.

www.cbwinfo.com...

Well, if that Sarin came from Saddam's stockpiles, it wouldn't be that potent by now unless that IED was a binary weapon that mixed the required components to create the Sarin gas on detonation.

don't forget the elusive Al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda connection in Iraq, he is a chemical and poison expert.

So don't be surprised when you hear this incident being credited to him....whether true or not, you can clearly see how every act of resistance/terrorism will continue to linked to Al-Qaeda and Zarqawi from now on.

[Edited on 5-17-2004 by worldwatcher]