WMD Reported Found

[iceyshiver21]

What do you use to find out war happinings??

[Soledad]

I use a lot of online newspapers and magazines. I also like to watch BBC of all of the news programmes. But I also do read quite a bit (online and off).

[babolaypo65]

I use BBC (Online) and CNN (online). and the washingtonpost.com.
unlike some here, while i dont always LIKE cnn (especially on 9/11) i can tolerate the commentary more than i can with FOX.

but, most important, when i hear a report like the one that they've found chemical weapons, i check it with several sources.

iceyshiver, i continue to be impressed with your thoughtfulness, and maturity!

[iceyshiver21]

Oh, ok, thats what my friend does, I tend to listen to the tv more but from MSNBC I get little alerts on my messanger. I mostly like the pics on the internet, I save them by the millions just because they fasinate me.

[Cincy'sMom]

Since I do not have internet access at work, during the day I listen to NPR when I want an update.

[yorkster]

I listen to NPR also, and also the Canadian TV news channels that we have so much of here since we are so close.

[babolaypo65]

NPR is a great choice. I listen to it at work, since i don't have tv there.

a good example of when i look around: right now. its 850pm (mountain time) fox is saying Hussein may well have recently been killed in a bombing (with his sons). i'm now checking all my other "choices" to see if I can get a better sense of things...

I miss canadian tv. I get Univision (spanish language tv) here.... and it's pretty good, a bit more neutral in some ways...

[yorkster]

Originally posted by babolaypo65
NPR is a great choice. I listen to it at work, since i don't have tv there.

a good example of when i look around: right now. its 850pm (mountain time) fox is saying Hussein may well have recently been killed in a bombing (with his sons). i'm now checking all my other "choices" to see if I can get a better sense of things...

I miss canadian tv. I get Univision (spanish language tv) here.... and it's pretty good, a bit more neutral in some ways...

YUP! that's a lot of the reason I like it.

[Soledad]

FOX is great at infotainment. It's so reactionary and very biased.

[babolaypo65]

i have this strange "thing" for peter mansbridge, from the CBC.

Originally posted by yorkster
YUP! that's a lot of the reason I like it.

[yorkster]

Originally posted by babolaypo65
i have this strange "thing" for peter mansbridge, from the CBC.

[Soledad]

Just read that the WMD are pesticides.


"Smoking gun" WMD site in Iraq turns out to contain pesticide

NEAR NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had claimed might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production turned out to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as originally thought.

A military intelligence officer for the US 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, Captain Adam Mastrianni, told AFP that comprehensive tests Monday determined the presence of the pesticide compounds.


Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin -- a powerful toxin that quickly affects the nervous system -- after US soldiers guarding the facility near Hindiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, became ill.


Mastrianni said: "They thought it was a nerve agent. That's what it tested. But it is pesticide."

He said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and chemists had disproved the preliminary field tests results and established that pesticide was in fact the substance involved.


Mastrianni added that the dozen sick soldiers, who had become nauseated, dizzy and developed skin blotches, had all recovered.


The belated correction was an embarrassment for the US forces in the region, who had been quick to say that they thought they had finally found the proof they have been actively looking for, that Iraq (news - web sites) was hiding weapons of mass destruction.


A spokesman for the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, Major Ross Coffman, had told journalists at Baghdad's airport that the site "could be a smoking gun".


"We are talking about finding a site of possible weapons of mass destruction," he had added.


But in Qatar, where the US Central Command (CentCom) is directing the US-led invasion of Iraq, officials had been much more cautious.


"We don't have any extraordinary finds at this point while we're still looking," CentCom spokesman US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news briefing.


He expressed confidence that the US forces would eventually find the proof they were looking for.


Troops, he said, would be increasingly investigating suspected sites, both ones that have been identified beforehand, and others "that can be done on an ad hoc basis where we find some piece of information we didn't previously have -- and frankly we expect there will be a lot of that."


In a further sign that US commanders are unconcerned about an Iraqi nuclear, biological or chemical attack, they ordered forces near Baghdad on Monday to shed their protective gear.


"It's great to have them off," Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla, commander of the 1st Marines Battalion, said after his troops stripped down to lighter camouflage garb.


Padilla said an order to take off the cumbersome and hot protection suits had come down from his superiors.


"They made an assessment and they determined there was not a serious threat right now," he said.

[KYS]

Brig. Gen. Brooks (central command briefing in Qatar),
is now answering questions from the press.
He was asked about chemicals being found.
As of today chemicals of mass destruction is "suspected"
and still being tested.

Chemicals were not only found in Kabala but other areas also
including Hindiya (sp).

So in my opinion, before everybody jumps the gun about whether or not we have a "smoking gun", you will have to wait till the "official report comes in".

Fox news is as reliable as, any of the main stream news source's for information on the Iraq war.
(As for being biased! What news station/or paper isn't!)

In my opionion the news stations/papers I personaly
would be weary of, would be the ones that are so biased that they report a "one-sided" news, purposely stretch the truth/or lie.

JMHO
__________________

[tatsxxx11]

I believe the final determination re: whether or not WMD have been found has yet to be determined. What I find most intriguing is that this chemical "find" was situtated adjacent to a military training camp/firing range, replete with a huge cache of artillery, ammunition, weapons, etc.

Many of the cannisters labled "pesticide" were found in open areas, leading many to conclude that this was merely an innocent storage site for legitimate agricultural pesticides. Interesting that pestiticides intended for benign application, would just happen to be stored next to a military camp. And even more interesting to note that other barrels would be found hidden from view, in deep, freshly dug trenches, covered by natural camfolague. And I think it's important to note as well that being labled a "pesticide," does not automically vindicate it's use as a WMD. In fact, many of the chemcials notably used in WMD are materials found in commonly used agricultural pesticides. It is the concentration that most often reveals it's intended use. In this case, intitial tests performed at the site revealed a concentration far above the normal range for legitimate agricultural use.

Regradless of whether this particular discovery proves to be WMD or not, no one can deny the fact that historically Saddam has manufactured, stored and has used with impunity, such chemical and biological agents. Again, let us reference that virtuous, august body, that paragon of pure truth, the U.N., and their recent report on the status of Iraq's possession of WMD. As reported in the article cited below:

"Inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission, or UNSCOM, destroyed some 76 tons of Iraqi tabun and 40 tons of sarin in the 1990s. But UNSCOM reported in 1999 that it could not account for all the nerve agent known to have been produced, nor for all the thousands of 122mm rockets known to have been filled with sarin."


Whatever one's stance on this war, it seems to me disingenuous for anyone to doubt their existence. Whether they will ever be found or not remains to be seen.

Here's what today's Washington Post reports.

Washington Post Reports on Chemical Find-/08/03

[KYS]

Tats: Regradless of whether this particular discovery proves to be WMD or not, no one can deny the fact that historically Saddam has manufactured, stored and has used with impunity, such chemical and biological agents.>>>>>>

Not only that Sandra, but their is enough world intelligents
information, adding that to the information they
are finding in Iraq will prove WMD whether the "smoking
gun is found in Iraq or not."
It has already been proven, in the past that Sadaam had his books illegally doctored and the UN inspectores were
fooled.
In my opinion, it sure would be nice to see WMD found,
and I have a feeling it will.