More on chemical stuff in Iraq

[wrbones]

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/5580534.htm









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Posted on Mon, Apr. 07, 2003

Army experts find indications of possible nerve agents
By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Newspapers

ALBU MUHAWISH, Iraq - This small village on the Euphrates River could turn out to be the site of the first confirmed discovery of banned chemical agents that were the U.S. justification for invading Iraq.

Field tests Monday confirmed the presence of toxic nerve and blister agents at an agricultural warehouse.

Maj. Bryan Lynch, chemical officer for the 101st Airborne Division, said samples taken from barrels in the warehouse, about two miles from a military compound, are being flown to the United States to determine of they are of weapons grade.

The discovery is the strongest indication so far of possible Iraqi chemical weapons in the 20-day-old war and, if confirmed, would bolster the Bush administration's rationale for invasion.

Since about a dozen soldiers were stricken with vomiting and dizziness at the military base Sunday, authorities have been checking for the possible existence of chemical weapons around this strategic town between Karbala and Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

In samples taken from the agricultural warehouse Monday, two separate FOX nuclear, biological, chemical detection vehicles reached identical results: the presence of nerve agents Sarin and Tabun, and also the blister agent Lewsite.

The substances were found in metal drums in a recently constructed bunker that had been partially buried.

Positive readings for nerve agents also had been detected in initial tests at a military facility on Sunday. But a second battery of tests late Sunday came back inconclusive.

Unlike Sunday, though, Monday's initial positive test results at the agricultural site were confirmed by a second battery of tests.

"FOX are very accurate; I'm sure what they picked up today are accurate readings," said Lynch. "It's some type of chemical agent, but we need more analysis to see if it's weapons grade."

The cautious tone by officials in describing the find is a result of Sunday's conflicting tests.

U.S. troops guarding the installation became sick and were decontaminated with chlorine bleach and water showers and full-body scrub downs with bleach detergent and brushes after field exams initially detected Sarin. Subsequent tests indicated the agents were "unknown substances, possibly pesticides."

On Monday, some soldiers who were at the scene and this reporter developed red blotches or rashes on their hands and faces. The armored Humvee soldiers of Delta Company of the 2nd battalion have left the area and remain serving in the field.

The agricultural warehouse had been used to store pesticides in the past. But when soldiers examined the building, they found weapons stacked to the ceiling. Three truckloads of arms - including rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47s - were removed from the site Monday.

Asked whether the substances tested Monday could be pesticides, Lynch said it was possible but added, "It's very suspicious because the barrels were freshly dug into the ground very hastily."

Lynch is the senior chemical adviser to the 101st Division's commander, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus. The chemical detection teams are made up of the 101st's 63rd Chemical Company and the 51st Chemical Company from Fort Polk, La.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakly of the 101st Airborne visited the soldiers of the detection teams here Monday, telling them "their good work could vindicate President Bush's assertion that Saddam Hussein has stockpiled biochemical weapons. This may just add credibility to what the president said."

Later, in an interview on CNN, Freakly said: "The bunker, which had more than ten 25-gallon drums and three 55-gallon drums with the Fuchs tested positive for a nerve agent and for a blister agent.

"Now, this could be either some type of pesticides, because this was an agricultural compound and literature inside the compound talked about dealing with mosquitoes and other type of airborne vermin. And it is right along the Euphrates River, very close to the Euphrates River.

"But on the other hand, it could be a chemical agent. Not weaponized. A liquid agent that's in drums. And so our FOXs are very sensitive, they're great equipment. And we'll follow up with higher level testing in the next day or so to confirm what we have here."

[wrbones]

Preliminary Tests Show Chemical Weapons at Iraqi Site







Monday, April 07, 2003

KARBALA, Iraq — U.S. forces may have found banned chemical weapons stored in huge drums at a military training camp in central Iraq.





Pentagon sources told Fox News a prisoner of war gave U.S. forces information directing them to a specific site outside Karbala, near a camp described as a military facility, and that preliminary field tests on substances found at the site suggest they contain several banned chemical weapons, including deadly nerve agents and blister agents.

Maj. Michael Hamlet of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division said the nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite appeared to be present at the site, Reuters reported.

A team of experts would carry out further tests as early as Tuesday, Hamlet said.

The chemicals were found at the camp in Albu Mahawish, between the central Iraqi cities of Karbala and Hilla, Reuters reported.

"If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove [Saddam Hussein] has the weapons we have said he has all along," Hamlet said. "But right now we just don't know."

A Knight Ridder News Service journalist traveling with the 101st said initial tests of samples from the facility were inconsistent. Some tests did not indicate chemical weapons, while others indicated the presence of G-class nerve agents -- which include sarin and tabun -- and mustard gas -- a blistering chemical first used in World War I.

The correspondent, Tom Lasseter, also reported that he and several soldiers were decontaminated after some of the soldiers felt ill while searching the compound. Officials at the Pentagon said they did not have any information about anyone getting sick.

Although officials were quick to point out that past field tests have produced false positives, one senior defense official told Fox News that "this is a fair amount of stuff, many-gallon drums of a variety of different agents, blister and nerve ... and initial reports indicate it is the real deal."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a news briefing, downplayed the report, saying the Pentagon would have to take a good look at it before commenting on a media report.

"Almost all first reports we get turn out to be wrong," he said. "We don't do first reports and we don't speculate."

Agence France-Presse reported that the substances had turned out to be pesticides, but Rumsfeld said it could take several days to get a positive identification of the chemicals.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Tim Trevan told Fox News that it would be no surprise if final testing did in fact conclude the substances were banned chemical agents.

"Obviously, they have the wherewithal to produce this stuff," Trevan said, but cautioned that more definitive testing needed to be done.

"These are all agents which we know they produced in the past, it's associated with a munition which we know they've used for sarin and tabun in the past … and also it's in the area we were expected to find it," he said, referring to the so-called "red zone" -- the 50-mile perimeter around Baghdad where coalition military officials think Saddam may have authorized the use of chemical weapons.

Retired U.S. Army Cmdr. Sgt. Steve Greer said he is "cautiously optimistic" that this may be the smoking gun needed to prove to the international community that Iraq does, in fact, have banned weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq acknowledged making 3,859 tons of sarin, tabun, mustard and other chemical weapons, though U.N. weapons inspectors suspected Iraq could have made much more.

Iraq used mustard and sarin against Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and is believed to have used the chemicals against Kurdish Iraqis. Iraq began producing sarin in 1984 and admitted to possessing 790 tons of it in 1995.

Sarin is a colorless and odorless gas and is lethal in doses as small as half a milligram. Death may occur within one to 10 minutes of inhalation exposure to even a small amount of sarin.

Sarin is most known for the March 1995 terrorist attack by the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult, when members released the gas at several points in the Tokyo subway system, killing 11 and injuring more than 5,500.

Tabun is a clear, colorless and tasteless liquid with a slightly fruity odor, and is lethal, although only about half as toxic as sarin. Lethal respiratory dosages kill in one to 10 minutes, and liquid in the eye kills almost as rapidly. If skin absorption is great enough, death may occur in one to two minutes, or it may be delayed for one to two hours.

Fox News' Major Garrett, Liza Porteus and Mike Tobin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[wrbones]

KARBALA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops were testing suspicious materials as possible chemical weapons agents at an agricultural complex in central Iraq, U.S. military officials said Monday.

Samples of the materials are being studied, and no conclusive determination has been made, said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakly of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. The materials, stored in barrels and buried, had not been weaponized and might simply be pesticides, Freakly said.

On Friday, elements of the 101st Airborne Division visited two sites in an area south of Baghdad near Karbala. One site had been used for military training and the other as an agricultural compound.

At the military camp, tests found no conclusive evidence of chemical weapons being present. In fact, tests there indicated pesticides were likely present, Freakly said.

At the agricultural compound, the division found 10 25-gallon drums and three 55-gallon drums buried within bunkers 4 to 6 feet deep, Freakly said. The 63rd Medical Company tested substances found in the drums to see whether chemical agents were present. Initial tests proved inconclusive, he said.

Monday, a new, higher-level test was administered using special testing vehicles called FOX vehicles, Freakly said. Those tests indicated the presence of nerve and blister agents, but the tests sometimes show false positives, according to Freakly.

The substances may be pesticides or they may be chemical agents that are "non-weaponized," he said. "It's a liquid chemical, but it hasn't been put in a delivery means or anything that could be dispersed against our soldiers."

If it were weaponized, Freakly said, "We would see it in probably an artillery projectile or in an artillery missile, or perhaps in an aircraft bomb or something that the enemy would spray troops with."

At the United Nations, Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri was asked about the find and said any speculation about chemical weapons was American "propaganda."

"We have no chemical areas," Aldouri said. "We say that several times and we underline that right now. We don't have chemical weapons."

Freakly also said the 101st Airborne found a large cache of conventional weapons at the agricultural site.

As part of Iraq's cease-fire agreement ending the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Baghdad promised to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction, biological, chemical or nuclear, and submit to United Nations weapons inspections.

The Bush administration has insisted Iraq has not accounted for its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Asked whether it appeared that U.N. weapons inspectors had visited the site, Freakly said he would find it "hard to believe" that inspectors would have found the two sites, which are located behind a civilian complex near the Euphrates River.

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Terry Taylor said it is likely Iraq has stashes of chemical agents hidden at civilian sites "which they would pull out to fill munitions at the right time." It is too soon to tell whether that is the case in this instance, he added.

Some soldiers involved in the raid at the military camp reported feeling ill, but it appears they were suffering from dehydration, Freakly said. They're all feeling fine now, he added.

Asked whether the found materials were a "smoking gun," a military official at the Pentagon said, "It has potential."

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined comment on the find, saying more tests must be conducted.

[wrbones]

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/72975.htm




GAS WARHEADS ‘READY TO FIRE'

By NILES LATHEM and ANDY SOLTIS
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Possible nerve-gas barrels found by coalition forces in Albu Mahawish Sunday.


April 8, 2003 --


U.S. experts will study samples of suspected nerve gas found in 20 newly discovered Iraqi missile warheads that may be the "smoking gun" of Saddam Hussein's long-denied illegal arms cache, officials said yesterday.



Pentagon officials said reports of the ready-to-fire missiles found near Baghdad - as well as chemicals in huge metal drums hidden near Karbala - were the hardest evidence so far of the weapons of mass destruction that U.N. weapons inspectors failed to find.

The 20 missiles were discovered in a warehouse by troops making a sweep near Baghdad, said a National Public Radio reporter traveling with the soldiers.

The medium-range BM-21 missiles - which travel 15 miles - were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire," U.S. officials said, according to NPR.

It said the cache was discovered by Marines on the move with the 101st Airborne Division, who were following up after the seizure of Baghdad's international airport.

There were no other details given and no immediate comment from coalition officials in the Mideast.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington that it would take "days" before sophisticated lab tests could confirm that site held lethal weapons-grade chemicals - and he warned that initial reports of such finds are often wrong.

But Pentagon officials privately were intrigued by the missile discovery - and by the 14 barrels found Sunday in the city of Hindiyah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Maj. Michael Hamlet of the 101st Airborne said initial tests showed the barrels held the nerve agents sarin and tabun and the mustard-gas-like lewisite.

But later, another officer, Capt. Adam Mastrianni, told Agence France-Presse that more comprehensive tests determined that the barrels only contained pesticides.

The barrels were nonetheless dangerous - some soldiers became nauseous, dizzy and developed skin blotches after contact with the three 55-gallon barrels and 11 25-gallon barrels.

All the soldiers recovered from their exposure, Mastrianni said.

Two of them were found to be suffering from heat exhaustion, not chemical exposure.

The barrels were found in a camouflaged pit near an agricultural compound.

There had been great interest in Washington in the discovery at Hindiyah.

"The chemical teams in the field are reporting this and treating this as the real deal," an Army official told The Post earlier.

U.S. officials said they were investigating a third report, by The Wall Street Journal, of sarin and mustard gas being found in a captured Iraqi military vehicle.

The report said soldiers from the 101st Airborne found the suspected chemicals in an Iraqi BMP armored personnel carrier. No other details were known.

If the new reports are confirmed, these would be the first chemical or biological weapons discovered since the fighting began.

U.N. weapons inspectors had no immediate reaction.