I realize 500 is a nice round number. But the fact is, we have been finding WMD in Iraq since May of 2004. It's been reported, just not emphasized. These are all separate finds below. Has everyone started to believe the MSM spin we've been hearing on this? I stopped worrying about finding WMD a long time ago.
Washington - Polish troops recently discovered more than a dozen warheads containing mustard or sarin gas in Iraq, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a radio interview.
Rumsfeld said Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told him about the find when they met earlier this week at a Nato summit in Istanbul.
"He pointed out that his troops in Iraq had recently come across - I've forgotten the number, but something like 16 or 17 - warheads that contained sarin and mustard gas," Rumsfeld told Newradio 600 KOGO of San Diego, California in an interview on Wednesday.
"Now these are weapons that we always knew Saddam Hussein had that he had not declared, and they have tested them," he said.
The Pentagon released a transcript of the interview on Thursday.
The head of the US-led hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, had previously reported that 10 to 12 warheads containing sarin or mustard gas have been found.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the number could have gone up since Duelfer's spoke about the chemical rounds June 24 in an interview with Fox television.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent (search) recently exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday.
Bush administration officials told Fox News that mustard gas (search) was also recently discovered...
"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt (search), the chief military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy."
If confirmed, it would be the first finding of a banned weapon upon which the United States based its case for war.
also this: There are three kinds of weapons of mass destruction that have been proscribed for Iraq: chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. With respect to chemical weapons, the U.S. State Department claims that Iraq has not provided credible evidence that 550 mustard gas-filled artillery shells have been destroyed (New York Times, December 20, 2002).
and here: A day after the head of the CIA weapons inspection team warned that terrorists in Iraq are trying to get their hands on the Saddam Hussein regime's chemical weapons of mass destruction, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reports the first attack with these weapons of mass destruction has been launched inside Baghdad's Green Zone.
Duelfer said his inspection team has uncovered bombs filled with blistering mustard gas or the nerve agent sarin.
"We're not sure how many more are out there that haven't been found, but we've found 10 or 12 sarin and mustard rounds," he said. "I'm reluctant to judge what that means at this point, but there's other aspects of the program which we still have to flush out."
Update: See Michelle and Instapundit for round up posts on the larger announcement today.
Well I am glad that the Polish found this, and not the US as I am sure there would be a spin put on this. Another thing people should be aware of the amount of support we are getting from the Polish troops. Seems this country has stood by the US. I heard they also assist in the strike on Zarqawi..
Good new to alot I am sure.
Posted by: IMHERE | Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 09:45 AM
Thanks for collecting some of these. There are more, though, right? There was the large wingspan airplane found with aerial distribution gear... the military location with many canisters of pesticide... the centrifuge under the rosebush and associated research... the two buried mobile production vehicles which, once tested as not having yet been used, were forgotten... the whole Powell/UN footage of groups *removing* military cargo... more. It's really strange to see so many bloggers acting like the Santorum thing is news.
The "WMD? WMD! WMD?" debates were nuts from the start. You don't stockpile volatile chemical and biological agents. You instead make it easy to quickly assemble the former, and continue a production workflow to smoothly increase the latter. By ceding the debate as being upon the label "WMD", the answer, in the broadcast media, was foregone.
For me it was enough that Saddam paid Palestinian families for bombers who destroyed Israeli families. That's literally "supporting terrorism", and was justification (post 9/11) for icing him and his satanic offspring.
It's strange to see this item so big on the blognews today. Too many dumb bloggers increase the noise.
Posted by: a reader | Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 11:09 AM
All the people who were saying there were WMDs in Iraq couldn't all have been lying!!
Hope we are going to see some apologies, but don't hold your breath!!
Posted by: annie | Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 02:21 PM
What I don't understand is why the Bush administration is making more of this.
I also don't understand why, when there is all the evidence about the atrocities that Saddam was committing, and they have videos of some of them, that they are not making more of that as well.
I think they should get themselves some good PR, and they would be able to sell their case without having to try much at all!!
That would send those left wing liberals completely into chaos and confusion!!!
Posted by: annie | Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 04:34 PM