Soldiers Carrying Chem-war Gear

[The_Rorschach]

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/71765.htm

CAPTURED FOES FOUND WITH CHEM-WAR GEAR

By DEBORAH ORIN
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March 25, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Some Iraqi troops had up-to-date chemical-weapons equipment when they surrendered - a warning sign that Saddam Hussein's forces are ready to use the dread arms, a new report says.
They had old guns but 2002 gas masks, chemical decontamination kits and atropine - an antidote for nerve gas, reported CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod, traveling with the Army's 3d Infantry Division south of Karbala.

"I would guess they were planning on using chemical warfare. They may or may not use it but they were ready for it," Sgt. Jennifer Raichle told him.

A captured Iraqi soldier said he believed that chemical weapons were hidden at a nearby depot, along with conventional arms and chemical gear, and U.S. forces will check it out today, the report added.



So far, allied troops haven't found any "smoking gun" chemical weapons - but Pentagon officials insist it's only a matter of time.

Officials said no chemical weapons have yet been found at a giant Iraqi chemical complex captured in Najaf, but that site is still being examined.

"It would not surprise me if there were chemicals in the plant and it would not surprise me if there weren't," war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said at a press briefing in Doha, Qatar.

U.S. troops on Sunday captured the complex - along with an Iraqi general and 30 soldiers - in a region about 90 miles south of Baghdad.

After the facility's seizure, officials said that it might be a factory for illegal chemical weapons and that they were interviewing in the captured general about what he knew of the activity there.

While U.S. officials yesterday downplayed the possibility that weapons would be found at the captured site, Franks reported getting "several handfuls of bits of information" about other sites that may hold the banned doomsday arms.

"Some of these locations are in areas where we have control; some we have not yet gone into," Franks said.

"It's a bit early for us to have an expectation of having found them. This is what we call Sensitive Site Exploitation [SSE] and we will do some SSE as we go along and some SSE later in the campaign."

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Could this have anything to do with it?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=378740

[The_Rorschach]

Anything is possible, but at this point, I've not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

[mburbank]

While I don't dispute the strong possability that the Iraqis have and intend to use chemical weapons, there are some problems here.

1.) It's from the Post.

2.) The post got it from an 'embed', which only means somebody told somebody something.

3.) Our soldiers have 'up to date' chemical gear. Does that imply that we are going to use chemical weapons?

4.) I HIGHLY distrust fresh news in this war. Too much of it is trumped up and then turns out to be false. We foud chemical weapons plant! Oh, sorry, we found an emoty building that might once have housed chmeical manufacturing a while back, maybe. They fired SCUDS! Oh, wait, those aren't Scuds. A popular uprsising in Basra! Oh, wait, it might just have been a few guys, or maybe nothing at all. They intend to use chemical weapons once we cross a red line! Oh, wait, we only have scraps of information and we cqn't coroborate even those. I'm not even suggesting this is deliberate tactic. I just think anything 'hot off the presses' has a good chance of being missleading.

[GAsux]

I agree there are some downfalls to this whole embedded business. However, I don't think misinformation from the military is one of them. Quite frankly, I think from the military's perspective, the idea behind it was to show that todays soldiers are professional, competent, and compassionate. I think it was an attempt to show first hand that these are not men running whily nily around the desert raping, killing, and plundering everything they can find. They are professionals who take great pride in what they do.

As for the media aspect, it is my opinion that the sensationalism is primarily a result of the competitiveness of the news business. Media outlets are after all businesses. The MSNBC's CNN's, and Fox's are all trying to do each other and scoop the other networks with the new sensational stories. The normal cross checking that journalists would do goes out the window because they are trying so desperatly to bring the "new developments" first. Anyway, just my two cents. I think the sensationalism and bad reporting are the result of overzealous reporters, not a concerted military effort to try to win support for its cause.

[Ronnie Raygun]

"They had old guns but 2002 gas masks, chemical decontamination kits and atropine - an antidote for nerve gas" - NY Post

Tear gas and Nerve gas a two completely different things. So that throws out the bit about U.S. chem agents.

[kellychaos]

I'm not sure if it has to do with chem/bio weapons or not but there's something about the "Gulf War Syndrome" that has always irked me. Our government has never adequately explained the origin of it and I have always had a feeling that it was the use of some bio agent that either the american or iraqi government used. I just don't understand the reason for our government's vagueness on the matter. I know that it's real, though. I know and have worked with those who have it.