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The Secret Casualties of Iraq's Abandoned Chemical Weapons
[NYT - 14 Oct 2014] The soldiers at the blast crater sensed something was wrong. It was August 2008 near Taji, Iraq. They had just exploded a stack of old Iraqi artillery shells buried beside a murky lake. The blast, part of an effort to destroy munitions that could be used in makeshift bombs, uncovered more shells.

Two technicians assigned to dispose of munitions stepped into the hole. Lake water seeped in. One of them, Specialist Andrew T. Goldman, noticed a pungent odor, something, he said, he had never smelled before.

He lifted a shell. Oily paste oozed from a crack. "That doesn’t look like pond water," said his team leader, Staff Sgt. Eric J. Duling.

The specialist swabbed the shell with chemical detection paper. It turned red -- indicating sulfur mustard, the chemical warfare agent designed to burn a victim’s airway, skin and eyes.

All three men recall an awkward pause. Then Sergeant Duling gave an order: "Get the hell out."

Five years after President George W. Bush sent troops into Iraq, these soldiers had entered an expansive but largely secret chapter of America's long and bitter involvement in Iraq.
Dated article? Yes, but the recent WMD rocketing by ISIS of U.S. troops necessitates a re-look at the all too familiar WMD false narrative. The graphic depicts the destruction of Iraqi WMD by UNSCOM inspectors and technicians.
We discussed it here at Rantburg the day after the New York Times article was published, including links to several reports about Iraqi WMDs over the years. I recall more articles as well as reports from Rantburgers over the years, but will leave that archive search to others. Suffice it to say, the reason people believe there were no WMDs is because the mainstream media and the anti-Bush Democrats loudly shouted down all claims to the contrary the start of the Iraq invasion until the NYT report came out.

Posted by: Besoeker 2016-09-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=468432