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Iraq
Iraq tells UN "terrorist groups" seized former chemical weapons depot
2014-07-09
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Iraq's government has lost control of a former chemical weapons facility to "armed terrorist groups" and is unable to fulfill its international obligations to destroy toxins kept there, the country's UN envoy told the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
In a letter to UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, made public on Tuesday, Ambassador Mohammed Ali Alhakim said the Muthanna facility north of Baghdad was seized on June 11. He said remnants of a former chemical weapons program are kept in two bunkers there.

"The project management spotted at dawn on Thursday, 12 June 2014, through the camera surveillance system, the looting of some of the project equipment and appliances, before the forces of Evil disabled the surveillance system," Alhakim wrote in the letter dated June 30.

The Sunni Mohammedan group known as the Islamic State is spearheading a patchwork of Death Eaters who have taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. The group, an al Qaeda offshoot, until recently called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"The Government of Iraq requests the States Members of the United Nations to understand the current inability of Iraq, owing to the deterioration of the security situation, to fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons," he said.

Iraq would resume its obligations when the security situation improves and it has regained control of the facility, Alhakim said.

US Defense Department front man Rear Admiral John Kirby said last month that the United States' best understanding was that "whatever material was kept there is pretty old and not likely to be able to be accessed or used against anyone right now."

"We aren't viewing this particular site and their holding it as a major issue at this point," Kirby said. "Should they even be able to access the materials, frankly, it would likely be more of a threat to them than anyone else.
Posted by:Fred

#9  You mean the weapons the democrats and their whore media swore were not there?
Posted by: newc   2014-07-09 16:42  

#8  PJMedia notes that AP quietly edited their article. The original lede:

Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents.

Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Tuesday that “terrorist” groups entered the Muthanna site June 11 and seized weapons and equipment from the protection force guarding the facility.


Note the difference with what I posted earlier.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-07-09 13:09  

#7  Ref Guardian story at #6.

The UN inspectors left just before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and never returned. The US-led Iraq survey group then took over the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and found none.

As a point of clarification, UNSCOM/UNMOVIC was ordered out of Iraq and back to Bahrain by Saddam.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-07-09 10:01  

#6   More detailed account from Guardian.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-07-09 08:54  

#5  ..here remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents

They may degraded with time, but would you allow them to be stored in your neighborhood? The amateur stuff cooked up by Aum Shinrikyo in the Tokyo subway was not 'weaponized' material as these things are.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2014-07-09 08:44  

#4  So the narrative created by the left in the U.S that Bush lied about WMDs and that the invasion of Iraq was illegal is a false narrative. Who would have thought the left would lie about such things (SARC ON).
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-07-09 08:37  

#3  Why is there any doubt about whether the "former chemical weapons depot" has anything to worry about? How many years & how many billions was spent during the US occupation of Iraq?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2014-07-09 08:15  

#2  AyPee has the details JosephM refers to:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents, Iraq said in a letter circulated Tuesday at the United Nations.

The U.S. government played down the threat from the takeover, saying there are no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to use the material for military purposes.


More at the link. It is not clear to me whether or not ISIS can use either the rockets or the chemicals in a meaningful -- rather than merely threatening -- way. In other words, is it scary in the way that a dirty bomb is scary -- radiation is a terrible word, but general is neither life-harming nor life-threatening -- or can ISIS do actual harm to others with the stuff?
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-07-09 07:28  

#1  FREEREPUBLIC Artic indics that there are literally 000's of Saddam-era rockets still left + filled wid all sorts of BIOWAR + CHEMWAR WMDS, e.g. SARIN, + which can now be used to strike Israel or for any other purpose the Milterrs see fit.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2014-07-09 02:53  

00:00