# WMD FOUND! Woooohooooooooo! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 17, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616 "2004-05-17T15:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/101 "2004-05-19T17:08:31Z")
> [@New Iskander](#): > > How does that make you any smarter? If you’ve forgotten your own argumnt already, then I suppose there’s nothing left to do but let it drop, sievehead ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/102 "2004-05-19T17:12:39Z")
We’re holding our hand over a fire, burning the shit out of it, yet if we pull it away, we’re “sissies”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/103 "2004-05-19T19:00:20Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Bush went into Iraq because he thought quickly kicking the shit out of someone would make us look badass. All the terrorists would run away in fear, because if we hit the US again, they’ll come beat us up like they did Iraq. > > Well it didn’t work out the way he hoped. This will be a long messy engagement that will breed a new generation of terrorists, cost us hundreds of millions, and put a big dent in our image. > > The worst part is we can’t even get out now, because “they’ll win” if we do. Bush never said any of those things, but warned that it will be long and difficult instead. Don’t make stuff up. If _you_ thought it was going to be easy… ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/104 "2004-05-19T19:11:25Z")
> [@New Iskander](#): > > Bush never said any of those things, but warned that it will be long and difficult instead. Don’t make stuff up. Remeber me making that up when they’re saying Libya gave up it’s “WMD” as a result of the war. I would think it’s pretty obvious they wanted to make a statement. If _you_ thought it was going to be easy… [/QUOTE] …you’re probably a republican. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/105 "2004-05-19T19:39:31Z")
Ahmed. Do you remember that bomb you set last week? Yes Sadr. Well Ahmed, I was just watching CNN, it turns out that bomb had sarin in it. Yes Sadr. Well Ahmed, Where did you get that shell? I took it from the munitions dump It was unguarded. Well Ahmed, can you get more? Yes Sadr. Then do so. Yes Sadr. I will get them right away. Oh, and Ahmed? Does your brother still own that import/export business? ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/106 "2004-05-19T20:07:08Z")
> [@SimonX](#): > > If you’ve forgotten your own argumnt already, then I suppose there’s nothing left to do but let it drop, sievehead I didn’t have an argument with you. You keep interjecting when I’m talking to other people, so I give you a kick once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/107 "2004-05-19T22:06:10Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > If _you_ thought it was going to be easy… …you’re probably a republican. [/QUOTE] Which republican was whining about hardships of Iraq invasion and advocated a withdrawal? If you can’t provide any cites, cut off the cheating hand you typed that garbage with, _tough guy_. No anesthetic. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/108 "2004-05-19T22:19:52Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > And if all you do is shout “If all you do is shout, “It’s wrong because I don’t understand it!”, you sound like an idiot”, you sound like an idiot as well. Well to be fair, that isn’t **all** that he shouts. Although there’s no denying, he _does_ sound like an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![High\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8797f3/32.png) [@High\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/High_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/109 "2004-05-20T16:55:45Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Ahmed. Do you remember that bomb you set last week?] I used to think that arabs had other names for their children other than Ahmed or Achmed; but I soon-after learned the horrible truth. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/110 "2004-05-20T17:21:54Z")
[QUOTE=New IskanderWhich republican was whining about hardships of Iraq invasion and advocated a withdrawal? If you can’t provide any cites, cut off the cheating hand you typed that garbage with, _tough guy_. No anesthetic.[/QUOTE] Dude, seriously, I have no fucking clue what the hell you’re talking about. I was making a joke implying that Bush and a lot of his boys thought this war would be a cakewalk. Too bad you’re blinded by your insanity, otherwise you may have gotten it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/111 "2004-05-20T17:24:10Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > elucidator, I think that you are overlooking a vitally important point. See, Clinton got a blowjob and was playing hide and seek with a cigar… So Arafat is meeting in the Oval Office with Bill Clinton, after a successful negotiating session. Bill is in a celebratory mood. “Here, Yassir! Have a cigar!” “Hmmmm. Mr. President, can I have one still in the wrapper?” ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/112 "2004-05-20T17:53:20Z")
Hmmmm, I must say they have been very quiet about this one. I haven’t heard shit since they found the thing. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/113 "2004-05-20T19:56:40Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > But one nasty old round of Sarin (which could just as easily have been misplaced in some box under someone’s desk) If this is your idea of the sort of cruft that just sort of turns up around the office, I’d love to read the OSHA reports for your workplace… ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/114 "2004-05-21T16:13:27Z")
**[Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache](http://csmonitor.com/2004/0521/p09s01-coop.html)** By Scott Ritter _from the May 21, 2004 edition_ If the 155-mm shell was a “dud” fired long ago - which is highly likely - then it would not be evidence of the secret stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that the Bush administration used as justification to invade Iraq What gives away whether the shell had been fired is the base-bleed charge, which unlike the rest of the shell, will show evidence of being fired (or not). Given what’s known about sarin shells, the US could be expected to offer a careful recital of the data with news of the shell. But facts that should have accompanied the story…were absent. And that’s opened the door to irresponsible speculation that the shell was part of a live WMD stockpile. The data - available to the ISG - would put this development in proper perspective - allowing responsible discussion of the event and its possible ramifications. _Copyright © 2004 The Christian Science Monitor_ ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/115 "2004-05-22T19:58:40Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Dude, seriously, I have no fucking clue what the hell you’re talking about. > > I was making a joke implying that Bush and a lot of his boys thought this war would be a cakewalk. > > Too bad you’re blinded by your insanity, otherwise you may have gotten it. What, you don’t like my bad joke? And I don’t like your bad joke. Bad jokes taste bad, don’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/116 "2004-05-22T20:40:59Z")
**SimonX** , quoting Ritter now, are we? You have really been scraping the bottom of the barrel lately. Notice how worthless your cite is: First, Scotty takes a break from chasing underage girls to say, “Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache.” But what evidence does he put forth? A nice blurb about dud rates, but he doesn’t know, he says he doesn’t know, yet he is still confident in saying that this shell was a dud/not from a cache? All we know for sure is that a shell containing Sarin went off. We don’t know if it was a dud, or snatched up from some cache somewhere. You’re getting downright **Reeder** esque. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/117 "2004-05-22T21:01:56Z")
[Sarin not evidence of WMD: Blix](http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9593577%255E1702,00.html) > [@](#): > > FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that a shell containing sarin nerve gas used in an attack in Iraq was most likely a stray weapon possibly from the first Gulf War. > Mr Blix said today that the discovery of the nerve agent was not a sign that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. > > The former Swedish foreign minister said the 155-mm shell used to attack a US military convoy Monday could have been part of a group of old, unused shells that were simply debris leftover from the war in 1991, adding the weapon could have been scavenged from a dump. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/118 "2004-05-22T21:05:06Z")
As far as I know, Iraq never declared that it had production capability of binary chemical rounds. The declaration that Ritter mentions was for 170 ‘test’ rounds that were handmade and used for evaluation. So it should be fairly easy to tell if, A) this shell has been fired before (Ritter’s correct about that), and B) whether it’s made from production tooling or handmade. If it’s unfired, or it shows signs of being made from production tooling, then this is a ‘smoking gun’. If it shows tooling marks indicating it was handmade and a ‘dud’, then it doesn’t necessarily follow that there are more of them, and it could be a leftover shell from the 170 that were declared in 1995. Here’s a [Blog Entry](http://www.lt-smash.us/archives/002928.html#002928) from a U.S. soldier who was in Iraq, who seems to know this stuff, discussing both Sarin in general and Ritter’s comments. Seems pretty reasonable and thoughtful. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/119 "2004-05-22T21:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that a shell containing sarin nerve gas used in an attack in Iraq was most likely a stray weapon possibly from the first Gulf War. > Mr Blix said today that the discovery of the nerve agent was not a sign that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. How does Mr. Blix explain the fact that Iraq did not declare any binary mix-in-flight chemical warheads after the Gulf war? There is absolutely no evidence I’m aware of that Iraq even had this capability before 1991. Methinks Blix is just guessing, and making a guess he wants to believe. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616/120 "2004-05-22T22:02:56Z")
[MUTHANNA STATE ESTABLISHMENT - AREA ‘E’](http://www.desert-storm.com/Gulflink/95071942.txt) > [@](#): > > SARIN FILLING PLANT FOR ARTILLERY SHELLS– > [(b)(1) sec 1.3(a)(4)] REPORTED THAT BUILDING E26 HAD BEEN > USED FOR FILLING SHELLS WITH SARIN, AND THEY CLAIMED TO HAVE > STOPPED OPERATIONS IN THE BUILDING AROUND OCTOBER 1990. THE > STRUCTURE WAS SEVERELY DAMAGED BY COALITION BOMBING, AND AS WITH > BUILDING E10, SOME METAL SHEETING REMAINED ON THE FRAME [ (b)(1) > sec 1.3(a)(4) ] > > ``` > SARIN AND MUSTARD FILLING PLANT--BUILDING E16 REPORTEDLY HAD > > ``` > > BEEN ANOTHER FILLING STATION. [(b)(1) sec 1.3(a)(4)] > FILLED 122MM ROCKETS AND AERIAL BOMBS WITH SARIN OR MUSTARD. THE > FILLING MACHINES SUPPOSEDLY WERE DESTROYED BY COALITION BOMBING. > BUILDING E16 WAS SIMILAR IN CONSTRUCTION TO BUILDINGS E21 AND E26 > AND HAD SUFFERED SIMILAR DAMAGE [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wmd-found-woooohooooooooo/245616.md?page=7)