Tests Show No Agent In Iraq Mortar Shells

[hatrack]

CAMP EDEN, Iraq - "Tests by Danish and American experts indicate there is no chemical agent in mortar shells unearthed last week in southern Iraq, but more testing is needed to confirm the findings, the Danish military reported Wednesday.

The preliminary findings cast doubt whether the suspicious shells will become the "smoking gun" proving that Iraq still maintained supplies of banned chemical weapons when the United States and its allies launched the war last March.

The U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group conducted tests on five shells and none of them showed traces of chemical agents, the Danish army said in a statement released in Copenhagen.

"Based on the tests, the experts conclude that none of the shells contain chemical warfare agents," it said, adding that more tests are needed for final confirmation."

EDIT

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/world/7708636.htm

[RedSock]

1. reported ..

reported on the bottom of page F44.

[Beetwasher]

2. This is not funny anymore...

n/t

[arcane1]

3. I don't know man... that rust...

you can get tetanus from those things! :silly:

[wtmusic]

4. Has anyone made a list of all the false calls

There has to be 30-40 by now :silly:

[tridim]

8. Didn't you hear?

We've already found two mobile bioweapons labs and nuk-u-ler bombs buried in some guy's back yard. I know because the TV told me so. All the retractions are just liberal media bias.

[ET Awful]

5. You have to love how they say . . .

that it casts doubt on whether the shells would be the "smoking gun" proving that Iraq maintained its supplies of banned weapons. . . . .

Ummm, sorry but even if the tests had come back positive, those shells were in no condition to be considered "smoking guns", hell you couldn't even rightly consider them weapons, since there's no way you could fire a rusted out pile of metal.

[jayfish]

14. Do You See How The Media Is Towing The ShrubCo Line...

of slowing lowering the bar with respect to it's reasoning for this war. Instead of weapons of mass destruction we now have "banned weapons". Blister agents are not W'sMD, so This tells me that if the tests came back positive the media would have taken out all of the stops to vindicate the cabal. The media loves this guy and really, really, really wants keep their tax cuts.

Jay

[oneighty]

6. Field test kits

Used by EOD in the fifties would identify explosives on site. I suspect with new technology Field tests will also identify 'chemical agents'.

These stories are hard to believe.

180

[ryanroat]

7. Have you seen those shells?

More like the 'rusting gun.'

[aquart]

9. Surprise.

They do keep hoping.

[daleo]

10. Posters here were correct again

Several people said the suspicious chemical that was found was just the residue of the high explosives, or something like that. Still, the government gets their intended effect of the big "WMD Found!" headline, followed by the little retraction on page 99.

[Sandpiper]

15. Even if those things were in pristine condition

And were full of blister gas/mustard gas, when did mortar shells get promoted to WMD? A mortar launcher is a short to intermediate range artillery weapon. Was Iraq going to launch a mortar attack across the Atlantic?!?!

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. I have a nagging suspicion / theory

.
.
.
That "weapons" have either been discoverd or planted

and will be "discovered" just before the election-

and where would they be ?

Well, it's been bugging me that we have NEVER heard or seen any pictures of the many underground bunkers and complexes that are already documented to exist in Iraq.

After a wee "blurb" on discovering the entrance to the bunker at Saddam Airport (which by the way has a road underground all the way to Baghdad) - we have heard NOTHING !

Access to the Airport has been under American control since the beginning, so my suspicions persist

Sumthin' to think about - -

[htuttle]

16. I don't know about those 'extensive bunkers'

I know there was a lot of hype before the war about their existence, and some third-party comments that some Eastern European contractors had been brought in to build them.

But...


Anyone remember the schematics of bin Ladens 'Massive Underground Hideaway in a Hollowed Out Mountain'? yOu know, the blueprints that showed they even had modern hospitals underground with elevators and steel blast doors?

Turned out to be a nothing more impressive than a few holes in the ground. Those had been a bit overblown, eh?

[LiberalFighter]

23. You mean like that spider hole?

Why the hell would Saddam be in a spider hole if he had a maze of underground tunnels and bunkers??

[callous taoboy]

18. I have a friend

who worked for KBR for a few months in Iraq. He says that we are not hearing even a tenth of what has happened there and is happening there. He says he has no doubt that the weapons are there and will be found. We'll see. I share your concern, "Concerned."

BTW, he says that ten schools full of children were hit with bombs at the beginning.

[salin]

22. I think that if they were going to plant weapons

they would have done it long ago and let the Kay team find them. The national and international press has been scathing on the administration and lack of finds.

I believe they aren't planting (and won't) because there has been so much international press scrutiny - that anything they would "plant" would be debunked almost immediately creating an even worse PR spectacle for this administration than not finding them.

More likely that they will continue to try to shift the discussion in another direction, including pushing the idea that at the last minute the weapons were moved (on the earliest days Rumsfeld was already pushing this idea - naming Syria and Iran intermittently.)

[0007]

12. Paging Mr. Brit Hume -

[TacticalPeek]

13. Sorry, he's busy sniffing exudate.

:silly:

[BlueEyedSon]

17. Even Faux is reporting it

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108390,00.html

Tests on Iraqi Shells Find No Chemical Agent

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Mortar shells found in southern Iraq by the Danish military do not appear to contain chemical weapon agents as originally suspected, Fox News has learned.

[HFishbine]

21. That's funny

because their news ticker is, at this very minute, still reporting that the shells may contain a "blister agent."

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

19. We have more dangerous stuff in our own drinking water

than has turned up in all of these chemical "finds". But, as Shrub said on monday the administration's policy was about regime change. To say that we attacked them for supposed WMDs is revisionist history. Thats why they secretly pulled their weapons sniffers out. Their grasping at fucking straws, man!

[BigBigBear]

20. Oh well

another day, another WMD letdown.

Pass the lemonade, Hortense.

[Roon]

24. kick

:kick:

[jayfish]

25. Kick! -NT-

Jay

[Guaranteed]

26. Kick

[bigwoody]

27. Not yet, anyway!

:toast:

[dusty64]

28. What a surprise.

:kick:

[stickdog]

29. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! (nt)