Iraq: Jihadists ‘Seize Saddam’s WMD Stockpile’???

So we are told that ISIS (formerly “Al Qaeda in Iraq”) has just captured a cache of Saddam Hussein’s WMDs.

Really???

Just as the left has consistently claimed al Qaeda has or had no presence in Iraq despite the entire insurgency being led by an Islamist terror organization calling itself “Al Qaeda in Iraq” (the same one that now threatens to capture Baghdad and is systematically beheading anyone who ever supported America), the signature lie of the last decade was that George Bush deceived the world about Iraq’s WMD program.  As well-documented on this site, Bill Clinton himself consistently defended George Bush from this slander.

In a sense, so did the New York Times. Indeed, the mainstream media did not fail to report the discovery of hundreds of WMDs in Iraq, nor did they fail to report the smuggling of thousands more into Syria (and, to some great degree, from thence on to Russia) in the closing days of the American Army’s advance on Baghdad. They simply reported it deeply buried on inside pages rarely read, generally no more than once, while trumpeting this or that Democrat shill chanting “Bush lied, kids died” on their front pages, day after week after year.  (When veterans die at the VA because of Obama lies, or when you lose your health insurance after Obama promised you could keep it, most media simply doesn’t report it at all, which explains the great division in today’s America:  the “truth” you think you know depends on which media you follow.)

Again, Bill Clinton himself gave several interviews — even right before the election in 2004 — in which he defended Bush’s truthfulness, said he personally knew the WMDs were in Iraq from his own intel, and disagreed only with Bush’s approach to solving the problem (the 2003 invasion). Though lonely, I was not only not alone in defending George Bush’s (and America’s) integrity; indeed, I was not even the only former Arkansan telling this truth when the world had no ears to hear it.

I do not imagine they’ve gained those ears now, but it’s refreshing to see the truth printed nevertheless.

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Iraq crisis: ISIS jihadists ‘seize Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons stockpile’ – live

Latest developments and news from the Iraq crisis, as Saudi Arabia warns that Britain and US must not meddle in Iraq

by Raf Sanchez, Andrew Marszal
The Telegraph
June 25, 2014

17.09 Chemical weapons produced at the Al Muthanna facility, which ISIS today seized, are believed to have included mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun, and VX.

Here is the CIA’s file on the complex.

Stockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there. The most dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers.
Although declared, the bunkers contents have yet to be confirmed.

These areas of the compound pose a hazard to civilians and potential black marketers.

Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited. Some of the bunkers were empty. Some of the bunkers contained large quantities of unfilled chemical munitions, conventional munitions, one-ton shipping containers, old disabled production equipment (presumed disabled under UNSCOM supervision), and other hazardous industrial chemicals.

17.05 The Chemical Weapons Convention, which Iraq joined in 2009, requires it to dispose of the material at Al Muthanna, even though it was declared unusable and “does not pose a significant security risk.”

However, the UK government has acknowledged that the nature of the material contained in the two bunkers would make the destruction process difficult and technically challenging.

Under an agreement signed in Baghdad in July 2012, experts from the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) were due to provide training to Iraqi personnel in order to help them to dispose of the chemical munitions and agents.

16.52 The remaining chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein’s regime are stored in two sealed bunkers, both located at the Al Muthanna Chemicals Weapons Complex, a large site in the western desert some 80km north west of Baghdad.

This was the principal manufacturing plant for both chemical agents and munitions during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Thousands of tonnes of chemical weapons were produced, stored and deployed by the Saddam Hussein regime. Iraq used these weapons during the Iran – Iraq War (1980 to 1988) and against the Kurds in Halabja in 1988.

16.32 ISIS jihadists have seized a chemical weapons facility built by Saddam Hussein which contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department officials have told the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. officials don’t believe the Sunni militants will be able to create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to move, officials said.

Nonetheless, the capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of the U.S.

“We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.”