Text 33484, 85 rader
Skriven 2006-07-14 17:42:09 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
  Kommentar till text 33466 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: Change
==============
14 Jul 06 11:34, Janis Kracht wrote to FRANK SCHEIDT:

 >>> But they have since found over 500 WMDs ...
 >>> What? Where?
 >> Over 500 shells, some containing mustard "gas" -- and that is very
 >> stable -- some with Sarin, a less stable material but still
 >> dangerous.  A U.S. Senator announced that on TV several weeks
 >> ago.

 JK> The Pentagon denied his claim.  They found shells (empty) that
 JK> contained traces of pre-1991 biological weapons (probably from the
 JK> U.S. to use on the Iranians in the Iran/Iraq war!)

29, June, 2006

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee:

The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan
Hunter, used his opening statement to describe what he said was the
purpose of the hearing.

"Tell us what you have, without embellishment, without conclusions,
without editorials, but very simply, just the facts," said Duncan Hunter.

First up was Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican:

"We now have verified the existence of about 500 such weapons and the
intelligence report assesses that others, ones that could be sold on the
black market, that could fall into the hands of terrorist or insurgents,
that could end up outside of Iraq, exist there," said Curt Weldon.

Next was General Michael Maples, head of the DIA in charge of the
investigation:

Lt. General Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified
that although in degraded condition, the munitions found and the
substances they contained posed, on their own, a potential risk to U.S.
forces, and were vulnerable to falling into the hands of terrorists.

"They would represent a danger in Iraq for those who could come in contact
with them or if they fell into the hands of others potentially they could
become a threat either within Iraq, and I believe as the Director of
National Intelligence stated, the possibility of use outside of Iraq could
not be ruled out," said General Maples.

Army Colonel John Chiu expanded.

"Regardless of the purity of the sample, any remaining agent [in the
shells] is toxic, with potential to be lethal," said Colonel Chiu.

And then:

Former Iraq weapons inspector David Kay, who caused controversy in 2004
when he said no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq,
says discovery of chemical munitions in Iraq should come as no
surprise.

He had this exchange with Ike Skelton, the top Democrat on the Arms
Services Committee:

SKELTON: "Was there evidence of stockpiles of at least 100 metric tons
or as much as 500 metric tons of chemical agents?"

KAY: "No, there was no evidence found of that."

However, Frank Gaffney, a former defense official known for his hawkish
views on Iraq, and now heading the Center for Security Policy, asserts
there can no doubt about WMD in Iraq.

"Whatever the derivation of this word was, in the current political
parlance of this country, these weapons were weapons of mass
destruction," said Frank Gaffney. "There remain WMD, I think almost
certainly in considerable numbers in Iraq that could conceivably have
some terrorist application."

Thursday's public hearing of the Armed Services Committee was followed
by a classified hearing behind closed doors, where military officials
said they could provide lawmakers with further details regarding the
500 chemical shells found in Iraq.



Roy
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