[Islamist militants in Iraq have taken over a military complex containing a stockpile of old chemical weapons from the Saddam Hussein's era.]
oped: Oh really now and what about the looney left ranting and raving about how GW's administration lied about (WMD's)weapons of mass destruction? #BUSTED #OWNED
By Umberto Bacchi
Islamist militants in Iraq have taken over a military complex containing a stockpile of old chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein's era.
The US State Department said that they believe jihadist fighters with
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) will not be able to make
any use of the material seized at the Al Muthanna complex as it is too
old, contaminated and difficult to move."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," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the Wall Street Journal.
Psaki however added that the US remained "concerned about the seizure of any military site by the Isis."
According to the UK Ministry of
Defence, the Al Muthanna chemical complex "was the principal
manufacturing plant for both chemical agents and munitions during Saddam
Hussein's rule."
"Iraq used these weapons during
the Iran - Iraq War (1980 to 1988) and against the Kurds in Halabja in
1988," the British MoD said in 2012, announcing it was to provide training to Iraqi personnel to dispose partially destroyed chemical munitions and agents stored there.
Stockpiles of weapons and the complex's ability to produce new material were severely hampered by the two Iraqi wars.
"The majority of the Al Muthanna
complex was bombed during Desert Storm, completely incapacitating Iraq's
chemical weapon production capabilities, however, large stockpiles of
chemical weapons and bulk agent survived," a 2004 CIA report read.
Most of Iraq's chemical munitions were then destroyed and disposed
under the supervision of the UN. Some partially destroyed contents were
left over and sealed in two bunkers at Al Muthanna.The complex has now fallen into the hands of Isis, which has conquered large swathes of Iraq in a lightning campaign backed by Baathists and other former loyalists to Hussein.
US Military officials said that they would have not left chemical material there after the 2011 pull out, if it represented a security threat.
"The only people who would likely be harmed by these chemical materials would be the people who tried to use or move them," a military official said.
Isis steams form Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Aqi) that was formed in 2003 shortly after the start of the second invasion of Iraq, which was originally launched to strip the regime of Hussein of its alleged stockpiles of chemical weapons.
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