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 Outside the Beltway 

Sarin Gas Found in Fallujah?

Glenn Reynolds: “NPR’S ANNE GARRELS IS REPORTING that Sarin nerve gas has been found in Fallujah. Stay tuned.”

Of course, we’ve found chemical weapons in Iraq several times already, to the indifference of the MSM.

Indeed, President Bush never mentioned it in the campaign (or at least the debates) when confronted by “we never found WMD” arguments. So, unless this is a huge cache of Sarin, my guess is no one will much care.

Update: Glenn reports that NPR has issued a correction–it was Sarin gas test kits. A rather big difference, eh.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Yawn!

Yet more nonsense.

Posted by John | November 11, 2004 | 11:42 am | Permalink
 

Sarin nerve gas was once 'discovered' in the Tokyo subways when a group of terrorist used it in a bunch of homemade bombs in an attempt to kill thousands. It was discovered that the sarin nerve gas was a pretty big dud killing far fewer people than large explosives would have.

Yawn is right.

Posted by ken | November 11, 2004 | 12:05 pm | Permalink
 

If memory serves me correctly, the mustard gas found was thought to be a random misplaced shell left over from the early 90s. Even the military said that it was unmarked and could have very easily slipped past whatever screening took place when they moved/destroyed the rest of the stock. So in the sense that mustard gas ever existed, this is true. But in the sense that this proved that stockpiles still exist, it's inconclusive at best, leaning towards meaningless.

Posted by vdibart | November 11, 2004 | 12:09 pm | Permalink
 

Even if it is Sarin, Iraq has been a terrorist bazaar since Bush & Rumsfeld took it over. The stuff could have come from Syria, Iran or France, or a million different places.

Posted by clark | November 11, 2004 | 03:23 pm | Permalink
 

thunderbird, the japanese doomsday cult consisted of a bunch of mensa types. They manufactured the sarin themselves. Their failure is a good example of why no serious military uses chemical weapons. They are practically worthless when compared to traditional explosives.

Yawn

Posted by ken | November 11, 2004 | 04:14 pm | Permalink
 

Don't confuse the MSM with facts.

Posted by austin mls | November 11, 2004 | 04:17 pm | Permalink
 

Heh. We could have unearthed a fleet of ICBMs with nuclear warheads all targeted on the U.S., with instruction manuals in Arabic and MADE IN BAGHDAD stamped in Arabic on every component, and the naysayers would be out in force trying to spin it all away.

Posted by McGehee | November 11, 2004 | 04:29 pm | Permalink
 

I have a major opinion piece coming out in the December issue of Government Executive. Small stockpiles in the hands of untrained troops do not constitute a military threat. Small stockpiles in the hands of a few trained terrorists would constitute a serous threat - only because their use would terrorize. The Japanese cult was a failure - only ten people died. but that was pre-9/11.

Posted by Herb Ely | November 11, 2004 | 09:08 pm | Permalink
 

The Iraqis held their lines against numerically superior Iranian troops for years by, among other things, the judicious use of chemical weapons barrages in defending fixed positions against assault. Would it be too much to ask for people to actually wait for enough information to comment intelligently?

Glenn Reynolds updated the story and it's currently a dud, no sarin, just sarin testing kits. Then again, it might get updated again in another few hours.

Posted by TM Lutas | November 12, 2004 | 04:23 am | Permalink
 

The arguments that chemical weapons caches are not big enough, dangerous enough, or in the hands of "amatuers" clearly displays the 9/10 mentality of much of our country. I'm with McGehee on this one.

If you have ever seen what a human being goes through while dying from nerve gas exposure, you may change your minds.

Dodging the facts and raising hypotheticals is a slippery slope. (Those weapons COULD HAVE come from anywhere!- Right!) You can produce a "rational" answer for nearly anything, but does nothing to get to the root of the problem.

There are banned weapons in Iraq. No qualifier was issued with the resolutions as to the amount that constitiuted a violation. One drop is a violation. Of course, we already know that Saddam violated every one on the books. For some reason no one on the left seems to care.

Posted by LJD | November 12, 2004 | 07:21 am | Permalink
 

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