Yes, the major media is reacting with a great big yawn to the story of the recently declassified document proving that over 500 chemical weapons shells have been found in Iraq since 2003, and that “blackout” is covered nicely here…

I’m glad right-wingers and left-wingers alike are dissatisfied with the mainstream media. It’s mostly garbage entertainment. It’s faux news. It’s not a coordinated conspiracy, but rather a natural tendency towards complete and total ignorance. Because ignorance is bliss. And bliss sells. We can all agree on this.

Right-and-left is a false dichotomy. What we have is a secretive government, over which we have no control, that is growing bigger and bigger, stealing our tax dollars and giving them away (pick your scapegoat: welfare recipients or corporations, it doesn’t matter), concentrating more and more power into a smaller and smaller group of people, and effectively euthenizing the watch dogs in the Fourth Estate.

Take THAT.

were you just born stupid, or did you study real hard and practice alot?

Dale in Atlanta

Very little has been reported about the volume of material which was found at al-Tuwaitha back in 2004.

Douglas Hanson, the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Science and Technology for the Coalition Provisional Authority during the Summer of 2003, wrote about this at Frontpage Magazine and also at The American Thinker.

In addition to the nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium secured by the US, Site C was home to an additional 500 tons of yellowcake uranium,* This is a conservative estimate as initially reported by Coalition personnel from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Ironically, this initial figure is backed up by, of all organizations, Greenpeace.

Yellowcake is uranium ore that has been milled to produce a pure form of the substance known as Uranium Oxide. Further processes, such as conversion and enrichment, are required to make the yellowcake suitable for use as nuclear fuel in a reactor or for use in a nuclear weapon. Interestingly, a quantity of depleted uranium was also found at Tuwaitha. This implies that some enrichment processes occurred on-site, as depleted uranium is the natural byproduct of the enrichment process.

In addition to the yellowcake, approximately 300 tons of radioisotopes for industrial and medical uses were stored at primarily Site B. These materials, numbering over 1000 radioactive items retrieved from the site, included Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60. Both are extremely radioactive substances that are ideal for use in Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDD), or “dirty bombs.”

Not only this material, but an inordinate amount of pesticides in barrels have been discovered, only to be brushed aside as ‘not relevant’.

Saddam had rebuilt segments of his industrial chemical infrastructure in Baghdad under the “guise of a civilian need for pesticides, chlorine, and other legitimate chemical products.” But the point that people seem to miss is that pesticides are the key elements in the chemical agent arena. In fact, the general pesticide chemical formula (organophosphate) is the “grandfather” of modern day nerve agents. Pesticides are also precursors of many other chemical weapons including Mustard-Lewisite (HL), Phosgene (CG) a choking agent, and Hydrogen Cyanide (AC) a blood agent.

It was not surprising then, as Coalition forces attacked into Iraq, that huge warehouses and caches of “commercial and agricultural” chemicals were seized and painstakingly tested by Army and Marine chemical specialists. What was surprising was how quickly the ISG refuted the findings of our ground forces, and how silent they have been on the significance of these caches.

A camouflaged bunker complex full 55-gallon drums of pesticide was entered with some strange and unpleasant results.

More than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to a nerve agent. A full day of tests on the drums resulted in one positive for nerve agent, and then one resulted in a negative. Later, an Army Fox NBC [nuclear, biological, chemical] Recon Vehicle confirmed the existence of Sarin.

But later ISG tests resulted in a proclamation of negative, end of story, nothing to see here, etc., and the earlier findings and injuries dissolved into non-existence. Left unexplained is the small matter of the obvious pains taken to disguise the cache of ostensibly legitimate pesticides. One wonders about the advantage an agricultural commodities business gains by securing drums of pesticide in camouflaged bunkers six feet underground. The “agricultural site” was also co-located with a military ammunition dump, evidently nothing more than a coincidence in the eyes of the ISG.

I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo here that needs to be sifted through and taken with a block of salt when visiting the ‘no wmd’ issue. The reports and interests of the agencies involved seem to be evidence of CYA and as Rick points out, their narrow interests, rather than exposing the truth.

There were no WMD, other than old, rusty remnants from before GF1. Hmmm, thats a problem. So lets see how we can spin this.

1. Santorum is trying to grab a few headlines in a desparate attempt to refloat his career. Good Rick. Great start. Is this your little gesture to reality to try an gin up some cred for the rest of the spin?

2. There is nothing new here. Excellent. I might have been wrong about Rick. Two points in a row that hew to reality.

3. But then, uh oh. Here we go. Suddenly we have to start an attack on the MSM for burying this story! This story which (I thought) we had just established is not news and is the hype of a desparate pol. But no! The evil MSM is hiding this! Why? Out of fear that maybe some people will be “convinced” of something! Convinced of what Rick? Convinced that there is nothing new here and that it is a ploy by a desparate pol?

4. AH, but its not just the evil MSM. Its the incredibly stupid American people too! Ya see, even if the MSM ran this story on the front page (Santorum’s version, not Rick’s insightful analysis of it), it would not make any difference. Because the stupid American people are so brainwashed that they would be incapable of changing their opinion. Is that it Rick?

Or is it that, even if it were on the front pages, the American people might see through it as easily as you did. In which case, I wonder why the MSM didnt run with it. Geez, its all so confusing.

Finally we finish with the coup de merde trifecta of loonies - Ledeen by way of Powerline by way of Malkin (geez Rick…). And the message? Its all a conshpiracy ya see - the CIA is hiding all the WMD (at least the ones on paper) and (I presume) thwarting the righteous ones in the WH who might just have an interest in publicizing the existence of all these WMD, because the poor ol CIA is embarrassed you see…

And good ol’ Rick just laps it up - yeah - that evil CIA, no interest in the protecting America, just their own narrow interests. From Ledeen, of all people!

This site is nothing if not entertaining. Unfortunatly, nothing more.

It was important to re-establish credibility, and the President has played the diplomacy card like a true master. It is now time to squash the critics and prove beyond reasonable doubt that U.S. intelligence was indeed correct. Rick Moran quite rightly…

Shhhhh.

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