U.S. troops DID find chemical weapons in Iraq - but Pentagon kept it secret: Discovery of 5,000 warheads and shells 'was hushed up because they were not weapons of mass destruction'
- An estimated 5,000 chemical weapons were found in Iraq between 2004 and 2011, it has been revealed
- Pentagon chose not to release the information to the general public for several embarrassing reasons
- The weapons did not meet George W. Bush's rationale that Saddam Hussein had a program of 'mass destruction'
- Most had been developed by his forces during the 1980s
- Some of the weapons were also U.S.-made
- At least 17 American military personnel were injured due to the mishandling of the weapons
About
5,000 chemical weapons were recovered or destroyed in Iraq following
the 2003 invasion but the Pentagon chose to keep the findings top
secret, it has emerged.
An investigation by The New York Times has revealed that U.S. forces happened across the hidden caches of warheads, shells and aviation bombs between 2004 and 2011.
But
the information wasn't made public for several embarrassing reasons
including the fact some of the weapons were U.S.-made, troops were
seriously injured discovering them, plus they had been sitting dormant
since the 1980s and therefore didn't support President George W. Bush's
rationale for going to war.
Cache: Navy Explosive Ordnance
Disposal technicians prepare unexploded ordnance for demolition at a
safe disposal area near Baghdad in 2003. It has now been revealed that
about 5,000 chemical weapons were found in Iraq between 2004 and 2011
but the public was never told
Between 2004 and 2011 soldiers found
thousands of rusty chemical munitions throughout Iraq, most of them
buried. However all had been manufactured before 1991 and therefore
didn't support the president's rationale for going to war
Prior
to the 2003 invasion by coalition forces, President Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair had said the mission was 'to disarm Iraq of
weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for
terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.'
But
all the weapons found had been developed before 1991. Most of them were
mustard agents in 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter
rockets developed by Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war which raged
between 1980 and 1988.
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Another
reason for the cover-up, according to The Times, was that five of the
six chemical weapons encounters involved weapons designed by the U.S.
'''Nothing
of significance'' is what I was ordered to say,' said Jarrod Lampier, a
now-retired Army major who was present when forces found 2,400 nerve
agent rockets in 2006 - the largest chemical weapons discovery of the
war.
Soldiers were also loathe to report finding the caches as documenting chemical weapons added hours of extra work to their load.
Secrets: In 2002 President George W.
Bush said Hussein was developing a program of chemical weapons but no
evidence of such weapons was ever found
Chemical warfare specialists had to be called in, and waiting for them to arrive put coalition forces in dangerous positions.
'I
could wait all day for tech escort to show up and make a chem round
disappear, or I could just make it disappear myself,' one ex-soldier
told The Times.
The mustard shells could be put in with other explosives that needed to be destructed and then detonated.
However, handling chemical weapons lead to many injuries, which were not taken seriously by military doctors at the time.
Many
explosive ordnance disposal personnel were not aware that the shells
they were handling contained chemicals, believing them to be regular old
artillery.
Weaponry: This file picture dated 31
December 2000 shows Iraqi President Saddam Hussein holding up his rifle
during a military parade at Baghdad's Nasr square
At least 17 American military personnel and seven Iraqi police were sickened by poisons - usually sarin and mustard gases.
Many of the shells would leak liquid during transportation, exposing the soldiers to the potentially-lethal fumes.
Symptoms ranged from disorientation and nausea to blindness and huge, seething blisters.
Jarrod
Taylor, a former Army sergeant on hand for the destruction of mustard
shells that burned two soldiers in his infantry company, joked of
'wounds that never happened' from 'that stuff that didn't exist'.
'I love it when I hear, ‘'Oh there weren't any chemical weapons in Iraq'',’ he said. 'There were plenty.'
A U.S. Army Third Infantry Division
soldier loads materials discovered in an explosives laboratory hidden in
a home April 15, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq
Read more:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2793452/u-s-troops-did-chemical-weapons-iraq-pentagon-kept-secret-discovery-5-000-warheads-shells-saddam-hussein-s-abandoned-weapons-program-hushed-soldiers-injured.html#ixzz3GCeCnTsn
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U.S. troops DID find chemical weapons in Iraq - but Pentagon kept it secret ...
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