How many false alarms is this now?

someone needs to give both the military and the reporters:
1) "a copy of the boy who cried wolf"
2) some pictures of 55 gallon drums of pesticied badly stored in the US
3) some information on the amount of malaria and farming in Iraq -- as to why, shocking, there would be pesticides in so many places.
4) a running tab on the innumerable discoveries that have turned out to be false.

Only one thing to do here. Throw Blix in the river.

The latest reports I've seen state that no one is sure what's in some of those barrels; likely pesticides, but the contents haven't been identified yet. Until they come out and say it's paraquat or methyl parathion or whatever, then it's not known that they're pesticides.

I don't think it's fair to use the term "cry wolf" when the field tests are positive and the Pentagon is saying "we don't know yet." I think it's up to us, the news consumers, to look at the reports from embedded reporters with a certain amount of skepticism. This isn't a novel we can skip to the end of. Be nice if it was.

Manny,

It isn't the military claiming these are in fact chemical weapons. Absolutely 100% of the hype is coming from the media. If anything, the military and DoD are saying, "We don't know what these are until we test them." Thus, the "crying wolf" charge should be leveled at the mainstream press, who will no doubt later try and blame the military and/or White House that they over-hyped the reports when the media themselves were the ones doing it all along.

Of course, what better place to put the chemicals used to create WMDs than in a pesticide warehouse where they might be mistaken or passed off as farm chemicals? Makes you think...

Then again, there are certain elements who wouldn't believe Saddam had chemical weapons if he showed up in person at the UN Security Council with a live warhead.

Manny, I don't know why it's so hard for you to believe that Iraq might have chemical weapons. It is on record that he has *used* them.

I find the media's treatment of these several WMD stories a bit confused, and one specific story is profoundly confusing.

The origin of the 'Telegraph' story seems to have been with (US) National Public Radio [viz., 20 or so BM21 missiles, with mustard, etc. actually loaded into the missiles]

Now...I don't think farmers utilize missiles for crop control...thus, what is in the missile can't be an agricultural product.

Now...assuming this story is true (i.e. 20 such missiles were actually discovered), then why has this seemed to have disappeared from the media's radar?

Morning news appears to have concentrated instead, on the barrels of 'cocktail' (or whatever) found elsewhere. Coverage of this is confused somewhat as there appears to be several such 'discoveries'...one of which may have been 'disproved' (i.e., found NOT to be WMD). And if the media stories as of 4/8 @ 8:00 AM EDT are correct, then there is one such 'barrel batch' that awaits testing.

But no further coverage on the 20 BM21 missiles. Curious. Either that story was patently incorrect (though no one is taking steps to retract it)....or it is 'correct'...but no one is saying anything.

Strange

I say if I don't hear it from the DoD, I bet it's just some people who just know they found something suspicious, and since the rough tests can't tell the difference between regular pesticides and their stronger but related nerve toxin cousins, we should just sit and relax.

I bet there won't be any real time to discover these things properly (if they are there) until after hostilities calm down.

If the missile story is real, I suspect one reason we haven't heard much about it is that the items are far away from the eyes of embedded reporters...but most of the report seems to be from the words of one military person to one reporter, with a bit of follow-up reported by a Fox News story that quoted someone saying something like there might be something really credible here.

Time will tell!

One potential theory - as I noted in another post - is that the Iraqis are purposely planting insecticides that will give false positives in suspicious places. Low-tech psy-ops in other words. If a person expects to find WMD there, then such actions might slow the US/UK soldiers down, freak them out, etc.

Talk about CRYING WOLF, how many times have we heard 'saddam is dead'? Or 'we don't know if it is an imposter or not.'
I think the problem is in the arm-chair analyst. Don't forget, to analyze means to look through anal eyes.

If there were large quantities dumped into the river, wouldn't people have noticed a fish kill? From what I heard, they discovered the chemicals in the water during routine water purification tests...

If it was industrial pollution, the fish kill might have happened a long time ago!

I want to know where the 2nd-day story on the BM-21 is too. And if they only found 20 missiles that's not even a full load (generally it holds 40, and can be reloaded easily in under 10 minutes). Hope the rest aren't still in the theatre.

It now seems the BM-21 missiles 'story' remains alive today. See MSNBC lead story...which starts to sort out the various finds. As to the chem. loaded warhead BM-21 missiles...they apparantly are awaiting testing.

One comment made on the morning news shows stated that 'discoveries' of WMD should be numerous in time given the volume of what Iraq is supposed to possess. In other words, in time, there should be many many sites eventually located...assuming, of course, they do possess numerous WMD's.

Time will tell.

Chemicals in the river isn't good enough.

By the way, I read a news article published in the past 60 days that said the the US was shipping mustard gas to the Kuwait. Has anyone else come accross that?

Anthony, that's the second time in the last couple of days you've run that crap up the flagpole.

I think the military is making a big mistake. In terms of who is saying it, I have seen on the television US troops on the ground saying "scuds fired" and "chemical weapons found." To say this is only media hyperbole is not true.

When it comes to chemicals found in the rivers, from what I have read the Tigris and Euphrates are seriously polluted with industrial and farming chemicals from Turkey, even before they flow to Iraq. to think they don't trip the same alarms as the pesticide false positives is simple minded.

You can find old pesticides buried in barrels across every state in our own country. You can find them in groundwater and rivers here as well.
I think the military is blowing our credibility by showcasing these "discoveries." The flea medication on the average American housepet will set off one of these chemical "weapons" detectors.
Looks like even the "Sarin" missile story has now been shot down. What next, pictures of Saddam shooting JFK from the grassy knoll?

Chiguy:

I wrote:
"By the way, I read a news article published in the past 60 days that said the the US was shipping mustard gas to the Kuwait. Has anyone else come accross that?"

And you wrote "Anthony, that's the second time in the last couple of days you've run that crap up the flagpole."

What's your objection to my posting that question here?

Anthony, sources please?

I don't know any source for the claim we shipped mustard to Kuwait, that sounds bogus. But finding chemicals in the river of a third world country, yes including cyanides and pesticides, is, sadly, common.