WMD not so open and shut from Planck's Constant

Here we see the 72 Virgins awaiting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Ahhhh - if heaven were truly like this for our dear departed friend, then yes, there is a God.

Forgive the digression, I mean to speak about WMDs in Iraq.

A few months ago in my post Cheney Sleeping: Is the world so filled with peace we print nonsense? I noted: "perhaps we were a bit hasty in concluding that there were absolutely no WMDs."

Now with a hat tip to Captain's Quarters for this:

Joseph Shahda has translated another key text from the archives of captured documents left untranslated by the Pentagon. In this case, Shahda appears to have struck gold: the memo describes not only the disposal of chemical-weapon materials but also where Iraq buried them. The memo dated September 15, 2002, comes from the General Relations group from one of Saddam's military/intelligence organizations, and describes in detail where the chemicals were hidden from UN inspectors.

As more and more documents are translated, we may finally find out why Saddam would risk his life and empire by not letting anyone inspect what the left claims never existed. Simply saying Saddam dissembled to fool his enemies could not have been the whole picture.

But time will tell. Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

Snopes, Sand Trap
Claim: Photographs show Iraqi fighter planes found buried in the desert.

Status: True.

What military search teams eventually found at al Taqqadum, in July 2003, were remnants of the Iraqi Air Force as pictured above: a reported 30 to 40 planes, including several MiG-25 and Su-25 ground attack jets, buried more than 10 feet beneath tons of soil and covered with camouflage netting.

Coalition forces have uncovered the strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program:

Global Security Org, Iraqi Mobile Biological Warfare Agent Production Plants
Kurdish forces in late April 2003 took into custody a specialized tractor-trailer near Mosul and subsequently turned it over to US military control.

The US military discovered a second mobile facility equipped to produce BW agent in early May at the al-Kindi Research, Testing, Development, and Engineering facility in Mosul. Although this second trailer appears to have been looted, the remaining equipment, including the fermentor, is in a configuration similar to the first plant.

US forces in late April also discovered a mobile laboratory truck in Baghdad. The truck is a toxicology laboratory from the 1980s that could be used to support BW or legitimate research.

Free Republic - Bio-Chemical Weapons & Saddam: A History, Excerpt:

In recent months there has been a great deal of bad information going around in the argument over whether we should attack Iraq, and whether Iraq is a threat to us. Some of that bad information is simple ignorance concerning chemical and biological warfare, and some is deliberate dis-information. Among those charges are that we (1) sold Saddam chemical and biological weapons, (2) equipped his army, (3) helped him in his war with Iraq. These charges are specious but start with a germ of fact. These "facts” are always twisted, blown out of proportion and presented out of context by those wishing to smear the USA with the taint of Saddam’s crimes.

Foreign Military Studies Office
Joint Reserve Intelligence Center
Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents, Excerpt:

The documents contained on this site were captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom and represent a dramatic departure from previous document release efforts which have historically taken place decades after the cessation of hostilities. Viewers are urged to carefully read the disclaimer above.