US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT

[Golden Half]

US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT


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Caroline Glick Mar. 23, 2003

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About 30 Iraqi troops, including a general, surrendered today to US forces of the 3rd Infantry Division as they overtook huge installation apparently used to produce chemical weapons in An Najaf, some 250 kilometers south of Baghdad.

One soldier was lightly wounded when a booby-trapped explosive went off as he was clearing the sheet metal-lined facility, which resembles the eery images of scientific facilities in World War II concentration camps.

The huge 100-acre complex, which is surrounded by a electrical fence, is perhaps the first illegal chemical plant to be uncovered by US troops in their current mission in Iraq. The surrounding barracks resemble an abandoned slum.

It wasn't immediately clear exactly which chemicals were being produced here, but clearly the Iraqis tried to camouflage the facility so it could not be photographed aerially, by swathing it in sand-cast walls to make it look like the surrounding desert.

Within minutes of our entry into the camp on Sunday afternoon, at least 30 Iraqi soldiers and their commanding officer of the rank of General, obeyed the instructions of US soldiers who called out from our jeep in loudspeakers for them to lie down on the ground, and put their hands above their heads to surrender.

Today's operation is the third engagement with Iraqi forces by the First Brigade of the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, since Saturday afternoon.

So far in the campaign, the brigade has suffered no losses. But two were wounded Saturday night in an ambush on the outskirts of As-Samwah in southern Iraq.

This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1048389497622

[gpond]

I don't believe anything during war. But I hope this one is true.

[Golden Half]

MSNBC says this report is false.

G/2

[Golden Half]

2:38 CST U.S. soldiers in al Kut have found chemical weapons, according to a Fox News report.

The fog of war at its finest.

G/2

[helpful_monkey]

"...which resembles the eery images of scientific facilities in World War II concentration camps. "

leave it to Israeli propaganda to throw in a few Holocaust references for good measure

[Golden Half]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81935,00.html

'Huge' Chemical Weapons Plant Found in Iraq

Sunday, March 23, 2003

A senior pentagon official has confirmed to Fox News on Sunday that coalition forces have discovered a "huge" chemical weapons factory near the Iraqi city of An Najaf, which is situated some 225 miles south of Baghdad.

Coalition troops are also said to be holding the general in charge of the facility.

A senior American military officer had said on Saturday U.S. special operations troops combing Iraq for Scud missiles and chemical or biological weapons had found none so far.

Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference that the Iraqis had not fired any Scuds and that U.S. forces searching airfields in the far western desert of Iraq had uncovered no missiles or launchers.

Iraq denies having any Scuds, which have sufficient range to reach Israel, but Gen. Tommy Franks, who is running the war, said Saturday that Iraq has yet to account for about two dozen Scuds that United Nations inspectors have said were left over from the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq also denies it holds any chemical or biological weapons. McChrystal said the United States will either bomb any such weapons it should find or seize them with ground forces, whichever is safer. He and other officials refused to say where in Iraq those searches are happening.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military abandoned plans to open a northern front against Iraq that would have sent heavy armored forces streaming across the Turkish border.

Two U.S. defense officials said dozens of U.S. ships carrying weaponry for the Army's 4th Infantry Division will head to the Persian Gulf after weeks of waiting off Turkey's coast while the two countries tried to reach a deal.

McChrystal said that even without the 4th Infantry, "there will be a northern option." He would not say what that might be. Other officials said Army airborne troops might join small numbers of U.S. special operations forces already on the ground in northern Iraq, where American officials fear clashes between Turkish forces and Iraqi Kurds.

Although U.S. officials on Friday said all 8,000 soldiers in Iraq's 51st Mechanized Division in southern Iraq has surrendered, McChrystal said Saturday that only the unit's commanders gave themselves up. The rest simply left the battlefield or were "melting away," he said.

McChrystal said the number of Iraqi prisoners of war was between 1,000 and 2,000.

In describing overall progress in the war, McChrystal said American and British forces have hit Iraq with 500 cruise missiles -- 400 launched from ships and submarines and 100 launched from Air Force bombers -- and several hundred precision-guided bombs over the past day. The use of air-launched cruise missiles in Friday's attacks was the first since the war began.

Warplanes flew 1,000 missions from aircraft carriers and air bases in the region, he said.

Iraqi soldiers, "including some leadership," are surrendering and defecting in large numbers, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke said.

"It is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat to the region ... is ended," she said.

Northern Iraq is an important battleground because of the Kurdish presence in enclaves not controlled by the Iraqi government. Turkey fears the Kurds will seize the northern oil fields or establish an independent state, thus complicating Turkey's conflict with its own Kurdish minority.

The Pentagon wanted to put a heavy armored force into northern Iraq and had designated the 4th Infantry for that mission. The only feasible avenue for them to reach northern Iraq was from bases in Turkey, an option foreclosed by the Turkish government.

With U.S. ground forces advancing toward Baghdad, Pentagon officials expressed concerns the troops might come across Republican Guard troops armed with chemical weapons.

"We would be hopeful that those with their triggers on these weapons understand what Secretary Don Rumsfeld said in his comments yesterday: ‘Don't use it. Don't use it,"' Franks, the top U.S. war commander, said Saturday at a news conference at his Persian Gulf command post.

The administration had once believed it could count on NATO ally Turkey to support the creation of a northern front against Iraq. But after weeks of wrangling over financial compensation and arrangements for Turkish forces to join the Americans in northern Iraq, the Pentagon has given up.

The Turkish military on Saturday denied reports that 1,000 of its commandos had crossed into northern Iraq. On Friday a military official had said soldiers in armored personnel carriers rolled into northeastern Iraq near where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran converge.

But on Saturday that was denied, and Pentagon officials said they saw no sign of a Turkish incursion.

About 40 ships carrying the 4th Infantry Division's weaponry and equipment were to begin moving through the Suez Canal on Sunday, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The 4th Infantry's soldiers, who remained at Fort Hood, Texas, after their weaponry and equipment went to the Mediterranean last month, are likely to go to Kuwait, the officials said.

The redirected cargo ships are to begin arriving off the coast of Kuwait about March 30, one official said. All the ships would arrive by about April 10.

From Kuwait they could move into Iraq to serve as reinforcements if the ground war lasts more than several weeks, or as occupation forces after the Iraqi government's collapse.

[Golden Half]

The mighty Israeli propaganda didn't mention that
the "huge" facility run by an Iraqi general behind the barbed wire was apparently *undeclared.*

[BarnacleBob]

What utter BULLSHIT..................

Making aspirin, pesticides, gasoline, ect. can be classified as a chemical plant......

Again "What Bullshit!"

They won't find anything in Iraq that is not meant to be found....

JMO

[BarnacleBob]

Oh my..........

I just watch a bunch of bullshit on TV about this supposed chemical plant.......

Makes me want to puke at the lies...........

I normally don't employ profanity, BUT.......this nonsense completely deserves my lack of confidence in the reporting.

Letz face the facts.....Bagdad population 5 million, US/UK forces 300,000.......if 1 in 5 Iraqis in Bagdad fight, the coalition is outnumbered 3:1...........and thats only counting the capital city of Bagdad!

Our media is lying.......they are now in the process of breaking the news that the war is going badly......of course they must spin the news or the SM will go down and gold will go up......

Catch 22 for the financial interests.......dead end for our troopers caught in the game of pawns........

Pray for our troops.......they need all the helpwe can give em!

[helpful_monkey]

It looks like the Iraqis didn't get the "memo" that they are being "liberated".

"Mounting complications, including stronger enemy resistance and a climbing casualty count, have prompted United States warnings that a longer and more bloody fight will be needed to capture Iraq."

I seem to recall a wise man, whose name eludes me at the moment, observing that it was one thing to take worthless desert away from conscripts who didn't care about the sand, and quite another to fight men protecting their homes and loved ones within sight.

How would I react if Chinese troops entered my neighborhood? How about after I watched them bomb and slaughter the town next door? Hmmmmmmm.... I think I might be a little "irritated" and "combative".

It now turns out that Russia gave the Iraqis jamming equipment and night vision tech and trained them in the use of it. Based on the kind of intel that is coming out of Russian sites, I think the Russians are giving logistical support to the Iraqis. This will become more evident.

Part payback for our backing the Afghans in the Soviet/Afghan war in the 80's. Part looking out for their own interests in the region.

And by the way, don't mistake my tone for lack of support for US troops. I support them with heart and soul. However, this mission is fubar and is quickly going charlie foxtrot.

[gpond]

03/24/2003
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)


NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. officials said Monday that no chemical weapons were found at a suspected site at Najaf in central Iraq, U.S. television networks reported.

NBC News reported from the Pentagon that no chemicals at all were found at the site. CNN, also reporting from the Pentagon, said officials now believe the plant there was abandoned long ago by the Iraqis.

Click here for original source... (http://www.datekdj.newsalert.com/bin/djstory?StoryId=CpN6q0aebqLqWmduWmJu)