We again have Republicans trying to claim there were WMD in Iraq

Their new claims: http://conservativetribune.com/nyt-wmds-in-iraq/ are based on this article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1

I've reposted the below as a retort to this information on a number of occasions and sites but I think it is helpful that everyone have ready access to the links and info:


This is a long post but stay with it, its important.

Republicans are trying to claim there were WMD after all in Iraq at the Al Muthanna site. Problem is, there weren't. Here are to links that tell the story. First, the UN Weapons inspectors who visited Iraq prior to the war helped the Iraqis dispose of munitions there. See: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/03/18/sites-visited-by-un-weapons-inspectors/

Here are the money quotes:

Dec. 4, 2002

• U.N. inspectors entered the al-Muthanna State Establishment, which once produced chemical and biological agents, and a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which conducts the U.N.'s nuclear inspections, went to the al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex, famous for once being attacked by Israeli warplanes. The reportedly found found shells and mustard gas.

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Feb. 14, 2003:

• On the day chief weapons inspectors were to report to the U.N. Security Council on whether Saddam Hussein is disarming, inspection teams returned to Iraq's al-Muthanna chemical weapons installation, where they have been destroying artillery shells and neutralizing four plastic containers filled with mustard gas. They also visited a mineral water plant.

Feb. 19, 2003:

• UNMOVIC inspectors visited at least 10 sites, including an Al Samoud missile site at Abu Ghraib, northwest of Baghdad. Inspectors have tagged several Al Samoud missiles. They stopped at al-Ma'moun, Ibn al-Haithem and al-Fidaa military compounds around Baghdad. A chemical team went to al-Muthanna site near the city while another team checked a Baghdad vegetable oil factory. Nuclear inspectors searched military compounds at al-Nidaa and al-Zawra. Another team conducted a nuclear survey at Nahrawan, south of the capital.



after the Iraq war, there was a 1500 person Iraq Survey group sent in to scour the country for WMD. Here is ISG report after Iraq war on Al Muthanna: http://goo.gl/qFClAV

and the money quotes from this are:

An exploitation of the facility reconfirmed previous imagery analysis that the site remained inoperable from bombings and UNSCOM compliance, including destruction of equipment and resources, and no significant production capabilities existed. Facilities and bunkers revealed no evidence of production since UNSCOM departed.

and

The entire Al Muthanna mega-facility was the bastion of Iraqi’s chemical weapons development program. During its peak in the late 1980s to early 1990s, it amassed mega-bunkers full of chemical munitions, and provided Iraq with a force multiplier sufficient to counteract Iran’s superior military numbers. Two wars, sanctions and UNSCOM oversight reduced Iraqi’s premier production facility to a stockpile of old damaged and contaminated chemical munitions(sealed in bunkers), a wasteland full of destroyed chemical munitions, razed structures, and unusable war-ravaged facilities. In 1998 Al Tariq State Establishment took over all remaining remnants at Al Muthanna.