Roadside Sarin

The WMD we haven't found is still a threat.
OpinionJournal.com

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

Yesterday's report that a roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent exploded recently near a U.S. convoy in Baghdad isn't impressing most of the press corps. They're dismissing it as no big deal--though we'd guess it was a rather large event for the two U.S. explosives experts lucky enough to escape with only minor exposure.

Along with VX nerve gas, sarin is among the deadliest chemical toxins around. That it has now been used by our enemies in one of their improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, is at least notable as a reminder that we still don't know what happened to Saddam's WMD. We should want to solve this mystery before it turns up in other weapons targeting Americans, whether in Iraq or elsewhere.

The media all but closed the books on the WMD story once it wasn't found in "stockpiles" quickly enough to vindicate the Bush Administration's case before the U.N. But even former U.N. inspector Hans Blix concedes that Saddam had large amounts of chemical and biological toxin in the 1990s. Their whereabouts today isn't just a who-got-it-wrong political issue but is, more urgently, a military problem.

Mr. Blix seems ready to believe that Saddam destroyed them all himself--which is hardly reassuring given the former dictator's record. We'd put more stock in Gazi George, a former Iraqi nuclear scientist under Saddam, who told Fox News that he believes the weapons were either buried underground or transported to Syria. Saddam and his henchmen buried tanks, and even fighter aircraft, so it's easy to believe they were willing to hide barrels of gas or liquid under the sand.

Keep in mind that, before the Iraq War began, U.S. commanders feared Iraqi use of chemical and biological toxins so much that they required chemical suits for their invading troops. To our knowledge, none were ever used. But given that U.S. strategists suspect that the regime and the Special Republican Guard deliberately melted away without a fight in order to re-form as an insurgency, it is certainly possible that they will use WMD munitions now.

"I'm sure they're going to find more once time passes," Mr. George says. U.S. forces also confirmed yesterday that two weeks ago WMD hunters discovered Iraqi insurgents with a shell that contained mustard gas. Tests found the gas inert. But U.S. officials believe it was one of 550 such shells that Saddam possessed without disclosing before the war, notwithstanding Mr. Blix's pleading then and his assertions now.





Though it gets little attention, the Iraq Survey Group that is searching for WMD has also found warehouses full of commercial and agricultural chemicals. Mixed and packaged properly, those could quickly become chemical weapons, and Saddam had no legitimate need for so much pesticide.
Survey Group head Charles Duelfer has testified to Congress that Saddam had built new facilities and stockpiled the raw materials that would have allowed him to produce such weapons on a moment's notice once the international pressure was off. Insight magazine also reported this month that, in Karbala in central Iraq, U.S. forces found 55-gallon drums of pesticide, some of which were stored in a "camouflaged bunker complex." The alleged agricultural site just happened to be located alongside a military ammunition dump.

Our own view has long been that the case for deposing Saddam was strong enough whether or not we found "stockpiles" of WMD. But just because we haven't found everything that the CIA anticipated doesn't mean it still isn't a threat.


Let's not forget the VX found when the planned terrorist attack in Jordan was thwarted. These chemical WMDs came from some where. - Sailor