Great: Iraq Informs UN That "Terrorists" Have Seized a Major Iraqi Chemical/Nerve Agent Weapons Storage Facility

I don't think this proves "Iraq had WMDs" because we already knew they had WMDs; the question was whether they had undisclosed WMDs, in addition to those stocks the UN had already identified and placed under lock and key (and by lock and key, I mean, and I think I'm serious about this, they would just put a "UN Controlled Weapons" sticker over the door jamb to let Saddam know he wasn't allowed to touch those weapons, unless he had a box-cutter or just a sharp stick).

I'm not sure if these captured bunkers constitute some new reserve of WMDs; I assume they don't, but then again, I don't think the media would exactly blare it from the rooftops if it turned out Hussein had undisclosed WMDs all along.

Here's a question: Why did Obama depart Iraq without having confiscated or destroyed these weapons? For that matter, why the hell did Bush permit them to remain with only the UN's Super Scary Safety Sticker protecting them?

But putting aside the controversies of the Iraq War, you'll now be psyched to know that a terrorist group which was ejected from Al Qaeda for being too extreme and violent says it has possession of a large quantity of chemical agents and nerve gases.

Iraq has informed the United Nations that the Islamic State extremist group has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad where 2,500 chemical rockets filled with the deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents...

He singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex, which according to a 2004 U.N. report also contained the toxic agent sodium cyanide, which is a precursor for the chemical warfare agent tabun, and artillery shells contaminated with mustard gas.

In case you missed it, ISIS hasn't just seized chemical weapons. Earlier they raided Mosul's central state bank and seized over $400 million in cash, plus an unknown quantity of gold bullion.

And that just added to what they'd already stolen. ISIS is reported to have two billion dollars at its disposal.

How long until they buy a nuke?

Knowing that this site existed, very close within ISIS' reach: Why did Obama not order the site bombarded by air, to destroy all the stocks?

Oh: Archaeologists have found the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh, oft-discussed in the Bible.

This is a truly interesting and important find.

So of course ISIS lunatics want to destroy it.

Well, destroy it or sell it, as war booty, in order to fund more terrorist operations.

=Last month, a new marauder descended on Nineveh and the nearby city of Mosul. He, too, came down like the wolf on the fold, but his cohorts brandished Kalashnikovs from pickup trucks, not shining spears; their banners were the black flags of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham.

...

Indeed, museum curators and staff were no better prepared than any other part of the Iraqi government. They could have learned from al-Baghdadi’s operations in neighboring Syria that a major source of revenue for his insurgency has been the sale of looted antiquities on the black market. As reported in The Guardian, a windfall of intelligence just before Mosul fell revealed that al-Baghdadi had accumulated a $2 billion war chest, in part by selling off ancient artifacts from captured Syrian sites.

posted by Ace at 06:58 PM

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