Iraqi Chemical Munition

I have already heard one CNN newscast mischaracterize the 155mm sarin shell as predating the first Gulf War. As Blaster's Blog explains, this is a careless misinterpretation of what the Army has actually stated. Furthermore, I don't know of any source that actually thinks Iraq had binary "mix in flight" artillery shells during the Iran-Iraq War or during the campaigns against the Kurds. All those chemicals were either deployed by agricultural-type sprayers or from warheads that had to be mixed on the battlefield -- which is to say they were comparatively primitive, and also low shelf-life.

There are other remarkable things about this discovery. A "binary munition" is a level of artillery shell production which I had not heard anyone in the Bush Administration claim for Saddam's regime. Indeed, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative and other sources, the Iraqi regime was cajoled in 1995 into admitting development of binary artillery shells only after the UN uncovered some documents, but even then Iraq only admitted to making prototypes (i.e. saying they never got into regular production). Even if that's true, right there you have pretty strong evidence of a chemical weapons program that was continuing to advance during the sanctions and inspections years.

I suppose one cannot ignore the possibility that the shell was dragged in by terrorists from another country during the last year. The problem with that theory though is that there's no point in doing that unless the insurgent knows that he is smuggling in something special: a chemical round (Iraq is already brimming with ordinary explosive rounds). In which case, wouldn't such a person know how to use the round to get the mixing and dispersal to work? Not much use smuggling the thing all the way from Syria, Iran, or wherever without knowing that trick, is there?


[Postscript:: I've added to and edited this post Fri 21 May]