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Iraq-Jordan
Sarin Found in Fallujah
2004-11-17
Via Powerline - check out photo 2 in the slideshow - the Sarin package instructions are in Russian and German
Photos look more like a test kit to me. German lable on one package reads "Handhabung siehe Anleitung".
That's my sense, too. Someone sent me the photo. I'll double check it with a chem def guy... No need. Powerline's already come to the same conclusion for the same reasons.
Posted by:Frank G

#11  My feeling is that unless we can find at least several forklifts worth of artillery shells, it's much ado about nothing.

At this late stage in the game, any CW found would only be worth an I-told-you-so. The bigger purpose of this war (as I see it) goes beyond the WMD question, and I thought it was silly for the administration to have penned a lot of their case on WMDs.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-11-17 6:27:26 PM  

#10  Oh for gosh sakes: The NYT, U.N., IAEA, WAPO, and John Kerry have assured us there were never any WMD in Iraq, the island of peace and stability pre-Bush.

/bs button off
Posted by: Mark Z.   2004-11-17 5:46:53 PM  

#9  the dammer rethugs stolen all my Anleitung can ich roller it?
Posted by: half   2004-11-17 5:15:45 PM  

#8  yep - Powerline has updates from readers who know:


These are what we would call "Draeger Tubes" (a brand name, though several companies manufacture them... Draeger is possibly the biggest) commonly used in industry and other places (the military, too) for measuring airborne gas concentrations. Quite ingeneous little chemical reactors, which progressively change color along their as the chemical to be measured is drawn through the tube. A specified volume of air is sucked through the tube, and the length of the color change tells you what the concentration of the chemical is. They are actually quite accurate, as long as you don't have interferences to deal with.

In other words, no story here, other than the bad guys being prepared to measure gasses that might for some reason be present. Who knows... they might have been dumb enough to think that these tubes actually contained Sarin.
Posted by: Frank G   2004-11-17 4:19:21 PM  

#7  I vote for test kit, nerve agent specific. Other than SARIN (GB), it mentions SOMAN (VX), and "V Gases", which are exclusively nerve agents.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-11-17 4:05:02 PM  

#6  according to the caption, this was found in a briefcase located in a truck. Heard a Marine intel guy in a radio interview a couple of days ago. He found what he said were Sarin test kits in a briefcase located in a truck. He stated that he about pissed himself when he first saw it, but latter determined that they were tests for Sarin and not Sarin itself.

I suspect the photo is actually the test kits in question.
Posted by: Psycho Hillbilly   2004-11-17 3:13:45 PM  

#5  In the beginning of the Fallujah fight, the Marines also found some nerve gas test kits with Sarin vials. They are probably used to calibrate the detectors. The total quantity is small and militarily insignificant (unlike the artillery shell found filled w/ 5 quarts of old Sarin). The terrorists may have wanted to fill a mortar shell with it, but that don't matter crap in the battle. A more ominous use would be to smuggle it into the west and release it into the ventilation system of a crowded concert.

A bigger question is where are the up to 500 tons of Sarin and 3.7 tons of VX (+ a LOT of Mustard + 38000 liters of Botulinum) the Iraqis admitted having after the GW1. The Sarin and VX were never verified as being destroyed.
Posted by: ed   2004-11-17 3:06:03 PM  

#4  I've heard a senior officer saying that anything you can hit with chemical weapons, you can hit harder with explosives. My feeling is that unless we can find at least several forklifts worth of artillery shells, it's much ado about nothing.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2004-11-17 2:59:39 PM  

#3  To judge by the typography (and Russian text) this should be East German... and why is the expiry date hidden?
The Charge Number looks like a date, which would mean it's from 1981 which sounds just right.
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-11-17 2:46:31 PM  

#2  The one on the left is in English! Of course we can't see the one on the right. It must be Phrawnch.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-11-17 2:39:11 PM  

#1  Could be wrong, but they look like the emergency stick-in-thigh-during-nerve-gas-attack antidote to me (disposable one-use syringes).

related story

Now *why* they'd need them, that's another matter...
Posted by: Lux   2004-11-17 2:28:27 PM  

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