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We American's need to thank the British press for keeping us informed on our
national security issues.
17.09 Chemical weapons produced at the Al Muthanna facility, which Isis
today seized, are believed to have included mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun, and
VX.
Here is the CIA's file on the complex.
Quote Stockpiles of chemical munitions are still stored there. The most
dangerous ones have been declared to the UN and are sealed in bunkers.
Although declared, the bunkers contents have yet to be confirmed.
These areas of the compound pose a hazard to civilians and potential
blackmarketers.
Numerous bunkers, including eleven cruciform shaped bunkers were exploited.
Some of the bunkers were empty. Some of the bunkers contained large
quantitiesof unfilled chemical munitions, conventional munitions, one-ton
shipping containers, old disabled production equipment (presumed disabled
under UNSCOM supervision), and other hazardous industrial chemicals.
17.05 The Chemical Weapons Convention, which Iraq joined in 2009, requires
it to dispose of the material at Al Muthanna, even though it was declared
unusable and "does not pose a significant security risk"
However, the UK goverment has acknowledgeded that the nature of the material
contained in the two bunkers would make the destruction process difficult
and technically challenging.
Under an agreement signed in Baghdad in July 2012, experts from the MOD's
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) were due to provide
training to Iraqi personnel in order to help them to dispose of the chemical
munitions and agents.
The Al Mutannah chemical weapons complex (CIA)
16.52 The remaining chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein's regime are stored
in two sealed bunkers, both located at the Al Muthanna Chemicals Weapons
Complex, a large site in the western desert some 80km north west of Baghdad.
This was the principal manufacturing plant for both chemical agents and
munitions during Saddam Hussein's rule.
Thousands of tonnes of chemical weapons were produced, stored and deployed
by the Saddam Hussein regime. Iraq used these weapons during the Iran - Iraq
War (1980 to 1988) and against the Kurds in Halabja in 1988.
16.32 Isis jihadists have seized a chemical weapons facility built by Saddam
Hussein which contains a stockpile of old weapons, State Department
officials have told the Wall Street Journal:
Quote U.S. officials don't believe the Sunni militants will be able to
create a functional chemical weapon from the material. The weapons
stockpiled at the Al Muthanna complex are old, contaminated and hard to
move, officials said.
Nonetheless, the capture of the chemical-weapon stockpile by the forces of
the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS or ISIL, the militant
group that is seizing territory in the country, has grabbed the attention of
the U.S.
"We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,"
Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement.
"We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value
and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the
materials."
By Epictetus
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