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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsC.I.A. Is Said to Have Bought and Destroyed Iraqi Chemical Weapons
The Central Intelligence Agency, working with American troops during the occupation of Iraq, repeatedly purchased nerve-agent rockets from a secretive Iraqi seller, part of a previously undisclosed effort to ensure that old chemical weapons remaining in Iraq did not fall into the hands of terrorists or militant groups, according to current and former American officials.
The extraordinary arms purchase plan, known as Operation Avarice, began in 2005 and continued into 2006, and the American military deemed it a nonproliferation success. It led to the United States acquiring and destroying at least 400 Borak rockets, one of the internationally condemned chemical weapons that Saddam Husseins Baathist government manufactured in the 1980s but that were not accounted for by United Nations inspections mandated after the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
The effort was run out of the C.I.A. station in Baghdad in collaboration with the Armys 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion and teams of chemical-defense and explosive ordnance disposal troops, officials and veterans of the units said. Many rockets were in poor condition and some were empty or held a nonlethal liquid, the officials said. But others contained the nerve agent sarin, which analysis showed to be purer than the intelligence community had expected given the age of the stock.
A New York Times investigation published in October found that the military had recovered thousands of old chemical warheads and shells in Iraq and that Americans and Iraqis had been wounded by them, but the government kept much of this information secret, from the public and troops alike.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/cia-is-said-to-have-bought-and-destroyed-iraqi-chemical-weapons.html
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Blowing up whole bunkers full of them was the favored disposal method, unfortunately for everyone in the area.
hunter
(38,324 posts).
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Rove.
Historic NY
(37,452 posts)it was reported on years ago with picture of pile of old decaying artillery shells (not rockets)
In a July 2, 2004, article published by The Associated Press and Fox News, it was reported that sarin gas warheads dating back to the last IranIraq War were found in South Central Iraq by Polish Allies. The Polish troops secured munitions on June 23, 2004, but it turned out that the warheads did not in fact contain sarin gas but "were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals"and it transpired that the Poles had bought the shells for $5,000 each.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24403-2004Jul2.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101837.html
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/dni/dni_ltr_wmd_21jun06.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20060530071609/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124576,00.html
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/10/17/right-wing-medias-failed-attempt-to-justify-ira/201216