HOLY SHIT Hundreds of Iraq police fall ill after meal...11 reported dead

[Proud2BAmurkin]

Just when you think it can't get worse. And what will be the worse news, that it was intentional or that they ate Halliburton spinach?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061008/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_poisoning

An official with the Environment Ministry said 11 policemen had died. However, the governor of Wasit province — where the poisoning took place — denied any deaths, though he said some of the victims were in critical condition. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory reports.

Some of the policemen began bleeding from the ears and nose after the meal, said Jassim al-Atwan, an inspector for the Environment Ministry, who was serving as a liaison in the investigation between the Health Ministry and the base, located in the town of Numaniyah.

[Richard D]

1. Bleeding from the ears and nose . . .

. . . sounds like rat poison, not e. coli.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Does that happen when a man eats rat poison? NT

NT

[MuseRider]

16. Yes.

It is coumarin that causes it. Brand name I believe Coumadin, a blood thinner used by people.

[loves_dulcinea]

19. trade name coumadin

also called warfarin. used as rat poison, in conjunction with blunt trauma traps.
i don't know what the mechanism of action is, but, it does 'thin' blood.
it would take alot of substance to affect so many people so drastically.

[ArbustoBuster]

42. It interferes with the use of Vitamin K in clotting.

It makes it much harder for blood to clot.

[donco6]

17. Strychnine based - no. Convulsions.

Not bleeding - at least not that I've ever heard of.

[hvn_nbr_2]

39. How I wish people would use sentences.

I have no idea what you said. Do you mean:
- Rat poison is not strychnine based?
- The bleeding pattern would not be from strychnine based rat poison but maybe from some other kind of rat poison?
- If it were strychnine based, there would be convulsions?
- These police had convulsions?
- These police didn't have convulsions? So that means it wasn't strychnine based?
- These police weren't bleeding?
- Rat poison doesn't cause bleeding?
- Strychnine doesn't cause bleeding?
- Convulsions don't cause bleeding?
- Convulsions aren't associated with bleeding?
- Or what?

[donco6]

54. Oh. OK.

Strychnine based rat poison does not cause bleeding from the nose and ears. It causes convulsions which stop the respiratory system.

Please make a note of this: If you're replying back to someone's message, it's considered bad form to speak of them as if they're not there. For example, saying, "How I wish people would use sentences" in your reply to me - the one who didn't use sentences - is considered rude. It's like talking about someone while they're standing in front of you.

Dick.

[wakeme2008]

3. With all the big troop mess halls over there

I have worried it would not take a lot to kill a lot of our troops.

[grytpype]

4. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse.

[Monkeyman]

5. Rove spin its WMD's

[OhioChick]

6. Bleeding from the ears and nose

sounds like some form of ebola/hemorrhagic fever........

[ClintonTyree]

32. It's too fast acting.......

bio-weapons like that could take days, even weeks to manifest themselves. I'm thinking more along the lines of Ricin or some other neuro-toxin. Those act almost immediately.

[Kagemusha]

7. Natural food poisoning doesn't onset that fast...

If at all true, you'd think it's something chemical, not biological based that needs time to replicate inside a human host.

[BootinUp]

8. If they got sick that fast

and that severely it must have been intentional.

[babylonsister]

9. So if this happened to American troops, would we ignore this reality

also?

[Eric J in MN]

11. Who is ignoring it? NT

NT

[babylonsister]

15. *, Cheney, Rice, Rummy, the whole cabal are not accepting the

reality in Iraq, nor the fact that it's going a lot worse than advertised.
They're ignoring the reality, or at the very least trying to convince us it's not
that bad and all worth it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. What in the world makes your ears bleed?

Sounds like some heavy duty toxins.

[lonestarnot]

13. Some hemoragic bioterror substance. Fucking crazy people

over there.

[TheCowsCameHome]

21. Listening to assholes like Bush and Rumsfeld.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. LOL!!

Good one!

[lonestarnot]

55. No. Do you have the answer? Some have said rat poison.

[shance]

12. Poisoning the police?

Why?

To add more chaos and death?

To kill off more men of fighting age?

Cui bono?

[ClintonTyree]

29. Trying to get the Iraqi Police to stand down.........

in a country where unemployment is at catastrophic levels, it's the only job many Iraqi men can get. All they want to do is, "put food on their families" but the insurgents are sending them a STRONG message. STAND DOWN! If the Iraqi Police DO stand down it will make the insurgents jobs of attacking American soldiers all that much easier. It's a horrible situation to be in for everyone but the insurgents.

We HAVE to get our men and women OUT of that damned country NOW! To HELL with Bush's fucking legacy, to HELL with his ego. BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME NOW!! :grr:

[hpot]

33. They are not releasing the names of the contractors.

Something smells fishy.

[file83]

51. Maybe it's some Contractors In America...?

(CIA)

[peacetalksforall]

44. Don't you also mean To Hell with their profit and their pipelines for

their profit? Both oil and water.

[hpot]

30. Who benefits?

Good question.

[Horse with no Name]

50. As long as Iraqi's can't take care of themselves

We have to stay. That is the reasoning.
There are two jobs in Iraq. The good guys and the bad guys.
For every good guy we kill--we create two bad guys.

[Divernan]

14. Was Halliburton under contract for providing food & water?

We know Halliburton already provided contaminated drinking water to US troops.

[Marlie]

18. This is terrible

And I'm sure it's meant to be a message. Every time our guys sit down to eat a
meal in the mess hall or the big shots in the fancy ass green zone, they will all
worry about what they're about to eat. Guess they'll have to get some poor people
in to be food testers, you know how that works.

[Eric J in MN]

37. The article says the contractor is Australian and

...the subcontractor is Iraqi, but it doesn't name names.

[Tatiana]

20. WTF!? Who was in charge of food prep?

This is beyond a clusterf**k! How much more will it take before folks acknowledge NOTHING positive will come out of our occupation of Iraq? Nothing. It just gets worse and worse, with more people left dead.

No one seems to be disturbed by this. You know, I wish we could start shipping every single so-called "patriot" who voted for this insane war and to give the president unprecedented powers over to Iraq NOW. Let's see how long they survive.

[Eric J in MN]

22. The public is kept in the dark.

"Al-Latif said food and water at the base are provided by an Australian contractor working through Iraqi subcontractors. He did not identify the Australian firm."

We're not allowed to know who contractor was, or who the subcontractor was.

[Eric J in MN]

23. 600-700 policemen affected by the poisonous food. NT

NT

[Nikki Stone 1]

24. THE HUGE REASON why the military food supply should NOT be privatized

Sabotage.

But Rumsfeld and the other criminals in Junior's administration were told this from the beginning.

[BrotherBuzz]

45. And a HUGE REASON to decentralize kitchens, too...

One big target is easier to attack then a lot of smaller ones. I understand mess halls in Iraq often serve 5,000 soldiers because the contract outfits running them are able to realize huge 'economy of scale' profits. Mega mess halls.

Back when I was in the "Mean green fighting machine", our mess was mostly on a Company level (125 men), and the largest I even ate in was Batallion size (600 men).

[Nikki Stone 1]

48. Great point!

What a mess privatization is turning out to be.

[lonestarnot]

56. Chief cook is in the brig now.

[jannyk]

25. Police or Military? Contradictory

labeling in that account. Refers to them as 'Police' but the spokesman keeps stating 'Soldiers'. Eleven died or none died (you'd think they'd notice). Police or Soldiers? A Tragedy - yes, but why are they always so inconsistant with the facts?

[Eric J in MN]

27. There may not be a distinction between Iraqi soldiers and...

Iraqi policemen these days.

[Beausoir]

26. My God. Will this Bush shop of horrors ever end? This is horrific.

There is nothing left. There is no end to the horrors that George Bush has visited upon these people.

[Mabus]

31. The fasting probably helped speed the poison through the system

Since it is Ramadan these men had no food or water all day long. They had nothing in their systems to slow down the poison. In other words, spiking their food after fasting all day insured that the men would eat a full meal.

[K8-EEE]

34. The BushCo Liberation Just Keeps On Liberating

Liberating people from their lives that is...horrible.

[Eric J in MN]

35. Now that the killers know this is effective...

...we can expect them to poison more people.

We should never have gone into Iraq.

[BlooInBloo]

36. ROFL! Hearts, minds, ears, and noses!

If this keeps up, will have won over the Iraqi corpse by years end.

Mission Accomplished motherfuckers!

[Nickster]

38. My first thought was mustard gas because of the symptoms. I found that a

precursor of mustard gas is sulfur mustard. It's a blistering agent, but I can't find any specifics about symptoms from ingestion, just skin contact. What I found most interesting was the description of the substance. It sounds like it could be mixed with food fairly easily.

"Sulfur mustard sometimes smells like garlic, onions, or mustard and sometimes has no odor. It can be a vapor (the gaseous form of a liquid), an oily-textured liquid, or a solid."

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/sulfurmustard/basics/facts.asp

Just my unqualified poking around.

[YDogg]

40. Freedom is on the fuckin' march?

[malaise]

41. Wow

This gift of freedom is deadly.

[gully]

43. Sounds like internal bleeding from poison can cause these symptoms?

Internal Bleeding:

Typically characterized by pale skin, gums, and tongue, bleeding from ears, mouth, or anus, bloody vomit or stool, difficulty breathing, extreme lethargy or sleepiness. These symptoms can present both immediately and hours after injury occurs.

And of course those who mentioned rat poison are likely on to something.

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=70997

Easy accessibility, food-like taste and smell, and bright colors make these rodenticides a frequent source of accidental ingestions. The most common bait available on the market contain a chemical that is an anticoagulant. It works by preventing blood from properly clotting, thereby causing internal bleeding in mice and rats. In children and pets the decrease in clotting ability can lead to bruising of skin and bleeding from those nose, gums, minor cuts, scrapes and internal organs. Examples of anticoagulant rodenticides include D-CON MOUSE PRUF II and TALON.

[Stinky The Clown]

46. Sounds like Halliburton's cutting corners again

"Ooops. Our bad."

[mom cat]

49. That is my first hunch too. Or, someone is testing new bio-weapons.

[file83]

52. It's the perfect "real world" experimental population...

...the blame for the poisoning goes to the "enemy" - and since the Iraqi police are all on the same health plan and dependent on our "privatized" hospitals for the best treatment, you get to study the test subjects closely to learn how "effective" your new weapon is.

Oh yeah, and one more thing...I'm wearing my new :tinfoilhat:

[BluePatriot]

47. Esh...that's a new low

Those poor policemen. I am so saddened by this.

[blogslut]

53. Iraq is F.U.B.A.R.

And all the blame belongs to GWB.