Chemical Production Facility Discovered in Iraq

The Defense Department announced earlier today that coalition forces, acting on information from detainees, discovered a chemical production and storage facility in northern Iraq. Here are a couple of photos of the facility; click to enlarge:


Suspicion is that the chemicals have been used to make car bombs, but the Defense Department is keeping quiet until tests have been completed and analyzed. One can’t help wondering, too, how long the facility has been there and whether it could have played a role in Saddam’s chemical weapons program.
UPDATE: The AP’s account is here. The AP quotes a military spokesman to the effect that “the materials did not appear to be linked to Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime.” The AP helpfully adds:

The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 to destroy Saddam’s purported unconventional weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found.

Both statements are wrong. Saddam’s illegal weapons were one of several rationales for the war that were recited in the Congressional resolution that authorized it, and that were emphasized by President Bush in his various speeches on the subject. And chemical weapons from Saddam’s regime have been found in Iraq on a number of occasions, some of which we have reported on here, although the quantities of such weapons were not large.
Via Power Line News.

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