[lbo-talk] Chemical Weapons found

westrich at miser.umass.edu westrich at miser.umass.edu
Mon Apr 7 10:50:29 PDT 2003


This is from the Providence (RI) Journal last week (its a very revealing article). This is an Army team. Anspaugh's nickname is Abomb.

Excerpt:

. . .

The one thing the Sensitive Site Exploitation team, based in Fort Sill, Okla., did not find was what it came looking for: chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry.

Lt. Robert Anspaugh, 25, couldn't hide his disappointment, standing on the side of the road, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, with his eyes closed to block the whipping sand.

Anspaugh had nicknamed his team the "Smoking Guns." He found hundreds of guns at the An Najaf site, but none of them was smoking.

"We thought this was the one," said Anspaugh. "I wanted to find one right off the bat, but we will keep looking."

The An Najaf munitions site was the team's first inspection of the war. He was not sure whether the site, clearly visible from the road, had been inspected by the United Nations.

A lanky soldier with a degree in political science, Anspaugh says he believes he's doing something important. His team, part of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, is trying to accomplish what Hans Blix and the rest of the U.N. inspectors could not. A key difference between the two inspection teams is that the Army's Exploitation Task Force does not need an invitation to inspect. It uses force.

. . .

Quoting Kevin Robert Dean <qualiall at union.org.za>:


> Report: U.S. Finds Missiles with Chemical Weapons
> Mon April 7, 2003 10:25 AM ET
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces near Baghdad found a
> weapons cache of around 20 medium-range missiles equipped
> with potent chemical weapons, the U.S. news station
> National Public Radio reported on Monday.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list