Iraq Chemical Weapons Propaganda: New Curveball Lies?

Iraq Chemical Weapons Propaganda: New Curveball Lies?

by Christof Lehmann on 10-07-2014

BRussells Tribunal

The Iraqi government informed the UN that IS brigades seized control over a former chemical weapons facility north of the capital Baghdad, making it impossible for Iraq to continue fulfilling its disarmament obligations. The chemicals and delivery systems have according to UN reports degraded beyond use, which dos not stop certain media from sensationalizing a “chemical weapons threat”.

A photo belonging to the fake evidence presented by Colin Powell. IS, the guardian and Spiegel. A new “Curveball”?

On Tuesday, Iraq’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, informed UN Secretary-General Ban Kyi-moon in a letter, that brigades of the re-branded ISIS, now Islamic State (IS) seized control over the Mutana chemical weapons site in June 11, reports Associated Press. Both the guardian and a number of other mainstream media sensationalize the report, stressing that “the U.S. is playing down the incident”.

The last report about the site, issued by U.N. weapons inspectors in 2003, informs that the so-called bunker 13 contained 2,500 122 mm chemical rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin and some 180 tons of sodium cyanide. The report, however, also stressed that the sarin was filled into the rockets before 1991 which means that it has degraded beyond use. The U.N. inspectors also pointed out that the bunker had been bombed during first so-called Gulf-War and that the rockets were partially destroyed or damaged.

With regard to the 180 tons of sodium cyanide, the U.N. inspectors point out that the chemical is a precursor to the nerve agent tabun but that the tabun filled containers all had been treated with a decontamination solution. The only “hazard” the U.N. inspectors pointed out in their 2003 report would possibly be some residual cyanides from the decontamination process.

About the other bunker, No. 41, the U.N. inspectors reported that it contained 2,000 empty 155 mm artillery shells which were contaminated with residues of the warfare agent mustard, that handling the shells could be dangerous but that none of the bunkers content had any relevance with regard to warfare operations.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that the two bunkers contained degraded remnants dating back to the 1980s which were stored after being dismantled by UN inspectors in the 1990s. It is noteworthy that the UN inspectors left shortly before the illegal US-led war on Iraq starting in March 2003, and that subsequent inspections didn’t find any “weapons of mass destruction” in bunkers 13 and 41 or any other site.

The remaining Iraqi “obligations” which UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim pointed out in his letter to the UN Secretary-General are, in other words “clean-up” operations which have nothing to do with any usable chemical weapons of any kind.

These facts, however, don’t discourage “the guardian” from sensationalizing the “incident” as if there were chemical weapons which Iraq now was unable to destroy. “the guardian” headline reads:

Isis seizes former chemical weapons plant in Iraq -US plays down threat as Iraq says Muthanna loss means it will be unable to fulfil obligations to destroy chemical weapons (emphasis added).

The German Spiegel.de writes

IS Militia in Iraq: Terror Group occupies Chemical Weapons Depot  – The Iraqi government lost control over a Chemical Weapons Depot to the Islamic State….

Spiegel.De continues, stating that there reportedly are some 2,500 rockets filled with the deadly sarin nerve agent or other warfare agents. Spiegel forgets to inform its readers about the fact that the substances have degraded and omits any noteworthy reference to the 2003 U.N. report.

The list of western mainstream media who are conveying the false impression that Iraq has any chemical weapons it is obliged to destroy is about as long as the list of media who disseminated those lies about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction which led to the US-led war in 2003. The question is, is it merely bad media ethics and sensationalism for the sake of sales, or why would the MI6 infested “the guardian” plant new Curveball-like stories about Iraqi WMDs?

CH/L – nsnbc 09.07.2014