WMD's or not

[rotorwash]

Imagine a large gathering of people for food, drink and fun. Say an end of season little league get together in Somewhere, USA, or Oktoberfest in Germany. Or a similar gathering in France or Great Britain ( I am assuming the British and French have fun). A few hours later EMT?s are overwhelmed by 911 calls that people are having seizures and other weird symptoms, and worse, they are dying in the ambulances on their way to the hospitals. The evening news reports tens of thousands are dead. Al Qaeda takes credit.

When the Duelfer Report came out just prior to the last election, CNN and the Washington Post happily reported, ?No Large Stockpiles of WMD?s!? So there, Bush, take that. For those unfamiliar with it, The Duelfer Report was the final, definitive report on Saddam?s weapons program.

In volume III of the report, page 46, there is a picture- it?s actually figure 3, of a can holding Sodium Monofluoroacetate taken at Iraqi Intelligence HQ. The can is large enough to hold several kilograms. The report talked about, what it termed ?dual-use? materials or equipment, in other words, stuff that could be used for more then one purpose, one of those purposes being to kill people in large numbers. For example, the same fermentor used in making your favorite brewski could be rinsed out and be used to make anthrax. The same equipment that makes aspirin tablets can make sarin.

But back to our hypothetical scenario. Autopsies revealed that all of those people were killed with sodium monofluoroacetate that can kill a person in doses as small as 2 ml. Then comes the element of ?deniability? or the idea that Saddam could deny having any involvement in the disaster even though Iraqi embassies all over the world regularly communicated with al Qaeda.

Oh, I failed to mention that sodium monofluoroacetate is also known as New Zealand possum poison. I?m sure Saddam rested easier knowing that his Intelligence Service was successful in their New Zealand possum eradication program, after all, not a single New Zealand possum has been reported by coaliton troops.

Rotor