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Former U.S. Weapons Inspector Plays Down Significance of Chemical Weapons Found in Iraq By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — That U.S. military forces in Iraq have discovered chemical weapons from the 1980s should come as no surprise, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq said yesterday (see GSN, June 23). Testifying before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, David Kay played down the danger and significance of 500 chemical weapons shells and rockets the U.S. military has reported finding in Iraq since 2003. In the midst of a highly partisan debate, Republican members of Congress have been pushing for the Pentagon to fully declassify a report by the Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center on the munitions (see GSN, June 22). The report was created to apprise military commanders in Iraq of possible risks to their troops. Only portions of the report that have been cleared for public discussion, but Republican lawmakers have pointed to the report as evidence of a WMD threat posed by Iraq prior to the U.S.-led invasion. Defense Department officials say the rounds were produced in the 1980s. Thursday’s hearing was called by committee vice chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) to discuss the report and call for its full release. The shells — which contain or were intended to contain sarin and mustard gas — were degraded to such a degree they could no longer be used as they were designed, according to Defense Department testifying before the committee. “It really should not be a surprise to anyone that chemical munitions produced in Iraq between 1980 and roughly 1991 have been found,” Kay said, adding that such rounds were routinely found in Iraq from 1991 until U.N. inspectors were ejected in 1998. The bulk of Iraqi chemical weapons were produced between 1984 and 1988 and were dispersed across the country in bunkers without an accurate accounting system, he said. “I fully expected that we would find chemical rounds from the 1980s in Iraq,” Kay said. The nerve agent sarin produced by Iraq was of such poor quality that it is unlikely to pose much risk after years of degradation, he said. “While it’s not something I’d like to rub up next to, it was not going to be a major concern,” he said. Kay said the Iraqi mustard gas, a blistering agent, was of a higher quality and more stable. Still, mustard gas from the 1980s would no longer be lethal, Kay has said. Republican members of the committee repeatedly pressed other witnesses yesterday to say if the weapons could be used by terrorists if sold on the black market. While the lifespan of the rounds themselves may have expired, terrorists might be able to siphon off the chemical agent and wage an attack on U.S. soil, the lawmakers suggested. Kay told the committee that extracting the chemical weapons from the aging shells would be exceedingly difficult and dangerous. “While it is possible to draw it off, you are more likely to result in the death of the people” attempting it, he said.
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