CIA Bought Iraqi Chemical Weapons

Aerial view of the Al Muthanna Chemical Weapons Complex after Operation Desert Storm, from a 2004 CIA report, with R&D and laboratory facilities marked out and labelled (stock image) [Picture: CIA]

C.J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt, Houston Chronicle/New York Times: CIA is said to have bought Iraqi chemical weapons

The CIA, working with U.S. troops during the occupation of Iraq, repeatedly purchased nerve-agent rockets from a secretive Iraqi seller, part of a previously undisclosed effort to ensure that old chemical weapons remaining in Iraq did not fall into the hands of terrorists or militant groups, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The extraordinary arms purchase plan, known as Operation Avarice, began in 2005 and continued into 2006, and the U.S. military deemed it a nonproliferation success. It led the United States to acquire and destroy at least 400 Borak rockets, one of the internationally condemned chemical weapons that Saddam Hussein's Baathist government manufactured in the 1980s but that were not accounted for by U.N. inspections mandated after the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

WNU Editor: I would love to know who was the personi who had these weapons stockpiled. On second .... maybe not .... just be grateful that he sold them to the U.S. and not to someone else.

Pentagon: 600 U.S. Soldiers Were Exposed To Chemical Weapons In Iraq

More Than 600 Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq, Pentagon Acknowledges -- New York Times

More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say.

The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than a decade kept from view.

This previously untold chapter of the occupation became public after an investigation by The New York Times revealed last month that although troops did not find an active weapons of mass destruction program, they did encounter degraded chemical weapons from the 1980s that had been hidden in caches or used in makeshift bombs.

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More News On The Pentagon's Admission That 600 U.S. Soldiers Were Exposed To Chemical Weapons In Iraq

Report: More than 600 troops reported Iraq chemical weapons exposure -- Stars and Stripes/AP
Pentagon: Over 600 Service Members Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq -- Time
Paper: US Vets Reported Exposure to Chemical Agents in Iraq -- VOA
Hundreds of US troops exposed to chemical agents in Iraq -- France 24
More than 600 service members believe they were exposed to chemical weapons in Iraq: report -- New York Daily News
Scores Of US Troops Reported Exposure To Chemical Weapons In Iraq Since 2003 -- IBTimes
At least 629 U.S. troops were exposed to chemical weapons in Iraq -- The Week
Pentagon Says Hundreds in Military Exposed to Chemical Agents While in Iraq -- Slate
Over 600 US Military Personnel Exposed to Chemical Agents in Iraq: Reports -- RIA Novosti
Pentagon shrugged off troops' chemical exposure in Iraq -- UPI