[Newspoetry] Is "Raid" a WMD?

[Robert Porter]

Who wants to lay odds on this story showing up on CNN tonight?

Published on Monday, April 7, 2003 by Agence France Presse
"Smoking Gun" WMD Site in Iraq Turns Out to Contain Pesticide


NEAR NAJAF, Iraq - A facility near Baghdad that a US officer had said 
might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons 
production turned out to contain pesticide, not sarin gas as feared.

Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin -- a powerful toxin 
that quickly affects the nervous system -- after US soldiers guarding the 
facility near Hindiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad, fell 
ill.

Mastrianni said: "They thought it was a nerve agent. That's what it tested.
  But it is pesticide."

He said a "theatre-level chemical testing team" made up of biologists and 
chemists had finally disproved the preliminary field tests results and 
established that pesticide was the substance involved.

Mastrianni added that sick soldiers, who had become nauseous, dizzy and 
developed skin blotches, had all recovered.

The turnaround was an embarrassment for the US forces in the region, which 
had been quick to say that they thought they had finally found the proof 
they have been actively looking for that Iraq  was hiding weapons of mass 
destruction.

A spokesman for the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, Major Ross Coffman, 
had told journalists at Baghdad's airport that the site "could be a 
smoking gun".

"We are talking about finding a site of possible weapons of mass 
destruction," he added.

The fact that the coalition forces have come up with no clear evidence of 
WMD after capturing much of Iraq in 19 days of fighting has raised 
questions over the war's justification.

Copyright 2003 AFP