Brice wrote,
| I see the number 17 in the article I posted, I don't see any 12+2 in it.
|
| It also says something about 30 shells total being found.  Still not
| 12+2.

=======
If you follow the advice at the bottom of the article and go to the
Department of Defense web site to read about Rumsfeld's report to the DoD
you can find these links:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040630-secdef0949.html

http://tinyurl.com/5kftn

Where Rumsfeld reports:

"Now what's actually happened?  Right now you have the Iraqi Survey Group,
which is a multinational group that's out there reviewing documentation and
looking at suspect WMD sites.  I was with the Polish minister of defense
this weekend in Istanbul, Turkey at the NATO Summit.  And in the course of
that, he pointed out that his troops in Iraq had recently come across - I've
forgotten the number, but something like 16 or 17 - warheads that contained
sarin and mustard gas. "

and there is this link from the following day:

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040701-0951.html
http://tinyurl.com/6rjsc

           Q     Can you give us more information on the 16 or 17 warheads
containing sarin or mustard gas that the secretary mentioned was recently
found in Iraq?


            MR. DIRITA:  Yeah.  He was in -- I believe in Istanbul meeting
with his NATO counterparts and had a conversation, to the best of my
recollection, with people that were aware that the Polish forces had been
involved in some of these sarin shells.  As I understood it at the time --
and I think this is accurate, and we'll check this to be sure, but when that
came up then, the fact that the Poles had uncovered or somehow been involved
in uncovering 16 or 17 shells, it was believed at the time that it was the
same round number of shells that Mr. Duelfer had mentioned when he was
interviewed, I don't know, 10 days or a week ago, a couple weeks ago, that
he said, I think, 10 to 12 shells.  So I don't think we're talking about
separate compilations of these shells.



            Q     (Off mike) -- he said in the last couple of days.



            MR. DIRITA:  In the last couple days he was made aware of it by
the Poles, but I'm not sure even he knew at the time that it was, I think,
the same selection -- collection of ordnance that Mr. Duelfer had already
referred to.  And the numbers aren't quite the same.  So there is some
uncertainty there, but it was my understanding at the time, because I asked
the very question, was that the Poles were involved somehow with the Iraq
Survey Group.





-----

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the number of shells found, or
even if they are the same shells that were found previously. By the way,
this is the same Mr. Duelfer from Michael Baier's article.



Regardless of the actual number of shells found, it seems that Mr. Duelfer
doesn't consider them enough to constitute a "stockpile"



From Michael's posting:



"The basic conclusion of the report - that Iraq had no stockpiles of
chemical or biological weapons and a moribund nuclear weapons development
effort - strengthens the preliminary findings of Duelfer's predecessor,
David Kay, and undercuts the main Bush administration argument for war."



It seems that you are alone in considering these 10 - 30 shells sufficient
cause to go to war.

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