Pentagon withheld information about decades-old chemical weapons during Iraq War, report claims FoxNews.com

I don't understand why this is a story. If it was supposed to be a secret, it was one of the worst kept of all time.

Those with their heads in locations other than the open air might have been taken by surprise.

I'm not so sure the Pentagon sat on the information. I recall some quiet news reports on the chemical weapons that were quickly dismissed because the weapons were "too old" and "degraded" to be used as WMD's. On another note, it seems that many of us have talked to CBRN personnel who personally laid eyes on the weapons and knew they are still capable of mass destruction.

I miss the brutal dictators who knew how to keep the religious fanatics inside their borders In check. Afghanistan was fine e until the Russian invasion...Iraq was fine until we invaded. The Kuwaitis really were stealing oil.

I always knew they were somewhere...abandoned, buried in the desert where only Saddam's cronies knew where they were, given to Syria...whatever.

Saddam was not the kind of guy who would have complied with the UN weapons inspectors. He just...wasn't.

There are lots of secrets out there....

You look into things and find out...some of our famous senators, congressmen, presidential aides, presidential influential friends were either aiding the enemy or out and out spies working against the U.S.. You won't see that in print until several decades after the bad person is dead.

We keep secrets. There are lots and lots of reasons to keep secrets - some of the reasons we keep secrets is so everyone is the world won't know what those secrets are. Not every secret being held back is related to area 51, or some government conspiracy to create FEMA death camps. There are reasons we keep secrets.

I've never understood why people have to have the smoking gun on everything.....

Thus the assertion that Iraq had WMD cause we gave them to them.

What our government leaders have done and will do should not influence the Honor of Service for our Military members active, reserve, retired, veteran or otherwise but should encourage the thirst of information among us to create an air of diligence and responsibility when electing these leaders and for those few who chose to serve as leaders within the local, state, and national levels. John F. Kennedy warned about the transparency of Government to the governed. It is not their job to decide what we as a people are mature enough to handle but only if it falls within the NARROWEST margins of National Security to withhold. I believe it is not only our right but duty to have all the necessary and prudent, as well as mundane and moderately relevant, information as a people in order to make full and informed descisions about policies, crisis, peace, war and conflict and other important choices as governed patriots.

That said, this news should raise concern about what our government thinks about relevant and prudent information, not just in this administration but in the past and especially the future. A well prepared warrior is an informed one.

I have become more than concerned about the compentcy of Media outlets as well their motives when it comes to disemination of information. May God help us for we are in an era where the governed of a supposed free land are being spoon feed necessary information and drowned in entertainment. I feel I have heard of a tragic story like ours, perhaps it was the Roman Empire or the British Empire. All I know is neither had a happy ending.

The Pentagon has a long history of withholding information - even WW1 veterans had a hard time getting compensated for being gassed. Atomic and nuclear explosions, bio and chemical testing without their knowledge, Agent Orange, GWI, oops, weren't those WMD supplied to Iraq by the US in the 1980's? And, of course, the fact that there were no biological sniffers in theater meant that since there were no readings no bio exposures existed. The VA follows their lead.

There were a few plots foiled outside of Iraq during the Bush years. There was a plot by Al Qaeda to use chemical weapons in Jordan in an attempt to attack the embassies there. There was also a report that was released that confirmed that a National Guard unit came across WMD as well.

I also read a few unclassified reports of the discovery of WMD in Iraq by a National Guard unit in about 2006 that wasn't picked up widely by any news outlets. Here's a link to the Defense.gov page I found the report on.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=15918

Jordanian terror plot
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/26/jordan.terror/

There was a more recent terror plot foiled in Jordan again that was to involve chemical weapons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jordan-disrupts-major-al-qaeda-terrorist-plot/2012/10/21/e26354b4-1ba7-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html

I thought people knew, EOD found them every so often in I was in Iraq. I thought people didn't think it applied.