MANSOOR IJAZ, FOX NEWS FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Well, Brit, what I have learned in the last 24 hours is that about three days ago in the northern part of Iraq, a convoy of trucks and jeeps and cars was brought across from Iran where some of the Kurdish Peshmergah – these are these Kurdish rebels that are sort of like Mujahideen, if I may put it that way, from the old Afghan War.
They intercepted one of those trucks that were carrying a large warhead that had extremely sophisticated plastic – C- 4 plastic explosives in it. And when the driver of that truck was put under interrogation, he then admitted that as many – there were a total of 30 warheads that apparently were scheduled to come across.
One of them got caught, and 29 made it across somehow or the other. Of those 29, we are told now that somewhere between six and 12 of them may have, in fact, been laden with chemical explosives that would be then attached to a rocket of some sort inside Iraq that’s already there in a separate convoy. And that those warheads would then be exploded over, for example, an encampment near the Coalition Provisional Authority (search) or something like that.
Now, what alarmed me about this and the reason that I felt it was necessary to get this out as soon as possible, is because I have now heard three times in the last week, from separate sources that I have been talking to that something big is being planned for Baghdad. In which the idea that is being put forward is to kill as many as 3,000 to 5,000 people at one shot; something that would be similar to a World Trade Center (search) type of attack. In that part of the world, the only way you could get that done is if you launched a massive chemical or biological attack
Only a knucklehead wouldn’t see this one coming. The “Green Zone” is a tight, four-square-mile sitting duck target. Chemical or radiological bomb lobbed over the center. Instant regime change.
It’s only a matter of time.
Here’s another one I like from Neowonderland: “And get our Kurdish friends to help us rather than trying to sell them back to the Iranians. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Kurdish Peshmergah – right, our friends and allies.
Reality check: we don’t have any friends anywhere in the Middle East, including Israel.
But then the question (sorry I am still here after all) becomes one of then did Iraq have wmds all along and are these part of that arsenal? Or are they from Iran in which case we had better consider regime change there? I think that we had better track these down soon or we may see some real trouble. But I still believe it is better fighting this battle on their turf rather than allowing them to bring the fight to us. People in the Middle East are going to have to choose to fight and oppose terror and not just let things slide assuming that the only victims will be in Western nations. I think that many are beginning to understand this and the longer this fight goes on, the more the Arab World will side with civilization and that means us.
This Mansoor Ijaz doesn’t strike me as being particularly knowledgeable. He mentions “chemical explosives” – well, a chemical explosive is anything from black powder to octonitrocubane, with TNT, C-4, etc. somewhere in the middle of the range.
Later, he says:
Uh . . . no, you can lob it up a few hundred feet from wherever you’re standing at the moment, assuming you have a MOPP suit (or equivalent) on, or the antidote for yourself. A long-range missile strike would work just as well, but it’s hardly necessary.
Oh well. Maybe I’m requiring too much accuracy from a journalist. :rolleyes: