The special ammunitions move

Powerline details one of the most recent DOCEX Iraqi government documents that talks about "special ammunitions". This nomenclature was previously used by the Iraqis to specify WMD munitions (specifically chemical, but possibly biological).

Former inspector Ray Robison thinks the materials were moved from Najaf just before an UNMOVIC team arrived, and has a few links suggesting the Najaf site (once suspected of being a dual use chem weapons facility) was being cleaned out.

One of the more interesting books on the Iraq war so far is "The Secret History of the Iraq War" by Yossef Bodansky. The author seems to have access to loads of secret information on this issue, quite similar to his book on Bin Laden published before 9/11, which seemed to verify. Matter of fact, there's so much the average reader might wonder if some of it was simply made up.

Bodansky had some things to say about special ammunitions during the run-up to the invasion. He claimed several Iraqi divisions were equipped with chemical-tipped artillery shells, which were being moved around during the preceding months. This latest secret document would seem to verify those claims.

But true or not, let's review what we already know. We know Saddam had chemical tipped artillery shells because we found a few. We know he had once used airplanes to fog the Kurds with chemicals. If this doc is correct it brings into question the veracity of all the Iraqis who were interviewed post-invasion by the ISG/Duelfer group. It also brings up two rather obvious questions. One, "why didn't they use them", and two, "where are they now"?

Of course there's another possibility, which is that everyone thought there were special ammunitions but in reality they were just the regular variety. This was the conclusion of the Joint Forces report a month or so ago.

But if they were real, there's yet one more question, which is a bit more nasty to consider. What if Saddam got some of this technology from the west during the Iraq-Iran war? What kind of chilling effect would such a thing have on the discovery process, if any?

If so, it really wouldn't change the equation of having to topple the dictator, and it wouldn't absolve the dictator from his previous uses of said ordnance. It might change how people think about the whole thing. Interestingly, we may see some light on this subject soon since Saddam has been charged with the Halabja gassing, and the case might go to court next month.