Chlorine In Iraq
The New York Times reports that the AIF have attempted to use chlorine in their attacks twice in the last couple of days.
The bombing involving chlorine gas on Wednesday followed an explosion on Tuesday north of Baghdad of a tanker filled with chlorine that had been rigged to explode, killing nine people and wounding 148, including 42 women and 52 children. At least one other attack with chlorine also took place on Jan. 28, according to the American military’s statements. Sixteen people were killed in that attack, in the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, when a dump truck with explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Ramadi.
This is a somewhat new tactic for the terrorists. They have been using LP gas tanks in their IED’s for some time, with mixed success. The problem with using any of a thousand toxic chemicals off the shelf is that their existing packaging and quantities do not readily lend themselves to an attack. Toxic chemicals are packaged and transported as safely as possible and their containers are designed to prevent or minimize releases.
Explosives will release a toxic chemical from its container, but the terrorist risks having the toxin nullified by the explosion. Many toxic chemicals are flammable or so chemically active that an explosion would turn them into other compounds.
The current use of chlorine in Iraq is primarily to create terror. It will do that. We should not, however, underestimate our foes, and assume that they will be unable to fashion a more effective chemical weapon. It is in the nature of an industrialized nation, and Iraq is industrialized enough for our purposes, to have a variety of toxic chemicals just laying around waiting to be used. Their storage and containment is suitable for safety purposes but will not prevent theft.
A theft, a little shade-tree engineering, and our enemies can fashion a very effective weapon of mass destruction. Oklahoma City was Stone Age compared to a device using a pesticide, or a heavy metal dirty bomb. Here in the United States, every Walmart, Wegmans or Piggly Wiggly has the makings of a number of deadly chemical devices. Iraq may not be quite so blessed but there are enough “fixins” around.
Time will tell if this is the beginning of a newly engineered round of chemical warfare, or just one tactic in the terrorist arsenal.
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