Iraqi forces find chemical materials in lab

Iraqi soldiers have discovered chemical materials in a Falluja lab, while a top aide of wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been arrested in Mosul, Iraq's interim national security adviser said Thursday.

...Iraq's interim National Security Adviser Kasim Dawood announced discovery of the lab with chemical materials which he said was "manufacturing death, intoxication and assassination."

"We have also discovered in this laboratory a pamphlet and instructions showing how to manufacture explosives and toxins," Dawood said. "And they also talk about the production of anthrax."

In Washington, a U.S. military official confirmed that materials found in the laboratory included instructions for making anthrax, as well as formulas and ingredients for making explosives and chemical blood agents.

Also found in the lab were hydrochloric acid and sodium cyanide, which can be used to make the blood agent hydrogen cyanide, the military official said.

A U.S. military spokesman in Falluja downplayed the discovery, saying "there is no indication right now that (the chemicals) were being used to produce chemical weapons."

"They were, however, being used to make improvised explosives," the spokesman said Wednesday, as he showed slides of the chemicals and a book containing chemical formulas. "There were many formulas on how to make explosives and how to make different types of poison."

Power Line Blog: Sarin in Fallujah?

Several readers have pointed out to us photograph number 2 in the USA today slide show accessible here. The photo depicts 40 vials of suspected sarin gas found by Marines while searching a house in Fallujah. The vials were secreted in a briefcase hidden in a truck in the courtyard of the house.

Caption:

Marines discovered 40 vials of suspected Sarin gas while searching a house in Fallujah, Iraq. It was secreted in a briefcase hidden in a truck in the courtyard of the house. Two mortars tubes, three mortar rockets, compass and fire maps also were found.

Bin Laden Warns of Retaliation for Iraqi Deaths

Osama bin Laden said in a full Internet broadcast of last Friday's video that President Bush had dragged the United States into a quagmire in Iraq and warned of retaliation for Iraqi deaths.

And here I thought Iraq wasn't part of the war on terror...