sureican1016
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US investigates possible chemical agent find
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US military officers said on Monday first tests on substances found in a central Iraqi town suggested the presence of banned chemical agents -- but said they could turn out to be simple pesticides.
Major Michael Hamlet of the US 101st Airborne Division told Reuters that initial investigations of 14 barrels found at a military training camp on Sunday revealed levels of nerve agents sarin and tabun and the blister agent lewisite.
He said the find could be the "smoking gun" which proved US and British charges that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been hiding banned weapons of mass destruction -- the central plank of their case for military action to overthrow him.
But General Benjamin Freakly, also of the 101st Airborne, said later that tests on substances at the camp and a separate agricultural site, both in the town of Albu Mahawish, could show they had a less sinister purpose.
"This could be either some kind of pesticide," Freakly told CNN. "On the other hand it could be a chemical agent -- not weaponized, a liquid agent that is in drums."
A team of experts would carry out further tests as early as Tuesday on the substances, discovered in Albu Mahawish, on the Euphrates river between the central Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Hilla, site of ancient Babylon.
"If tests from our experts confirm this, this could be the smoking gun. It would prove (Saddam) has the weapons we have said he has all along," Hamlet said. "But right now we just don't know."
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