By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--November 19, 2015
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There are few things that strike terror in the heart of the intelligence community like the thought of ISIS with a weapon of mass destruction. To understand, all you have to do is look at the horrors they've wrought with machetes, matches, and gas cans, then picture them with chemical or biological capabilities. The left likes to pretend they're a bunch of misfits wandering the desert, but according to the AP (and French President Hollande) that's far from the case. If we don't stop them now, we may be facing the "worst case scenario."The Islamic State group is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region, according to Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials. Their quest raises an alarming scenario for the West, given the determination to strike major cities that the group showed with its bloody attack last week in Paris. U.S. intelligence officials don't believe IS has the capability to develop sophisticated weapons like nerve gas that are most suited for a terrorist attack on a civilian target. So far the group has used mustard gas on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. Still, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday warned that Islamic extremists might at some point use chemical or biological weapons.By the time Barack Obama was first elected, the situation in Iraq was essentially under control. Yes, there were occasional dust-ups but, for the most part, things were well in hand. You can dislike the reason for the war, you can complain about the cost, and you can debate whether it was worth doing, but it's hard to argue that it wasn't won.
Iraqi officials expressed concern that the large safe haven the extremists control since overrunning parts of Iraq and Syria last year has left Iraqi authorities largely in the dark over the IS program. "They now have complete freedom to select locations for their labs and production sites and have a wide range of experts, both civilians and military, to aid them," a senior Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press. The official, like others from the Iraqi and U.S. intelligence agencies who have first-hand knowledge of the IS chemical weapons program, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.So far, the only actual use of chemical weapons has been mustard gas attacks in Syria, but:
Iraqi authorities clearly fear the use could be expanded. Over the summer, Iraq's military distributed gas masks to troops deployed west and north of Baghdad, one general told the AP. A senior officer in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, said 25 percent of the troops deployed there were equipped with masks.If this plays out the way ISIS hopes it will - if they really manage to acquire chemical weapons beyond the mustard gas they're already using - it will be Obama's single greatest legacy. Forget health care, forget the war on coal, forget any of the other garbage he claims as "victories." They won't matter one bit. Thanks to his seemingly endless foreign policy failures, An ISIS with chemical or biological capability would be the singular "accomplishment" of his dismal time in office.
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