John Cornyn: “In searching for retained stocks of chemical munitions, the ISG [Iraqi survey group] has had to contend with an almost…”

“In searching for retained stocks of chemical munitions, the ISG [Iraqi survey group] has had to contend with an almost unbelievable scale of Iraq's conventional weapons armory, which dwarfs by orders of magnitude the physical size of any conceivable stock of chemical weapons. For example, there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points, many of which exceed 50 square miles-- I had to doublecheck that quote to make sure it was accurate because it boggles the mind. Continuing-- 50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance. Of these 130 ASP's, approximately 120 remain unexamined. As Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical ordnance and to store it the same as they would conventional weapons, the size of the required search effort is enormous. Dr. Kay has a gift for understatement.”