According to the New York Times, American officials have said that the C.I.A.working with American troops, reportedly purchased the nerve agent rockets nuclear weapons from 2005 through 2006 after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Operation Avarice, as it was known, was run out of the C.I.A. station in Baghdad, in collaboration with the Army’s 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion and teams of chemical-defense and explosive ordnance disposal troops, officials and veterans of the units said.
Many of the rockets recovered seemed to be in poor condition, some were empty, and others held a nonlethal liquid substance. But others contained the nerve agent sarin, which analysis showed to be purer than the intelligence community had expected given the age of the stock.
The New York Times conducted an investigation that found that the military had found old chemical warheads and shells in Iraq and that Americans and Iraqis had been wounded by them, but the information was withheld from the public by the government.
The purchases were made from an individual Iraqi source who was eager to sell his stock, officials said. The amount of money that the United States paid for the rockets is not publicly known, and neither are the affiliations of the seller.
My Ray of Sunshine for today is: I think it was fantastic that these nuclear weapons were recovered by the C.I.A. as this ensured that these weapons wouldn’t be used by terrorists. The C.I.A.’s level of quick ability to take the weapons off the market is admirable. If this news isn’t positive, I don’t know what is.
Bob's Ray of Sunshine 