I considered the colonel's statement almost more significant than the shells themselves. His statement talks about dealing with shells of this type (not these specific shells) a hell of a lot more recently than ten years ago.

I read an earlier account where Iraqi military leaders were quoted as being convinced their army possessed such weapons, but interestingly, most of them said that other divisions had been issued them, and not theirs. Why is that?

If these shells are actually designed to contain a liquid, that would rule out leaking standard HE shells, even if standard HE leaked liquid. They would have been designed as WMD shells. I don't understand why this could not have been immediately established at the scene.

The $64,000 question: if they test negative, what was actually in these shells when they were issued?

Under the "Emperor's New WMD" theory, Saddam never had significant supplies of WMD, but was either fooled into believing he did, or knew he didn't and had a risky strategy of fooling the rest of the world into thinking he did. This approach could have included fooling his own troops. Would they issue shells that "slosh," containing something harmless? To convince who? The soldiers? Why? Spies?

There is still a lot we don't know, despite the best attempts of the Left to stamp this "Case Closed."