CIA convinced truck-trailers held bioweapons labs

Reuters | 5/28/03

[kattracks]

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) - Two truck-trailers found in Iraq were "ingeniously simple" mobile biological weapons factories, with other as-yet-undiscovered trailers holding the end of the production chain, the CIA said on Wednesday.

No trace of biological weapons has been found in either of the trailers, but there is little question they were constructed to make such toxins as anthrax and botulinin in quantities that potentially could kill thousands of people, U.S. intelligence officials said in telephone conference called to discuss a new report by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency.

"Our experts who are in the field right now ... have said this is an ingenious, unique and Iraqi design, not the way anyone else would have manufactured biological agent," one official said. "It's probably not how you would want to design a biological weapon. It was designed to evade inspection, not to be efficient."

One of the U.S. rationales for the invasion of Iraq was that it possessed chemical and biological weapons. None has been found, however, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday Iraq may have destroyed its weapons supplies before the U.S.-led war began in March.

The trailers now under U.S. military control in Baghdad were the first pieces in what was probably a series of two- or three-trailer systems, and Iraq may have produced as many as nine of these systems, said one of the officials who asked not to be identified.

One trailer appeared to contain the means to produce a wet slurry of biological agent, which could not be used as an effective weapon.

The second and third trailers probably contained the means to sterilize, concentrate and possibly dry the biological agent, making it usable in weapon form, the officials said.

Each of these systems could have produced 2.2 pounds to 4.4 pounds (1 kg to 2 kg) a month, enough to kill thousands if loaded into missile or rocket warheads, aerial bombs or artillery shells, they added.

The report posted on the CIA Web site (http:/www.cia.gov/publications/iraqi-mobile-plants/index.html) said all of the equipment was "permanently installed and interconnected, creating an ingeniously simple, self-contained bioprocessing system."

The trailers were probably updated versions of earlier mobile biological weapons laboratories, the officials said.

There was only a slight chance Iraq would use the systems for civilian purposes, such as hydrogen fertilizer production, as Iraq contended, they added.

"It made no sense to us nor to the other experts who have looked at it to have a mobile hydrogen manufacturing capability on a clearly quite valuable military heavy equipment transporter," one official said.

They said they were not surprised the examination of the trailers turned up no biological agent, though they had hoped Iraqi efforts at decontamination might have left something behind.

05/28/03 14:49 ET

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[El Gato]

But the gun, while warm, still isn't smoking sufficiently to convince the doubters. They won't be convinced until the stuff is killing Americans on our own soil, and maybe not even then.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thank you, thank you! Starting to make some headway!

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The

http:/www.cia.gov/publications/iraqi-mobile-plants/index.html

seems to be non responsive for me!!

[The Great RJ]

I'm sure the liberal naysayers and Blind Hans will assure us that these vehicles were infact mobile ice cream factories.

[blackdog]

The gas chambers and ovens at Auschwitz didn't have a single Jew in them when post war inspections took place. Does that mean World War II and the European campaign was an unjust war?

[Dog]

Good point.

[Dog]

Thanks for the ping Ernest.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Good info. Thanks.