[areafiftyone]

Oh now why should the MSM report this when the Michael Jackson Trial is on!!

[Peach]

FNC = all tabloid, all the time.

Thanks for posting the thread. I'm trying to remember the people who were interested in anthrax stories.

[Mo1]

The microbiologist's dilemma, she has told U.S. interrogators, was that her team 12 years earlier had destroyed the lethal bacteria by dumping it practically at the gates of one of Saddam's main palaces, and the feared Iraqi despot might grow enraged at news of anthrax on his doorstep.

12 years ago?

[steve-b]

The microbiologist's dilemma, she has told U.S. interrogators, was that her team 12 years earlier had destroyed the lethal bacteria by dumping it practically at the gates of one of Saddam's main palaces, and the feared Iraqi despot might grow enraged at news of anthrax on his doorstep.

Especially if they deposited it in a flaming paper bag, rang the doorbell, and ran.

[Doctor Stochastic]

... dumped deactivated anthrax within sight of one of the principal presidential palaces...

Was there anywhere in Iraq not within sight of one of these palaces?

[Calpernia]

ping

[peacebaby]

so where's the other 1800 gallons of anthrax the UN experts believe were produced, and how is it "activated" and "deactivated?"

[UCANSEE2]

It also demonstrates anew that the war was launched on the basis not of hard fact, but of speculation and untruths, especially about Iraqi motives and actions.

It seems that if she kept it a secret, then that would prove exactly the opposite. And it was Saddam's motives and actions that were under suspicion, not the Iraqi people.

[FreedomSurge]

The Iraqis got rid of the anthrax because they felt it might be harmful to bunny rabbits.

[blanknoone]

While I don't dispute this particular woman's account, there is so much confusion, deceit and uncertanty involved that I don't completely buy it as conclusive either. This could easily be "I am Spartacus, I destroyed the WMD" "No, I am Spartacus, I destroyed the WMD"

[Steely Tom]

Can't anthrax survive for decades or centuries in the ground? Doesn't it form spores that are practically impervious to environmental degradation?

Shouldn't we be able to find the spot where this stuff was (supposedly) dumped and test the soil there? Maybe she can pin down the location a little bit.

(steely)

[MD_Willington_1976]

More media hype/bullPOOP...Oh anthrax it will kill you even if you spell the word!...

FYI...loggers and sawmill workers are routinely exposed to Anthrax spores everyday they are in contact with lumber or trees that still has some bark or dirt on it...Anyone that hikes through the woods is also at risk of MINIMAL exposure...what they will not tell you is that it's perfectly safe unless you are overwhelmingly exposed to it...

[dirtboy]

It also demonstrates anew that the war was launched on the basis not of hard fact, but of speculation and untruths, especially about Iraqi motives and actions.

So Saddam still thought he had anthrax. But we were wrong to take him out? What if he actually HAD the weapons that he thought he had? What a crock.

[Publius6961]

Later that year the crew dumped the chemically deactivated anthrax on grounds surrounded by a Special Republican Guard barracks near the palace,

I try to keep up at least an informed civilian's understanding of these weapons, and "chemically deactivated" is a new concept for me.

Does anyone know how that works?
Is the substance then 100% inert?
If the anthrax is totally neutralized as a weapon, why would Saddam have cared?
Can the neutralized anthrax even be identified after dumping?

The whole concept is confusing.

[BenLurkin]

Isn't this lady one of the people on the deck of cards?

And isn't she a potential defendant in the upcoming war crimes trials?

And where is the anthrax coming from that is being used in the attacks here in the U.S.?

[Zeppo]

Barton, who took part in Iraq Survey Group interrogations, said in a recent Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview that the disposal was carried out in July 1991 when Iraqi orders came down to destroy all bioweapons agents immediately.

Wonder who gave those Iraqi orders... They couldn't have come without the knowledge and approval (or direction) of Hussein, could they? If that's correct, why would she be so reluctant to inform Saddam that the orders had been carried out? Something fishy going on here... And, how do we know that all of the anthrax was "destroyed"? They can't say for certain how many thousands of teaspoonfuls were destroyed, and how many went into safekeeping somewhere, can they?

[Southack]

"It also demonstrates anew that the war was launched on the basis not of hard fact, but of speculation and untruths, especially about Iraqi motives and actions."

No, not true at all. The facts are that Iraq failed to show proof that it had dismantled and destroyed all aspects of its WMD programs per its 1991 surrender agreement and various UN resolutions.

It was up to Hussein to demonstrate conclusively that he had complied; he didn't.

Moreover, besides the above WMD disclosure failure, Iraq was rewarding the families of Palestinian suicide bombers with cash payments, firing at U.S. and British aircraft patroling the UN no-fly zones over North and South Iraq, building and importing missiles with illegal ranges per surrender treaties and UN resolutions, was harboring terrorists such as Abu Nidal (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/14/wterr14.xml), was caught red-handed in the 1993 WTC attack, and in general was destablizing the Middle-East.

And those are FACTS, contrary to what "speculation" the uneducated TV rubes tried to report above.

[WL-law]

But the truth appears to lie elsewhere, according to the account disclosed in a little-noted section of the Iraq Survey Group report, a 350,000-word document issued last Oct. 6.

The British-educated Taha, who ran the Hakam complex in the 1980s, told interrogators her staff carted off anthrax from Hakam in April 1991 and stored it in a bungalow near the presidential palace at Radwaniyah, 20 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. teams report.

So what a Baathist "tells" someone becomes synonomous with "truth"? In what universe?

It's truth to the intellectually dishonest MSM, that's all.