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[snip]...There had been much talk about Falluja's castor oil plant and the tour continued in that direction, with Dr Ameen explaining that up until their departure in 1998, there had been no complaints from the UN inspectors about it.

Dr Ameen said he suspected a new section of the factory was the reason for renewed US interest in Falluja. Explaining how a few months previously, several big tanks had been trucked in to be assembled for a new plant to produce a pesticide to protect Iraqi crops from "white fly", he said: "Maybe their satellites saw the trucks coming in and the work being done."

The castor oil plant. It wasn't there - it had been blown away by the US and all that remained was a vacant lot the size of a tennis court and a UN communications tower, which had been used to transmit the UN's monitoring data back to Baghdad.

But the associated packing shed had been restored and no one could quite explain why it appeared to have a heavy-duty, reinforced concrete roof when all the other buildings in the complex had roofs of sheet metal.

Dr Ameen: "That depends on the philosophy of the building's designer. Maybe it's good for ventilation."

What was the castor oil plant for? The oil was used to make brake fluid for cars and trucks. Why did the US insist on bombing such a humble venture? Well, the castor oil seed husks could be treated to produce a biological toxin called ricin.

Dr Hassan said: "But we have never produced ricin in Iraq. It's very difficult to do." ...[/snip]

-- "Inside Saddam's devil's kitchen," By Paul McGeough Baghdad, TheAge.com.au, August 30 2002