Posted on 10/25/2001 6:52:06 AM PDT by detsaoT
There has been much talk, but little proof, of Iraq's connection with Osama bin Laden since Sept. 1. With the frightening appearance of anthrax, however, it's useful to know now what Saddam Hussein can bring to the germ-war table.
Having spent two decades as a senior official in Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission, I learned a great deal about Baghdad's bio-warfare capabilities. From 1987 until the Persian Gulf War, I directed the Iraqi nuclear weapons program, as well as serving as a directory general of the Department of Military Industry, which oversaw much of the work on biological and chemical weapons.
When Saddam invaded Kuwait in August, 1990, Iraq possessed a vast bio-warfare arsenal and was but a few months from having a working nuclear device. Despite its defeat in the Persian Gulf War, Iraq still has the capability to produce bio-war agents, including anthrax, in large quantities. Not just raw anthrax in liquid form, which is not difficult to produce, but as a sophisticated, highly milled powder, which can be a deadly terrorist tool. Washington knows this not only from discrepancies between Iraq's records and what United Nations' inspectors found, but also from the testimonies of a constant stream of defectors who followed my own escape from Baghdad in 1994.
Now we have the appearance of a highly sophisticated powder form of anthrax in the Washington office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. At first, anonymous law enforcement sources told ABC News it was "weapons crade." Later, ABC backed off slightly, saying it was "definitely not the workof an amateur." Reports late Friday were that the anthrax sent to Mr. Daschle's office was not only "not weapons grade," but "indistinguishable" from samples that turned up in New York and Florida.
The proliferation of anonymous sources on such an important public health issue not only adds to our alarm and confusion, it obscures the fact that, outside of domestic cranks and rogue Russian scientists, only Iraq has both the means and motive to unleash professional-level bio-war agents on the United States.
Saddam, moreover, is the only leader who has actually ordered the use of chemical and biological weapons on humans -- and not just on a battlefield.
The tests began in 1984, when about 100 Iraqi Shi'ite prisoners were transported to a West German-built pesticide factory at Samara, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, and subjected to chemical agents. None returned. In March, 1988, the Iraqi regime dropped nerve gas on the Kurdish village of Halabjah, a name that became synonymous with My Lai when pictures of some 5,000 corpses, some of them of mothers holding their infants, were published in the West.
Less well known is that Saddam also tested biological weapons on Kurdish villagers. In 1987 typhoid agents were dumped into the water supplies of villages around Sullimaniya, a city in the remotest part of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Deaths, estimated to number between 100 and 400 people, were calculated from the testimony of victims who showed up at Turkish hospitals with a particular strain of the disease.
Iraq's germ warfare equipment and stocks were supposedly destroyed under the direction of U.N. inspectors after the Persian Gulf War. But Saddam managed to hide much of his arsenal and some of the biologists who worked on the weapons. A UNSCOM inspector told me years later that he tracked one of them to Baghdad University, where he found her hiding in a class, pretending to be a student.
Most of the equipment for the production of bio-war agents was, and still can be, produced in Iraq, including fermentation tanks and dryers. Moreover, Iraq did not turn over much of the precision manufacturing equipment, such as computer-controlled lathes, that it imported from U.S. and European vendors in the 1970s and 1980s for its nuclear program. Such equipment would enable Iraq to reconstitute its bio-warfare program with only minor imports from abroad. Indeed, every Iraqi defector in recent years has reported that Iraq rejuvenated its programs for the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, which German intelligence officials have estimated could produce three atomic weapons by 2005.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, crop dusters came under special scrutiny when the FBI discovered many of the hijackers and their associates had taken flying lessons and had inquired about crop-dusting planes.
Here, too, there's a comnnection to Iraq, which managed to modify crop dusters for spraying bio-warfare agents, even beforeDesert Storm. Another reason to worry about Iraq: It still possesses a huge, underground network of spies and purchasing agents abroad. I became intimately acquainted with it during my 20 years in the nuclear weapons program, both as an end-user and active purchaser myself. For example, Iraqi agents have illegally purchased 130 classified reports from Germany alone on the manufacture of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
Bin Laden's operatives -- most notably, Mohammed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots -- were reportedly in contact with this Iraqi network, and could well have received both the material and expertise to unleash bio-war attacks on the West.
There is no proof yet that any such exchange has taken place, nor that the anthrax attacks here are the work of bin Laden -- with or without Iraqi support. But any such attack requires both means and motive, and Saddam most certainly has both.
Not just anyone can mix up a batch of chemical or biological weapons, much less deploy them effectively on a target. That takes a reliable supplier, skilled scientists, and practice. Saddam has plenty of that, too.
Khidmir Hamza is the author, with Jeff Stein, of "Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying INside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda" (Scribner, 2000). This article was distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
And now, my commentary on this. I've been told REPEATEDLY, by peace-niks and liberals alike, that American foreign policy has killed over 100,000 (and 500,000, and 1.5 million) Iraqis in the past year. This article sheds new light on these deaths, and seriously damages the position that American foreign policy is evil. Clearly, America is not killing people in foreign lands, without reason, and I cannot repeat that loud enough. And that, of course, is why I felt this article was important enough to type in.
:) ttt
Don't forget to add: 'In the striped-ass baboon evolutionary chain.'
This is the appropriations hearing for 1970 for the Department of Defense. It is House Bill 15090. I want you to see that the Department of Defense appropriated $10 million in 1970 to make a synthetic biological agent. Ask yourself why the Department of Defense needs this kind of agent. There are two things about the field of biological agents I would like to mention. One is the possibility of technological surprise. It says that "we believe that within a period of five to ten years, it would be possible to produce a synthetic biological agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could have been acquired." What does that sound like to you? It goes on down here to say, "within the next five to ten years, it would probably be possible to make a new ineffective microorganism which could be different in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organism. Most importantly, it might be damaging to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease." Basically this says it will destroy the immune system. This was appropriated in 1970. In 1975 the first recorded "AIDS" related death occurred. Perfect timing. It goes on to say, "a research program to explore feasibility could be completed in approximately five years at a cost of $10 million." Now, look at this part down here, which says, "it is a highly controversial issue and there are many who believe such research should not be undertaken, lest it lead to yet another method of mass killing of large populations." That is in your government documentation. ....
I was approached at one point in time by someone who lead me to Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicholson, who are heroes in my mind. They are both Ph.D. scientists at the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center. Their daughter was in the 101st Airborne that did deep insertions into Iraq. Many of the 101st Airborne have called me and many of them are sick. The 82nd Airborne is sick. Men and women at Fort Hood, Texas are sick. Camp Pendleton. Camp LeJeune. Fort Riley is really sick right now. These people are not allowed to talk about this in the military. They are not allowed to tell people about the Gulf War Illness. They are not allowed to admit to it. I have even visited Gulf War vets at Brook Army Medical Hospital, and they are not even allowed to talk about it. I took some Gulf War information over there and the patients had to hide it so the doctors would not see it . So, the Nicholson's daughter came back from Iraq sick. She gave the disease to the family - to Garth and Nancy, who live in Houston, and also to the family cat. The cat died. Before the cat died, they tested all of their blood. They found that they were positive for something called Mycoplasma Incognitas, which is the chief biological agent we find to be responsible for a lot of the illness of the veterans.
Mycoplasma Incognitas
I will explain this to you by saying that Mycoplasma Incognitas is between the size of a bacteria and a virus. It travels through a population, and as long as your immune system is all right it will not affect you. But, according to the Nicholson's, who are both Ph.D. cellular biologists, they found that the scientists who were involved in this horrible plot inserted 40% of the HIV envelope gene into the Mycoplasma. What this means is that it doesn't give you HIV, but it gives you the symptoms . So, they found this and realized that they had a germ warfare agent on their hands. It is the first biological agent identified. There have been others.
U.S. Government Refuses to Dispense Known Treatment to Affected People
The Nicholson's went to the laboratory to discover how to treat this. They found that an antibiotic called Doxycycline was the most effective. The United States military will not allow military members under their control to have Doxycycline or VA hospitals to dispense Doxycycline . They are simply not allowed to have it. I got a call from a Special Forces commander who had been retired for one year. He said, "I have had it. I came home. I served my country. I got my blood sent to Dr. Nicholson for free testing and got my prescription for Doxycycline. I went to have it filled and not only did that take away my military ID card , but they would not allow me to have the Doxycycline to save my life ." You see, the disease is contagious, and now the wives and children are getting it. It is going to affect you in the general population . That is why it is so important to understand how serious this is. It is not just the United States. It is a worldwide program . There were 28 countries that served with the United States in Iraq. All 28 countries now report that their men and women are also sick. But Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicholson revealed that a Houston company was involved in the manufacture of a biological weapon that was sold to Iraq and was used on American soldiers in the Gulf War . Since we came out with the names of these companies, there have been lawsuits filed against those corporations.
....This is something that the government is trying to keep you from knowing about. The Reigle report is evidence that biological and chemical weapons were used on our troops. It was presented to the United States Senate, but it has been withheld from you. They don't want you to see it. A news release went out that Senator Reigle from Michigan was a brave man for doing this. He is no longer in the Senate. He had to pay for the report to be done. The Feb 1994 news release said, "Reigle Uncovers U.S. Shipment of Biological Warfare Materials to Iraq Prior to Gulf War". The release went on to say, "there is evidence of transmission to family members. I am deeply troubled that the United States permitted the sale of deadly biological agents to a country with a known biological warfare program." There is no blood ban stopping Gulf War veterans from donating blood to the general blood supply that the general population uses. Reigle also sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Perry on Feb 9, 1994 and talked about the exposure of Gulf War veterans and the transmission of the disease to spouses and children. He found out that we had been exporting these biological substances through ATCC. This information is known to every Senator that was in office in 1994 . Why aren't they doing something about it. Why weren't you told about it? Reigle also said to Secretary Perry, "without proper treatment and testing, their condition will worsen. They cannot wait. Many are now destitute, with their savings spent on medical care not provided by the government.
According to Senator Reigle, "the Department of Defense refuses to acknowledge any part of the problem. Their blanket denials are not credible. To my mind, there is no more serious crime than an official military cover-up of facts that could prevent more effective diagnosis and treatment of sick U.S. veterans. It is an astonishing example that the Defense Department is going to deny reality ."
The Veterans Administration is not treating Gulf War veterans, but only monitoring their blood to see how well the biological warfare agents worked . They are not treating the Gulf War veterans.
.... This is why I am scared about what is going on with the biological warfare. It hasn't stopped , because Saddam Hussein still has these things. Reading the Sunday Times article, we see that "Russia has developed a powerful new poison with no antidote that could be used in biological weapons. It is a variation of the anthrax toxin that causes death within days. It has been genetically engineered to make it resistant to antibiotics . The toxin is so powerful that a tiny amount that would fit on a pinhead would theoretically kill 500,000 people ." Can you imagine what that would do to the WATER SUPPLY ? Saddam Hussein had thousands of pounds of this substance that was given to him by United States companies .
Antibiotics WEAKEN the immune system.
How do you get an entire planet taking the very thing - antibiotics - that will enable the previously released agent to cause the maximum harm, i.e., first WEAKEN the immune systems?
Simple. You scare them into it. ANTHRAX.
In any case, the appropriation bill which is said to have contained funding for the biological warfare research, H.R. 15090, was actually not introduced until December 3, 1969, some five months after the July hearing. It was approved by the House on December 8th, by the Senate on December 15th, and was signed into law by President Nixon on December 29th as Public Law 91-171. Careful scrutiny of the measure reveals no mention of $10 million (or any other figure) to create an invulnerable virus.
Do classified projects usually appear as line items in a publicly distrubited document?
For veteran budget watchers, deciphering the facts behind such late additions is a challenge. They often appear in amounts so small no one would notice, written in language so obscure no one would understand. It sometimes takes rigorous investigation to pin the money to a specific company and sponsor, even more to find out the real reasons behind them.
The late additions are less subject to public scrutiny and debate. Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, said the last-minute additions are even worse than the ones that make their way into earlier versions of the bill "in the sense that nobody can do anything about them."
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Introduced and signed in less than a month? With signature 1 day before New Year's Eve? Sounds like a late addition to me. And that addition may not have ever mentioned the virus research. The late addition may have been written in the obscure language referenced above.
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