Replies

OSAMA BIN LADIN AND IRAQ
Iraq News, FEBRUARY 10, 1999

Vincent Cannistraro, former Chief of Counterterrorism Operations for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, has suggested a very sensible and quite clever explanation for what was going on at al-Shifa--why it turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory; why the US had compelling evidence linking it to VX; and why it can't be found now. When US officials were obliged to defend their decision to attack the al-Shifa plant, after the Aug 20 strike, they revealed an Iraqi link to al-Shifa, as reported, for example, in the NYT Aug 25. US officials also revealed the existence of other sites in Khartoum thought to be associated with Iraq and VX production. Clinton chose al-Shifa as a target, because it was the only VX-related site not near a populated area.

Although the CIA did not know al-Shifa made pharmaceuticals, the State Dept did, because al Shifa was authorized by the UN sanctions committee to ship medicines to Iraq. Cannistraro suggested that Empta, manufactured at another Khartoum site, was stored, even perhaps packaged, at al-Shifa, to be sent to Baghdad, under UNSCR 986, looking to all the world like a pharmaceutical product.

That would explain how Empta could be found in a soil sample outside the facility-a leak/spill?; but also why extensive tests in the facility subsequently, including of the septic tank, did not detect it. It would also explain why Iraqi CW personnel had contact with a pharmaceutical plant. Moreover, Iraqi intelligence would think of something like that. Indeed, Scott Ritter, in his Sept 3 Senate testimony [see "Iraq News," Sept 7], explained that Iraq was importing proscribed and dual use material under cover of UNSCR 986.