Replies

In July 2002, the Washington Post ran a detailed report suggesting that the CIA has found a laboratory on the west bank of the Tigris river, where 85 scientists were working on a viral strain code-named Blue Nile.

Ya know, I did run across this the other day in that Scotsman article (compilation really) of what Iraq has in the way of WMD. Pretty interesting I think.

Here

Godspeed

This suggests that some 810 tonnes of chemicals needed to make VX was imported into Iraq, but that inspectors have only been able to account for 191 tonnes of it. An intelligence report says the remaining 619 tonnes of so-called precursor chemicals is enough to produce 200 tonnes of VX - which it says could "theoretically obliterate the entire global population

Thanks for the link in reply #29 and the very informative thread.

Crop dusters are being widely used in the war on the West Nile virus spreading mosquitos.

Atta and Moussaoui spent a considerable amout of time investigating crop dusting operations.

Since Atta already had his mission, his research on crop dusters must have been for another terrorist operation.

Weapons inspectors in Iraq discovered Saddam Hussein had developed a means of distributing biological weapons using "crop duster" type dispensing equipment. In fact,of all his potential delivery methods, the inspectors determined this equipment used on helicopters was Saddam's most efficient method.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E23827%257E764397,00.html

Link

Iraqi lab evidence elusive
U.S. analysts try to prove rumors of weapons site
By Joby Warrick
The Washington Post

"Wednesday, July 31, 2002 - WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence analysts have been closely examining satellite images of the west bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad for signs of a laboratory rumored to exist there. Called Tahhaddy, or "Challenge," the lab is purported to have 85 employees and a top-secret mission: making biological weapons for Iraq's military.

Details about the lab have trickled out of Iraq in recent months in accounts from defectors and Iraqi exiles opposed to President Saddam Hussein. They tell of underground test chambers, heavy security and a viral strain code-named "Blue Nile," which sounds suspiciously like the Ebola virus."

-------------------------------------------------------

I accept that West Nile may not have been a trial run by the Iraqi biological weapons program. But evidence suggests he has a biological and chemical weapons arsenal at his disposal. Does anyone doubt that Saddam Hussein will use this arsenal if his regime is on the verge of being changed? Isn't it reasonable to assume if he spent billions developing the weapons, he spent some time considering a delivery system?

My view is that when we resettled over 15,000 Iraqi refugees in the U.S, including former Iraqi soldiers, at the conclusion of the last Gulf War, we also resettled Saddam's delivery system.