And none of those scientists have said anything about Iraq possessing smallpox. The head of Iraq's bioweapons program defected to the West in 1995, and blew the gaffe on the whole thing, after the UNSCOM inspectors were set to give Saddam a clean bill of health. The program is based on anthrax and botulinum toxin. There is no Iraqi smallpox.
Our government is talking up threats which don't exist because, if they talked up the threat that does exist (THIS IS NEXT WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX YOU CANNOT STOP US), pretty soon everyone would connect the dots and understand the real situation. The real situation is that Saddam staged a stunning, audacious revenge against the American "hyperpower" on 9-11-01, and has so far successfuly deterred a commensurate retaliation using nothing more than a handful of dust. And now is not a good time for that reality to crystallize in the minds of the American people or of the watching world.
It is protection for Saddam to have biological and chemical weapons, because, in the final analysis, if pressed, if he is surrounded in Baghdad, he will threaten to use them. He's capable of that. This is a sort of Samson complex--if you push me too hard, I'll bring the house down, on myself and on everyone else. Washington realizes that this is a possibility. For obvious reasons, it's not talked about openly. No one in Washington wants to tell the American people that Saddam is still capable of blackmailing us. They're acting as if he is capable of blackmailing them, but they are not going to admit it openly.Said K. Aburish, author of Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge
Interview with PBS Frontline, January 2000
It is protection for Saddam to have biological and chemical weapons, because, in the final analysis, if pressed, if he is surrounded in Baghdad, he will threaten to use them. He's capable of that. This is a sort of Samson complex--if you push me too hard, I'll bring the house down, on myself and on everyone else. Washington realizes that this is a possibility. For obvious reasons, it's not talked about openly. No one in Washington wants to tell the American people that Saddam is still capable of blackmailing us. They're acting as if he is capable of blackmailing them, but they are not going to admit it openly.
If this is true, then I expect that the attack on Iraq may be called off completely. IOW, if we attack Iraq, the sleepers already here will unleash Anthrax into the postal system. And suicide bombers and snipers will paralyze our population centers. There is only one way to find out.