Posted on 02/06/2003 12:56:10 AM PST by HAL9000
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell did not wave an actual vial of the deadly anthrax bacteria during his UN Security Council presentation on Iraq's banned weapons programs on Wednesday, a senior State Department official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made it a point to open comments to reporters with news that the vial had contained a white silicon compound intended to simulate anthrax.
"It was not real anthrax," the official said. "We didn't bring anthrax into the council chambers."
The substance was provided to Powell by "our friends at Langley," the official said, referring to the Virginia town where the Central Intelligence Agency has its headquarters.
Earlier, speaking to the Security Council about the dangers of Iraq's biological weapons program, Powell displayed a small vial to demonstrate the havoc that even a small amount of the bacteria could create.
"Less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the United States Senate in the fall of 2001," Powell said, holding up the vial, which he said contained "just about the amount of a teaspoon."
"This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers just from an amount just about this quantity that was inside of an envelope," he said.
Awwww. You got there first.
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