UN reveals chilling file on germ war arsenal

The Times ^ | March 8, 2003 | James Bone

[MadIvan]

A REPORT declassified yesterday by UN weapons inspectors gives a shocking account of the possible chemical and biological arsenal British and US forces could face in an invasion of Iraq.

The 167-page paper, obtained by The Times, suggests that Iraq has huge remaining stockpiles of anthrax, may be developing new long-range missiles, and could still possess chemical and biological R-400 aerial bombs and Scud missiles, and even smallpox.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, told his fellow Security Council foreign ministers that the document was a chilling read. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, read passages from the paper out loud in the council chamber.

He said that it chronicled nearly 30 occasions when Iraq had failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate its claims, and 17 instances when inspectors uncovered evidence that contradicted those claims.

The decision by Hans Blix, the chief inspector, to declassify the internal report marks the first time the UN has made public its suspicions about Iraq’s banned weapons programmes, rather than what it has been able to actually confirm. The report provides a particularly disturbing account of Iraq’s suspected stockpiles of anthrax and other germ warfare agents.

It said that the UN monitoring commission had “credible information that the total quantity of BW (biological warfare) agent in bombs, warheads and in bulk at the time of the Gulf War was 7,000 litres more than declared by Iraq. This additional agent was most likely all anthrax”.

It says that there is credible information indicating that 21,000 litres of biological warfare agent, including some 10,000 litres of anthrax, was stored in bulk at locations around the country during the war and was never destroyed. “It seems improbably that the bulk agent that had been deployed out in the field would have been returned to Al Hakam for destruction in July 1991,” it said, making it highly probable that it had not been destroyed.

The report also concludes that the inspection commission could not discount the possibility that some chemical warfare and BW-filled R-400 bombs remain in Iraq.

Iraq claimed in 1992 to have 1,200 R-400 bombs, but three years later raised that to 1,550. Furthermore, the so-called “Air Force Document” given to inspectors last November reveals a discrepancy of about 6,500 R-400 and other types of non-conventional bombs. The report says: “It has proved impossible to verify the production and destruction details of R-400 bombs.”

The paper, a collection of 29 “clusters” of questions for Iraq, offers some reassurance about Iraq’s missing botulinum toxin, a deadly germ agent, saying that any stockpiles, whether in bulk storage or in weapons that remained in 1991, would not be active today.

But there is cause for concern about other bio-weapons, including smallpox. While no substantial evidence was found that agents other than those disclosed by Iraq had been part of the BW programme, there were some indications suggesting an interest in other agents. “One of these concerns has been addressed in the virus research assessment, namely smallpox,” it says.

The report says that Iraq had failed to account for its stocks of precursor chemicals for VX nerve agent. Nor had it explained its indigenous Scud/Al Hussein production and 50 Scud-B warheads, which suggested that they may have been retained for a proscribed missile force.Iraq might still be secretly developing new missiles that fly beyond the UN-permitted range, it said.

[Mitchell]

there is no reason the troops cannot stay there indefinitely, if need be

Of course that is true. Troops do what they're told to do.

Sitting and waiting isn't really all that bad, compared with the alternative.

[Mitchell]

You will note that there is nothing particularly fantastic about the scenario I outline. Nominally, we are supposed to be worried about Saddam Hussein because he could at some time in the future use terrorist fronts and WMD to attack and blackmail the United States. But what would it look like if that actually happened? My answer is: it would look exactly the current situation, now, today.

In fact, the principle of strategic preemption says that it doesn't even matter. Since it is essentially impossible to tell whether it has already happened or whether it's merely set up so that it could happen on a moment's notice, we must respond to those two situations in essentially the same way.

[Rev. Lou Chenary]

I've checked into it, it is a current report but I can't find it anywhere on the net.

But for some interesting reading you might want to check out this site...

www.iraqwatch.org

I've found comparing the UNMOVIC daily reports to the Iraqi version of the same. Iraqi's claim to have been inspectors from entering certain areas but the UN make no mention of it.
I'm starting to strongly feel that Blix is a snake.