Iraq Mission Aborted President Bush Calls Off Operation to Take Out Al Qaeda Poison Gas Laboratory By John McWethy W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 19 — The CIA and the Pentagon began planning a covert operation into Northern Iraq to destroy what appeared to be a budding chemical weapons laboratory several years ago, but late last week, the president called it off, sources told ABCNEWS. U.S. forces had been monitoring a small group of al Qaeda operatives for weeks as they experimented with poison gas and deadly toxins — killing barnyard animals and...