Brits reveal Iraq assassination program
By Peter Almond
From the International Desk
Published 5/8/2003 7:24 PM
LONDON, May 8 (UPI) -- U.S. and British intelligence officials are interrogating a mid-level Iraqi intelligence agent who appears to have detailed knowledge of assassination techniques using chemical and biological weapons, a senior British defense source said Thursday.
The British official declined to provide further details, except to say that it was an assassination program organized by Saddam Hussein's government rather than by any specific terrorist organization. The program required only tiny amounts of deadly poisons, such as sarin and ricin. Ricin, derived from castor beans, is the toxin found in an alleged terrorist hideout in Britain in January, though there is no evidence of a direct connection to Iraq.
Such information being offered by Iraqi agent is a reason why U.S. and British intelligence is focused more on the estimated 5,000 mid-level scientists and technicians in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction projects than on captures of such high-profile WMD leaders as "Mrs. Anthrax," Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (the five of hearts on the U.S. 55 most-wanted list), said the British official, who cannot be named for security reasons.
"These mid-level people may be a more promising route (to finding out the extent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction) than us suddenly finding WMD equipment," he said. "We would be amazingly lucky to find steaming vats of chemicals or rows and rows of WMD-tipped missiles."
The briefing for British defense writers was the first on Iraq's WMD program since before the war, when a British intelligence document last September claimed that "intelligence indicates that the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so."
No evidence has yet been uncovered that Iraq had such a capability, and political pressure has been growing on both the American and British governments to find it -- particularly as this was stated as a primary reason for going to war. Several 'discoveries' of chemical weapons by advancing U.S. troops have since been labeled as premature.
However, a trailer fitted with what appears to be biological weapons equipment and stopped at a Kurdish checkpoint north of Mosul two weeks ago appears to be the first real breakthrough to prove Saddam did have an undeclared WMD program.
Stephen Cambone, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for intelligence, announced the discovery at a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. Britain's Ministry of Defense added its confirmation Thursday. A British biological weapons research scientist, with 12 years experience, said she had just returned from Iraq and had crawled all over the trailer and its truck.
"It looks pretty plausible (as a mobile biological weapons lab," the unnamed scientist told reporters. "We played devil's advocate and tried to find any other reason for this truck and we just couldn't."
"We have wracked our brains in the U.S. and U.K., and we in the U.K. have asked experts to look at it," added the senior intelligence official. "Nobody can come up with any plausible alternative to a mobile BW program. It matches the specifics of what we already knew Iraq had in the way of mobile biological facilities."
The trailer's equipment appeared to have a capacity of producing 1,200 to 1,500 liters of microbe or bioprocessor solution, which could be used to produce a range of biological agents from anthrax to ricin and botutoxins. It had a fermenter, a system to capture exhaust gases necessary for developing biological weapons and had been heavily decontaminated by sodium hydroxide, the highly caustic base often found in drain cleaners. The trailer has now been taken to Baghdad airport, where it will be taken apart and studied more closely.
The official said the truck and trailer had been stolen from an Iraqi military trailer park by a looter who apparently only wanted the truck and didn't know how to disconnect the trailer.
The British, however, appear to be particularly concerned that unless they can get third-party validation of their conclusions there will be a high hurdle of international skepticism to overcome. The official said the United Kingdom has made very clear to the United States that it would be "very valuable" if the United Nations validated it, even if in the short term the circumstances are not right for Hans Blix's U.N. weapons inspectors to return. Other third party countries, however, could do that job.
"There will always be people who are skeptical," he said to a question that some -- particularly in some Arab countries -- will insist this was equipment built by the Americans or British to put blame on Iraqis. He added: "We are not being influenced by the U.S. on this. We are looking at it on its own merits."
A British military officer, aided by dozens of British experts, will be the deputy commander of a new Iraq Survey Group of some 2,000 American troops under U.S. Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton which will spread out across Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction. The force, triple the size of the U.S. 75th Artillery Brigade and 513th Military Intelligence Brigade now in place, will explore 600 to 700 'sites of interest,' search through computer disks and start interviewing many more people -- possibly with offers of immunity from prosecution, said the official.
With Britain steadily reducing its troop strength in Iraq from 45,000 to just over 12,000 in a few weeks' time, the Ministry of Defense Thursday began a 17-nation 'Force Generation Conference' in London to try to find forces to help police the country. A further conference is to be held in Warsaw, Poland, next week. Iraq is to be divided into U.S., Polish and British zones, with the latter two being multinational.
In Europe so far, however, only Italy, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Ukraine have firmly agreed to provide troops, and many of those are small in number. It is expected in London that unless Washington changes its mind about involving the United Nations, France, Germany, Russia and NATO there will be too few security forces to control a still unstable situation in Iraq.
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