<In 2003 I went to tell Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz what I had seen in Baghdad in the days following Saddam Hussein's overthrow. For nearly an hour, I described the catastrophic aftermath of the invasion -- the unchecked looting of every public institution in Baghdad, the devastation of Iraq's cultural heritage, the anger of ordinary Iraqis who couldn't understand why the world's only superpower was letting this happen.
"I also described two particularly disturbing incidents -- one I had witnessed and the other I had heard about. On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important.>
But then you knew it was their Center for Disease Control that was left unsecured, and looted, and not a WMD manufacturing facility, didn't you?
Just because it's not WMD doesn't mean it couldn't be put to terrorist uses, of course. Same with the tons of explosives that were looted. They will kill Americans, Nadine. Israelis, too.
Unbelievable, gross, criminal incompetence.
I read the above on SI, but found the text by googling:
HIV "black fever" "centers for disease control" Iraq loot*
From Salon.com |
