Will Discovery of Mosul Chem Weapons Factory Reopen Debate Over Saddam's WMD?
Posted by Andrew Cochran
The Counterterrorism Blog
I know it's too early to go out on a limb, but the discovery of a chemical weapons factory in Mosul with 1,500 gallons of chemicals might reignite the debate over whether Saddam Hussein possessed a storehouse of chemical weapons ready for use in war. Mosul was Saddam's backyard - his sons were killed there - and the story reports that the military is trying to determine "whether the expertise came from foreign fighters or members of Saddam Hussein's former security apparatus." Although the operation is apparently new and did not exist before the U.S. liberation, I personally find it very hard to believe that those who built the factory were rookies. After all, let's recall the testimony about Saddam's chemical weapons program by Charles Duelfer, leader of the Iraq Survey Group, before Congress on March 30, 2004:
"The ISG has developed new information regarding Iraq’s
dual-use facilities and ongoing research suitable for a
capability to produce biological or chemical agents on
short notice. Iraq did have facilities suitable for the
production of biological and chemical agents needed for
weapons. It had plans to improve and expand and even
build new facilities.
For example, the Tuwaitha Agricultural and Biological
Research Center has equipment suitable for the production
of biological agents. While it conducts civilian
research, ISG has also determined that it was conducting
research that would be important for a biological weapons
program. For example, we are continuing to examine
research on Bacillus thuringiensis that was conducted
until March 2003. This material is a commercial
biopesticide, but it also can be used as a surrogate for
the anthrax bacterium for production and weapons
development purposes. Work continued on single cell
proteins at Tuwaitha as well. Single cell protein
research previously had been used as the cover activity
for BW production at al-Hakam. We are now focusing on
what such activities meant.
With respect to chemical production, Iraq was working up
to March 2003 to construct new facilities for the
production of chemicals. There were plans under the
direction of a leading nuclear scientist/WMD program
manager to construct plants capable of making a variety
of chemicals and producing a year’s supply of any
chemical in a month. This was a crash program. Most of
the chemicals specified in this program were conventional
commercial chemicals, but a few are considered “dual
use.” One we are examining, commonly called DCC (N,N-
Dicyclohexyl carbodiimide), was used by Iraq before 1991
as a stabilizing agent for the nerve agent VX. Iraq had
plans before OIF for large-scale production of this
chemical. Again, what do these activities mean?"
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/08/will_discovery_.html
washingtonpost.com
cnn.com
cia.gov
