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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (79059)	3/2/2003 3:16:12 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

Anthrax, VX uncovered in Iraq news.com.au [ Given the requirements of the war marketing department, I imagine there is going to be some ferocious spinning going on about this in the hours and days to come. On a quick reading, It seems consistent enough with the story in msnbc.com , previously posted in #reply-18644631 . That particular consistency is not a good fit for the marketing campaign, though. Pity. ] rom correspondents in Baghdad March 03, 2003 SIGNIFICANT quantities of anthrax and VX nerve agent have been accounted for during ongoing excavations in Iraq, Iraqi presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi has said. He said excavations at the al-Aziziya air base, 104km south-west of Baghdad, had also uncovered bomb fragments. Iraq insists it destroyed tonnes of toxic agents unilaterally in 1991. The discovery was announced as UN biological experts arrived for talks with Iraqi authorities. "So far we have reached a figure not quite 157 (tonnes of anthrax), but we are nearing it, there is work in progress," Saadi told a news conference. "So far, more than eight (bombs) have been found which were intact, not perforated, which could be tested for the material inside." Saadi also said there was "another question with the anthrax, which is the bulk material that was left over, that was unfilled and that was unilaterally destroyed also". The material "is in a site called al-Hakam, and this is what the meeting (with the UN experts) this evening is all about". "The destruction site is known and it is still undisturbed and we could look for DNA signatures of those materials and perhaps we could quantify this material, not just qualitative tests, but quantitative tests to estimate how much was destroyed there," Saadi said. "That, in addition to the 157 tonnes in al-Aziziya, will make the total." He said 1.5 tonnes of VX still to be accounted for "was unilaterally destroyed in a dumping site near al-Muthanna State Establishment, and we have made analyses which strongly indicate that the total material was destroyed there". That was also being discussed in the talks, he said. "The results that we have made so far indicate something which is near, quite near, that total (that) was destroyed there."