Senior U.S. military officers involved in the search for evidence of alleged Iraqi WMD efforts have said that a team of U.S. scientists has found no evidence of smallpox stockpiles or production capabilities, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Sept, 18).

A six-member team of scientists, known as “Team Pox,” conducted a three-month search for evidence that Iraq had the capability to produce smallpox, as some Bush administration had previously claimed.  The team found, however, only equipment that had been previously dismantled by U.N. inspectors and abandoned facilities, AP reported.

“We found no physical or new anecdotal evidence to suggest Iraq was producing smallpox or had stocks of it in its possession,” a U.S. military officer said, adding that the team’s findings do not preclude that smallpox could still be found (Dafna Linzer, Associated Press/USAToday, Sept. 19).

Prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, several senior Bush administration officials raised the prospect of Iraq either possessing smallpox or having the capability to produce the agent, according to the Associated Press.

“One of the real concerns about [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein, as well, is his biological weapons capability, the fact that he may at some point try to use smallpox … against other nations, possibly including even the United States,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sept. 8, 2002 (Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 18).

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