|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Iraqi Insurgents Attempt to Produce Chemical Weapons
Iraqi resistance groups tried unsuccessfully to manufacture chemical arms after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 30). The insurgents’ chemical weapons work was first revealed in an annex of the Iraq Survey Group’s final report. Teams of CIA and Defense Department personnel working with chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer reported in June 2004 having broken up an insurgent group that was attempting to produce chemical weapons, according to AP. The “al-Abud network” had obtained chemicals from farmers who looted state companies and from Baghdad shops, according to the report. A Baghdad chemist they recruited first tried to manufacture tabun nerve agent, but did not have the right ingredients. While he had the ingredients for mustard agent, he was unable to produce it, the report states, nothing his inexperience in weapons work. Another chemist hired by the group tried, but failed, to make ricin. A U.S. raid on the laboratory shortly thereafter disrupted the work, the report says. “The most alarming aspect of the al-Abud network is how quickly and effectively the group was able to mobilize key resources and tap relevant expertise to develop a program for weaponizing CW agents,” the report says. Leaders and financiers of the group, who reportedly included international trader and Saddam Hussein insider Sattam Hamid Farhan al-Gaaod, have eluded capture, according to the U.S. command in Baghdad. The Duelfer report also warns that old regime elements with chemical weapons expertise could agree to assist insurgents. While the United States has made an effort to employ former Iraqi weapons scientists, only 125 out of an estimated 500 have thus far been redirected to civilian work through the U.S. program, according to AP. Some experts, however, said chemical weapons production requires technical ability that the insurgents were unlikely to acquire. Such weapons are also “notoriously difficult to use,” said John Eldridge, editor of Jane’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense. “They use rocket launchers, and trying to put a chemical warhead into a rocket is pretty difficult,” he added (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 12).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
