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Iraq: Powell Presents BW Evidence to Security Council By Mike Nartker During the last year’s council debate on U.N. Resolution 1441, which established the current inspections regime, an Iraqi missile unit deployed outside Baghdad was ordered to hide its missiles and biological warheads at various sites in western Iraq, Powell said. Many of the unit’s launchers and warheads have been hidden in groves of palm trees and have been ordered to move every one to four weeks to avoid detection, he said. Powell also presented the council with satellite photographs taken in November 2002 that showed Iraqi crews moving items out of a biological-related facility shortly before inspections were set to resume. In his presentation, Powell detailed Iraq’s efforts to develop road- and rail-mobile biological weapons laboratories. “The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors,” Powell said. “In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War,” he said. The United States has evidence showing that Iraq has at least seven mobile biological laboratories, Powell said. The road-mobile laboratories use up to three trucks each, meaning Iraq might be able to base them in as few as 18 trucks, he said. “Just imagine trying to find 18 trucks among the thousands and thousands of trucks that travel the roads of Iraq every single day,” Powell said. The United States has learned about the existence and technical specifications of these mobile laboratories through several Iraqi defectors, including a former Iraqi major, Powell said. One such defector was a former Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of the mobile laboratories, and was even present during a 1998 accident that killed 12 technicians, he said. According to the defector, during previous rounds of inspections, Iraq ordered biological agent production to begin on Thursday at midnight because officials believed that inspectors would not operate on the Muslim holy day of Friday. The mobile biological laboratories are sophisticated enough to produce a number of biological agents, including anthrax and botulinium toxin, Powell said. In addition to researching numerous other diseases, including gas gangrene, plague and typhus, Iraq also worked to develop sophisticated spraying devices, he added. Powell presented to the council video obtained several years ago that showed an Iraqi F-I Mirage jet aircraft outfitted with a device to spray biological agents. “Iraq admitted to producing four spray tanks,” Powell said. “But to this day, it has provided no credible evidence that they were destroyed, evidence that was required by the international community,” he added (White House release, Feb. 5). For further information, see: Powell’s presentation slides (U.S. State Department)
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