WORDS OF MASS DECEPTION: Joby Warrick’s (Washington Post) article of April 6, 2006 is misleading.

In his piece titled Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War: Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary,
Mr. Warrick does indeed make a strong case for the conclusion that the mobile labs which were found in Iraq shortly after the beginning of the Iraq war were not mobile bio-weapons laboratories. Indeed, Mr. Warrick goes to some length in describing the conclusions of all of the experts that looked at these labs and their unanimity of opinion that these extant mobile labs were in fact not suitable for the production of biological WMDs. They are described as chemical reactors for the production of hydrogen for weather balloons.

By my own review of the limited photos available of these mobile labs I too would tend to regard them as chemical reactors rather than biological reactors in that they do not have the appearance typical of the fermenters with which I am familiar.

The obvious question which goes unanswered, even unasked, in Mr. Warrick’s article is whether these mobile labs could have been employed for the production of chemical weapons of mass destruction.

The simple answer to this question is: Absolutely yes.

A chemical facility used to produce hydrogen could certainly have dual use as a facility for the production of chemical weapons agents such as mustard gas, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and, provided the appropriate chemical precursors, nerve agents such as sarin.

That the regime of Saddam Hussein had produced and used chemical weapons against its enemies – both internal and external – is a matter of undeniable historical fact. Hussein used chemical weapons against the Iranians and against Iraq’s own Kurds. A search of the New York Times for “Iraq” under "Biological and Chemical Warfare” returned 1,414 articles with such titles as:

IRAN ACCUSES IRAQ OF CHEMICAL WAR
CHEMICAL HEADED FOR IRAQ IS SEIZED IN NEW YORK
IRAN SAYS IRAQ USED POISON GAS AGAIN
AROUND THE WORLD: Iran Accuses Iraq Of Using Chemical Arms

A study of Iraq’s chemical weapons programs can be found at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control Iraq Watch section.

This all begs the question: why did Joby Warrick’s piece of April 06, 2006 not even mention once the possibility that these mobile trailer laboratories could have been used for the production of chemical weapons of mass destruction?

Mr. Warrick has been writing about weapons of mass destruction for years, including an article about chemical weapons themselves; see his article entitled "An Easier, but Less Deadly, Recipe for Terror" (Washington Post Friday, December 31, 2004; Page A01).

I must take issue with Mr. Warrick’s conclusion, implicit in his title, that chemical weapons are “Less Deadly”: Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) was used to historic genocidal efficacy by the Third Reich.

Mr. Warrick’s omission of the possibility that these mobile labs could be used for the production of chemical weapons could be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to mislead the lay reader into believing that these mobile labs existed solely for the purely benign purpose of chemically generating hydrogen for inflating weather balloons in order to discredit the Bush administration.

If these labs are not mobile fermentation facilities suitable for microbial production of pathogenic organisms such as anthrax or the production of lethal mycotoxins via fungal cultures, then they are, unequivocally, chemical reactors and these chemical reactors could be employed for the production not only of hydrogen for weather balloons, but also of toxic chemical agents suitable as chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Posted by Klaus on

Comments

[Peg]

Sure looks like to me it has been proven! Where did all those tons of gas go? Oh, it was moved so it means it no longer exist! Bill O'Reilley calls them pinheads! So even proven they still are going to say, but you went under false pretensions! WORDS OF MASS DECEPTION! Anything your little ears want to hear! Well, maybe not yours or mine. For that is not good enough! Why couldn't they been used for that? It said only 11 elements missing! People, chemicals, ballons, 7 chem specialist and an Arby's! idiots! What then were they used for? Where and why did they disappear? When we first went into Iraq the seized that truck heading to Lebonon with enough WMD's to kill 80,000 people! Then they destroyed enough to fill up 25,000 cargo ships! I remember seeing one soldier standing there and he said any where I step it is bones! You could see a shirt that freed itself from the ground 1/2 way and was blowing in the wind where someone died! So I would ask him, "Whats with that?" Who says the WMD's didn't make it to Libia? They decided to give theirs up. Now we are safe they are here in our backyard where we leave our back door Wide Open, "common in!" It is really scary too when you know of this other problem we had years and years ago. Russia. We had American Scientist there and they showed all these bio-weapons abandoned! For anyone to take. What ever they may get and unleash! Of coarse it went unguarded! Was on History Channel. It is a tool to pull out! Did we not learn from Afghanistan? We admitted our mistake and now we are going to repeat it? They say the war is not going well that is what it I think! They want instant results! Plus they hate Bush! For one I do not think we arm these police recruiters, probably lack of trust. They are not armed in the middle of the night. For they would beable to protect themselfs! Instead of being all pulled off a bus and shot and beheaded for they had no guns! Doesn't make sense! Most likely these bio-chems where already prepared all they had to do was use these mobiles to distribute it. I'm sure the QOD's from Iran has a few up their sleeve!

[Peg]

I do not understand why they let that chem lady scientist go!? Sodom should of been found quilty already, he too is another problem! Mr.Warrick not thinking with an open mind! POEM; UNKWOWN For unforseen, unfortold, that which is the future that is unknown PegMi

[Peg]

POEM UNKNOWN For unforseen, for unfortold, that which is the future that which is unknown geez!

[Peg]

Couldn't these mobile labs been used for small airplanes? In the beginning they made claims of these nice size toy looking ones. They showed them. What ever happened to them too. Unless they were using small ballons. Seems aircraft they would beable to control. Then drop chems on people. I all so was thinking and maybe I should not say this. I was worried for the soldier kidnapped, for they said they were going to try chems on them. What if, god i can't ,,

[Peg]

The what if has happened! To the Soviet Spy Livinenko, in Britain. To dangerous to examine. The genie is out. What bottle will be opened next?