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Will Discovery of Mosul Chem Weapons Factory Reopen Debate Over Saddam's WMD? (UPDATED 8-14)By Andrew Cochran
I know it's too early to go out on a limb, but the discovery of a chemical weapons factory in Mosul with 1,500 gallons of chemicals (updated Washington Post link, free registration) might reignite the debate over whether Saddam Hussein possessed a storehouse of chemical weapons ready for use in war. (UPDATE 8-14: DOD press release states, "Early results suggest that some chemicals are accelerants used in explosive devices.") Mosul was Saddam's backyard - his sons were killed there - and the story reports that the military is trying to determine "whether the expertise came from foreign fighters or members of Saddam Hussein's former security apparatus." Although the operation is apparently new and did not exist before the U.S. liberation, I personally find it very hard to believe that those who built the factory were rookies. After all, let's recall the testimony about Saddam's chemical weapons program by Charles Duelfer, leader of the Iraq Survey Group, before Congress on March 30, 2004: "The ISG has developed new information regarding Iraqs dual-use facilities and ongoing research suitable for a capability to produce biological or chemical agents on short notice. Iraq did have facilities suitable for the production of biological and chemical agents needed for weapons. It had plans to improve and expand and even build new facilities. For example, the Tuwaitha Agricultural and Biological Research Center has equipment suitable for the production of biological agents. While it conducts civilian research, ISG has also determined that it was conducting research that would be important for a biological weapons program. For example, we are continuing to examine research on Bacillus thuringiensis that was conducted until March 2003. This material is a commercial biopesticide, but it also can be used as a surrogate for the anthrax bacterium for production and weapons development purposes. Work continued on single cell proteins at Tuwaitha as well. Single cell protein research previously had been used as the cover activity for BW production at al-Hakam. We are now focusing on what such activities meant. With respect to chemical production, Iraq was working up to March 2003 to construct new facilities for the production of chemicals. There were plans under the direction of a leading nuclear scientist/WMD program manager to construct plants capable of making a variety of chemicals and producing a years supply of any chemical in a month. This was a crash program. Most of the chemicals specified in this program were conventional commercial chemicals, but a few are considered dual use. One we are examining, commonly called DCC (N,N-Dicyclohexyl carbodiimide), was used by Iraq before 1991 as a stabilizing agent for the nerve agent VX. Iraq had plans before OIF for large-scale production of this chemical. Again, what do these activities mean?"
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