Repost of "Written on the Wind" - Iraqi Use of WMD in the Present Conflict (Includes both parts)

Dedicated to the “Bush-Lied-People-Died “ Crowd : Greg Palast, Michael Moore ,Gerald Pressler, Mark Yannone,ANSWER,and MoveON.

Before the dust of battle settled in Baghdad ; while lovable Baghdad Bob was still telling rapt BBC reporters Saddam was in control of the situation,a chant began to rise-here and abroad.

For all their self-proclaimed intelligence, they were asking the wrong question: the right one being “Where is the rest of Saddam Hussein’s ammunition ?”

(The answer – “ in Syria” – did not satisfy you,even though the National Imagery and Mapping Agency told you about extraordinary road traffic from Iraq to Syria just before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and even though some of those elusive goodies-in the form of VX gas had been intercepted as Syrian-based militants tried to use it in Jordan.)

The weapons – theater-launched ballistic missiles – loaded with biowarfare agents – had already been fired – at Coalition troops ; and they had left “bullet holes” as far away as India,and New Zealand.

The warheads of these missiles had been loaded with botulinum – laced with a mycotoxin called tricothecene ; with anthrax; with ricin;and with aflatoxin. ( There was some thought one might have carried weaponized Marburg ,but distance and time factors suggest otherwise.)

There were 20 missiles fired by the Iraqis. The first launches were fairly accurate,and were aimed at US troops still massed in Kuwait. Three of these were knocked out by Patriot missile batteries. A fourth fell short,exploding in the desert.

The remaining missiles seemed to have been launched almost at random. They flew out over the desert and exploded – usually in mid-air-as they were designed to do. (Bio or chemical warheads are proximity fused to explode above massed troops – like Fourth of July fireworks – and to rain their deadly contents down.)

There were no Coalition troops in the areas these missiles exploded – but they were expected to be there.

In late 2002, an American officer, serving in the Pentagon, was approached by an Iraqi agent,who was willing to pay big money for a look at the US operation plans. The officer reported the contact immediately,and was instructed to “play along” . (The agent,and his courier-a “peace activist” from California-were scooped up by the FBI not long after Iraqi Freedom began.)

Counter-Intelligence agents supplied the officer with copies of OPLAN-1003: the original 1998 plan for Gulf War II . This plan had undergone at least 10 major revisions since then,and, apart from its title,bore little resemblance to the original.

It was a successful ruse: one that led Saddam to position his tanks around Baghdad – where they were virtually annihilated by air strikes,and to fire his limited supply of theater missiles into areas long since bypassed or vacated by Coalition troops.

Picture missiles, exploding like Roman candles above the desert. Picture the deadly plumes,descending slowly to the ground…then rising again as the hot thermals catch it,and whip it around like Satan’s own kite tail.

Of possible interest-especially the illustrations showing the plume from a Scud missile shot down at 5500’ . The material is from the First Gulf War.

In Part One , it was stated the Iraqis had launched theater ballistic missiles-some loaded with “kill shots” of dangerous biotoxins: anthrax, botulinum, ricin,and aflatoxin.

These didn’t hit any Coalition troops – in large part, because the troops weren’t where Saddam expected them to be ( thanks,in part, to a clever deception carried off by US Counter-Intelligence agents.)

On March 25,2003-right after the Iraqi missile launches,one of the worst sandstorms in recent memory swept through the country: slowing the Coalition advance to a crawl,and spawning dolorous New York Times headlines about a “quagmire”.

The storms also had the effect of sweeping the desert clean; of gathering huge clouds of fine dust – and biotoxins – and carrying them aloft.

There is nothing new or unique about this phenomonon. Every year, the East coast of the United States plays unwitting host to dust from Africa’s Sahara Desert: dust that includes spores,pollen, animal dander, tiny insects,and enough viral and bacterial matter to make epidemiologists thankful for the presence of ozone and solar radiation.

This “Sahara fallout” doesn’t cross the ocean like an arrow. It wanders: borne north by this trade wind; south by that trade wind. It may visit one island and skip another. It may take several months before it reaches us-or it may not reach us at all. This is the nature of wind-borne debris.

During the Cold War-when nuclear testing was commonplace-it was not unusual to discover Strontium-90 from a nuclear explosion in Ulan Bator in the milk of Minnesota dairy cows,several months later. (Our fallout often landed on our allies-much to everyone’s embarassment.)

I began to see their effects – though I didn’t realize it at the time – in “odd corners” of the world.

By way of quick explanation, shortly after the Anthrax attacks of 2001, I became a regular contributor to the now-dormant BioHazard News- an online journal that “kept an eye on” clusters of diseases,incidents suggestive of biowarfare,and incidents arising from the War on Terror.

One of the websites I found myself visiting on a daily basis was ProMed: “the global electronic reporting system for outbreak of emerging contagious diseases and toxins”. ProMed is sponsored by The International Society for Infectious Diseases,and is, I believe, affiliated with the Federation of American Scientists .

Incidents and Clusters Suggestive of Biotoxin Poisoning : Please note I have included ProMed Archive identification numbers for those of you who might wish to make an independent search.

Please keep in mind the “incident dates” are the dates a report was forwarded to ProMed , and sometimes include outbreaks that began weeks before the report date.

Incident No. 1 (Status – doubtful) :Reports filed 09 May 03 : Index number: 20030509.1153, and 10 May 03 : Index number 20030510.1164

Undiagnosed disease,ebola-like symptoms, southern Sudan. Marburg comes to mind ; however,this viral disease has a very short “shelf life”: 4-6 days outside a host/nutrition source and it seems unlikely it could survive the trip. Note: Ricin could survive,and could produce similar symptoms.

Incident No. 2 ( Status – Insufficient data ): Report filed 28 May 03: Index number 20030528.1309.

Unexplained deaths on Ukerewe Island, Tanzania. 582 people infected;55 “youths” dead. The Tanzanians appear to have explored and eliminated a number of possibilities: tainted fish,polluted well water,presence of an unknown toxin. Unfortunately,their report lacks description of symptoms,manner of death,and other clarifying details. There does not seem to have been any follow-up reporting. Note: Very tentatively,Botulinum comes to mind.

Incident No. 3 (Status-Possible,with reservations) Report was not filed until 30 June 03 –(Outbreak began in April) . Index number 20030630.1614

There were 83 cases of human Anthrax , resulting in 7 deaths,in India’s Koraput District. As noted, the outbreak began in April. Anthrax, in its spore form (the form used in bioweapons) is an exceptionally hardy bacteria,and could easily survive a journey from Iraq. Note: Anthrax is endemic in parts of India . Health officials there – who are usually Hindus and deplore consumption of beef – invariably blame the outbreaks on the victims. “They ate bad meat”, etc.

Incident No. 4 ( Status- High probability) Report was not filed until 28 August 03 (Outbreak began in May). Index number 20030828.2175

Karnataka region of India. There were 12 reported cases of human Anthrax,and12 cattle had died of the disease. Several pigs-normally thought to be immune to the disease-had also died…plus a large number of vultures-universally believed immune to the disease. It appeared the grass on which livestock grazed was heavily infested with the bacteria.

The death of pigs and vultures is strongly suggestive of the presence of “enhanced anthrax” : one of the nightmarish projects Ken Alibek was involved in when he was director of the Soviet’s Biopreparat program.When the Soviet Union imploded,many of the Biopreparat scientists found work in other countries-notably Syria and Iraq.

Note: Anthrax is endemic to the region , and the usual excuses about “spoiled meat” were given.

Incident No. 5 (Status-Probable Botulinum/Mycotoxin) I have found 5 reports,made on varying dates-all of which appear to refer to the same outbreak. The Index numbers are : 20030606.1399 ,20030607.1410 , 2003608.1416 , 20030612.1449 , and 20030716.1753

This outbreak began in West Bengal, India,sometime during the month of May,2003, and ravaged 5 small villages.By the time it ended,approximately 132 children had died, and at least 300 were gravely ill.

Indian health authorities offered a wide range of “official diagnoses”, ranging from pneumonia to Japanese encephalitis ; however, none of these stood up to the rigors of lab testing, and the cause remained unknown.

Because of the victims’ ages, it was speculated something might have tainted the powdered milk supply,and there were near-riots between villagers and authorities.

The symptoms: high fever,breathlessness,convulsions,increased salivation, and stiffening of the jaws were consistent with a combination of botulinum and mycotoxins. Note: No official finding has ever been agreed upon.

Incident No. 6 ( Possible Ricin involvement) Reported 28 August 03.Index number 20030828.2165

This is one of the more intriguing clusters, because it took place in faraway Dunedin, New Zealand ! Three previously healthy,active adults-no known relationship to one another-no known environmental exposures- were stricken,one after another,with a pneumonia – like ailment,for which no viral or bacterial cause was ever discovered,but which killed each of them in a matter of a day.Note: Symptoms consistent with Ricin inhalation.

Let me stress one point: The incidents reported to ProMed – startling as they might be – are not necessarily the only related events. They are reports filed by a relatively small group of conscientious physicians and health workers , and could well be just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Life , in many parts of the world ,is short. Medical care ranges from “iffy” to non-existent, and death by disease or mishap is unremarkable.

The villagers may know that So-and-So’s baby died on the same night that the reigning matriarch of the village passed away – but, apart from noticing the coincidence,have nothing to connect it to the Aflatoxin that dusted parts of their village – or the roaring battles of great armies in faraway places.

“Bush lied – People died !” is a rant – impure and simple-minded : a political statement with no basis in fact…but it rhymes – for whatever that’s worth !

There was extensive pre-war intelligence –including a defector from the Iraqi “Special Weapons Program” ,and reports from the UN inspectors,and reports from our own CIA.

There were warnings – immediately before Operation Iraqi Freedom- of Saddam’s Bioweapons programs : from King Abdullah II of Jordan, and from Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak – both of whom had intelligence and diplomatic assets in Iraq.

The Radicals and Eurotrash sneer when MOPP suits are mentioned – as if they were mere window dressing. (Try telling that to the troops – and to the embedded reporters- who cursed the hot,restrictive protective garments every moment of the day – while worrying what would happen if the suit developed a tear, or the gas mask did not achieve a proper seal,or they were wounded while in a “hot” environment !)

That fact Saddam’s troops had similar suits in their barracks, and nerve gas antidote syringes close at hand suggests nothing else but the presence of poison gas , and a readiness to employ it.

Does anyone recall the unwillingness of Iraqi troops to engage in combat during Gulf War I ? Has anyone contrasted that with the utter ferocity they displayed during Iraqi Freedom ? Has anyone wondered at the difference?

I believe a large part of the difference was the leaflets we dropped on Iraqi troops by the hundred thousands in the opening days of the conflict. The leaflets warned the Iraqis they would be held strictly accountable for any use of WMDs.

I further suspect the Iraqi troops knew WMDs had been used , and that they expected to be shot out of hand if captured by Coalition forces. ( Imagine the relief they must have felt when word drifted back –as scuttlebutt always does- that the invading forces were totally unaware of the violation !)

Our troops –and their Iraqi opponents – “lucked out” when good counter-intelligence tactics, a lightning-fast advance,and a brutal sandstorm combined to remove the danger of Iraqi bioweapons from the battlefield.

The record- incomplete and inconclusive as it may seem- suggests to me that the people at the end of the bioweapons chain were not as fortunate !

Suggested Reading: (hardcover) “Biohazard” by Ken Alibek. Dr. Alibek (Kanatjan Alibekov) was the former director of the Soviet Union’s Biopreparat program : one of the most ambitious-and frightening- biowarfare projects of all time.

Agape Press article that mentions the sandstorms during Iraqi Freedom-and which touches on the dread of WMD use.

http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=botulinum%3Esymptoms&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&u=www.brooks.af.mil/afioh/Files/Fact%2520Sheet%2520-%2520Botulism.pdf&d=1FC3FDC6CA&icp=1&.intl=us

The reason for this 2nd posting was to show the complete article-and its (minor) revisions.

As far as I know,no one has suggested this series of events before, and I know of no way to prove them to
skeptical " Bush Lied !" adversaries.

If you have any knowledge to contribute,please be my guest !

Interesting!

ANd never forget: "The answer – 'in Syria' – did not satisfy you,even though the National Imagery and Mapping Agency told you about extraordinary road traffic from Iraq to Syria just before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and even though some of those elusive goodies-in the form of VX gas had been intercepted as Syrian-based militants tried to use it in Jordan."

Most bio and chemical weapons have a strictly limited period of effectiveness once released. I am highly skeptical of massively diluted bio-agents being capable of causing disease after weeks/months of being exposed to oxygen, ozone, heat, UV, etc. in the air.

This archived 1996 index from Federation Of American Scientists' (FAS) may offer some additional insight:

Iraq Special Weapons ~ Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Missile Proliferation News

Thanks for the great research!

A recent article about the UN complaining that the US removed the yellow cake from Al Tuwaitha. They are still trying to have it both ways: Iraq had no WMD, then they complain that the US secured Iraq by removing the WMD.

The UN, Al-Tuwaitha, and Nukes

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1454440/posts

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was very upset last week that the US had shipped about 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium and other radioactive material out of Iraq for disposition in the US.

In addition to the nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium secured by the US, Site C was home to an additional 500 tons of yellowcake uranium.

Department of Energy officials estimated that the two tons of low-enriched uranium shipped to the US, given further refinement, is enough to produce one nuclear bomb. The number of bombs that could be made from the over 500 tons of yellowcake is frightening, and, had the coalition not attacked Iraq, Saddam’s nuclear bomb stockpile may have become reality.

There were articles posted about anthrax that stated that it could be expected to survive for "months" on the isolated islands where it was tested. It seems to be quite hardy.

On the other hand, I do wonder about the dispersion.

Anthrax, in its weaponized form, unlike most other bio and chem weapons, is indeed quite stable. It may be viable for years, not just months.

There are websites you can go to which plot out the area an anthrax release could be expected to effect from a single bomb. It dissipates within miles downwind, much less thousands of miles.

I'm skeptical for a very simple reason. There would have to be pretty widespread knowledge among the Iraqi military that WMDs were being used in some areas.

If that were the case, we would have several sources comming forward with that information now, and their accounts could be compared to give some level of confirmation as to their accuracy.

To the best of my knowledge, that hasn't happened.

I can believe that the weapons were smuggled out of Syria.

I have a harder time believing that they were used in the conflict like this article suggests. That simply requires too many people knowing too much for it to remain secret this long.

Skepticism is a healthy thing;however, if you were part of any army which had used WMD-and which had been warned of very consequences-would YOU be the first to volunteer such information?

There would be people who knew that were not in a position to stop it and therefore could escape blame.

The Iraqi government has also offered amnesty to those who come forward in many cases, I don't think this would be any different.

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