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Bio-Chemical Weapons & Saddam: A History.

Excerpts:

1971. Iraq begins chemical warfare research at Rashad to the north east of Baghdad. Research is conducted on a number of chemical agents including Mustard gas, CS (tear gas) and Tabun. Iraq starts biological warfare research in the mid-1970s. After small-scale research, a purpose-built research and development facility was authorized at al-Salman, also known as Salman Pak.

1980, September 22. The armed forces of Iraq launch an invasion against Iran. The Iraqi army, trained and influenced by Soviet advisers, has organic chemical warfare units and possesses a wide variety of delivery systems. When neither side achieves dominance, the war quickly stalemates. To stop the human-wave attacks by the Iranians, Iraq employs home-produced chemical agents as a defensive measure against the ill-prepared Iranians.
The first reported use of chemical weapons is in November 1980 (probably CS). For the next several years, reports circulate of additional chemical attacks.

“During the war with Iran, I remember telling someone [that] Khomeini isn't the only person who talks to god. Saddam Hussein thinks he talks to god. He has a message--he has to lead Iraq, make it a model for the Arab countries and then attract the rest of the Arab countries and become the sole Arab leader of modern times.” - Said Aburish, Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge.

1980-88. Chemical weapons are used extensively during Iran-Iraq war. Most are used by Iraq. Saddam is also believed to have used them against his own people, primarily Kurdish and Shiia minorities. First use during the war is by Iraq. By 1985 Iraq is producing 1,000 tons of various chemical weapons agents annually.
During the war, Saddam appoints his cousin, Ali Hasan al-Majid, as his deputy in the north. In 1987-88, al-Majid led the "Anfal" campaign of attacks on Kurdish villages. All villages within 20 kilometers of the Iranian border are ruthlessly destroyed, and many are attacked with chemical weapons. Amnesty International estimates that more than 100,000 Kurds were killed or “disappeared” during this period.
During the first half of the war the United States provides Iraq with limited military assistance in the form of satelite imagry of Iranian military dispostions and troop concentrations. Assistance is ended when their use of chemical weapons is confirmed.

1981. Israeli jets bomb the French-supplied 40-megawatt Osirak research reactor in Iraq. Experts agree that if this had not been done, Iraq would have had a functioning nuclear weapon by the time of the Gulf War. Iraqi scientists had planned, not to divert the existing French-supplied highly enriched nuclear fuel (enough for one bomb), but rather to blanket the reactor with natural or depleted uranium, which would produce plutonium. That would have made it possible to continue producing, eventually allowing repeated bomb production.

1982. Iraq also establishes Muthanna State Establishment, also known as al-Muthanna, and operated under the front name of Iraq's State Establishment for Pesticide Production. It has five research and development sections, each tasked to pursue different programs. In addition, the al-Muthanna site is the main chemical agent production facility, and took the lead in weaponizing chemical and biological agents--including all aspects of weapon development and testing in association with the military.

1983, June. Iraq deploys Mustard Gas and uses it against Iran.

1983, November. Iran complains to the United Nations that Iraq is using chemical weapons against its troops.

1984. Iraq begins producing the nerve agent Tabun and deploys it within the year for use against Iran.

1984, 1986, 1987. The United Nations dispatches teams of specialists to the area to verify claims of Iraqi use of chemical weapons against Iran. The conclusion from all three trips is the same: Iraq is using chemical weapons against Iranian troops. In addition, the second mission also stressed that the use of chemical weapons by Iraq appeared to be increasing despite the publicity of their use. The reports indicated that Mustard agent and the nerve agent Tabun are the primary agents used, and that they were generally delivered in airplane bombs. The third mission reports the use of artillery shells and chemical rockets, and the use of chemical weapons against civilian personnel. The third mission is the only one allowed to visit Iraq. The Iran–Iraq War fails to reach a military conclusion despite the use of chemical weapons by both sides. Roughly 5% (20,000) of the Iranian casualties are caused by chemical weapons. Many remain hospitalized to this day.

1985. Dr Rihab Taha is selected to head the biological weapons research team at al-Muthanna.

“Dr. Spertzel, it’s not a lie when you are ordered to lie.” - Dr Rihab Taha, response to UNSCOM inspectors when asked why she continued to lie chemical and biological weapons production in the face of proof, 1995.

1986. Iraq begins producing Sarin nerve agent.

1986. Baghdad University purchased an assortment of germs from the American Type Culture Collection, for “medical” research. The collection serves as a global lending library for scientists doing research to combat infectious diseases to improve global health. Overseas customers were required to obtain a Commerce Department export license for the most virulent strains. These licenses had always been a formality since these germs were intended for peaceful research only, and the courtesy was extended to all who asked for legitimate reasons. Moscow, too has a vast collection of infectious diseases.

1988. Al-Hakam, a large biological agent production facility, goes into operation in Iraq. Botulinin toxin and Anthrax are its main are its main production. By 1991 the plant produces about 125,000 gallons of agents. After stating for years that the plant was used to produce animal feed, the Iraqis admitted in 1995 that the plant was a biological warfare production facility. The admission come only as a result of a high-level defection. The site is supervised by Dr. Taha’s staff at Muthanna State Establishment. In addition to producing biological warfare agents, they also conducted live-agent tests on animals. The Iraqis also later admitted they had prepared about 200 biological missiles and bombs. Still unaccounted for. Hans Branscheidt a chemical expert says (in 2003), that Iraq purchased eight mobile chemical laboratories from the Federal Republic of Germany. He says that the construction of an Iraqi research center for missile technology "became almost exclusively the work of German companies." This report is confirmed by the head of Germany's intelligence service, August Hanning.

1988, June. The Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Ft. Detrick produces a classified study stating that Iraq is building a “bacteriological arsenal”. Among the agents identified are Anthrax and Botulinin toxin. The report states that they are also producing germs for assassinations and that Hussein Kamal, Saddam’s son-in-law and head of Iraq's Intelligence Agency was personally supervising the program. The report stated that the Iraqis had purchased many of their starter germs from the American Type Culture Collection. The scientific supply company that maintains the collection, the largest collection of germ strains in the world, is located in Maryland and is the same place the Rajneeshee Cult purchased the germs for their “pharmacy”, which they used in their Bio-attack in Oregon. The intelligence report goes to the State Department, CIA, and various departments of the military. However, no one thinks to tell the Commerce Department or the American Type Culture not to allow any more purchases by Iraq.

1988, September. Human Rights Watch reports on Saddam’s attacks on the Kurds. Estimates vary, but according to Human Rights Watch up to 5,000 people were killed in the areas they are able to visit.

1988, September 29. Iraq’s Ministry of Trade’s Technical and Scientific Materials Import Division (TSMID), which American intelligence had recently identified as the front for Iraq’s germ warfare program, orders additional germ cultures, one of which was Anthrax strain 11966. In February 1989, further sales to Iraq were banned. The Commerce Department also slammed the door shut on Iran, Libya, and Syria, who were also suspected of trying to develop germ weapons. This is the supposed “help” we gave to Iraq. We did not give the Iraqis “germ weapons” or the equipment to make them. The equipment used to manufacture germ weapons can be purchased off the shelf in over a dozen countries. The same equipment used to make animal feed, yogurt, fertilizer, powdered milk, and dozen of other legitimate products can be used to manufacture bio-weapons, which is why bio-weapons manufacturing facilities are easy to disguise. Iraq purchased materials and supplies to turn germs into weapons from around the world, but mostly from Europe. Cattle feed stock growing media from Britain, and machinery from France and Germany. Delivery systems from the Soviet Union and others.

1990, August. Iraq starts a crash program to develop a single nuclear weapon within a year. The goal is the rapid development of a small 50 machine gas centrifuge cascade to produce weapons-grade HEU using fuel from the Soviet research reactor, which was already substantially enriched, and unused fuel from the reactor bombed by the Israelis. By the time of the Gulf War, the crash program had made little progress. Iraq's declared aim is to produce a missile warhead with a 20-kiloton yield.

1990, August 2. Iraq invades Kuwait. At this time, Iraq’s bio weapon’s arsenal contains some 8500 liters of Anthrax spores, 19000 liters of Botulinum, 4000 liters of Aphlatoxin, and a quantity of Typhoid. They also possess up to 25 Scud warheads and 160 bombs equipped for BW.

And so on...

The thing about chemical and biological weapons is that they can be produced with easily available "off-the-shelf" equipment and a reasonably competent chemist/biologist. There is no secret to making any of it. Most formulas and methods have been public knowledge for quite some time.

They are also easy to dispose of. Bios can doused with chlorine and buried in the ground (lots of featureless desert in Iraq), and the equipment claimed for other uses, even the two purpose built, mobile labs that were recovered in Iraq at the end of the war.

Chemical weapons can be neutralized just as easily and the equipment to make them disguised as fertilizer production equipment. Remember that "fertilizer" plant that was captured --the camoflaged one with the bunkers and miles and miles of barbed wire to protect it?

There is still a lot of desert out there with hidden bunkers.