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The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley. In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas. Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about...

US Chemical and Biological Weapons Use In Vietnam Name: Afalon CLASS/LABEL [C/L]: HERB (CAUTION) CHEMICAL NAME [CN]: 50% N- (3,4 dichlorophenyl)-N-methoxy mentheusea. USED FOR [UF]: Selective weed control MANUFACTURER [MFG]: USED BETWEEN [UB]: 1967 Australian tests AMOUNT USED [AU]: Under 5 gals Name: AGENT BLUE C/L: HERB (CAUTION) CN: Hydroxydimethylarsine Oxide (cacodylate acid) UF: Rice crop destruction and to kill grass and bamboo MFG: Ansul Company UB: 64-71 AU: 2,166,656 gals Name: AGENT GREEN C/L: HERB (WARNING) CN: n-butyl ester of 2,4,5-T UF: Defoliation of jungle cover MFG: Bayer A G, Dow Chemical, Union Carbide UB: 62-64 AU: 8,2O8 gals...

"A dangerous situation is developing in Najaf, one that is putting all the law-abiding citizens of that holy city at even greater risk.† Weapons are being stockpiled in schools, mosques and shrines. This explosive situation cannot be tolerated by those who seek a peaceful resolution to this crisis.† The coalition certainly will not tolerate this situation.† The restoration of these holy places to calm places of worship must begin immediately."

Scientists warn of 'ethnic weapons' By Leigh Dayton October 27, 2004 BIOLOGICAL weapons that target selected ethnic groups could become part of the terrorists' arsenal unless governments and scientists act now, the British Medical Association warns. Such designer weapons would be based on the growing ability of scientists to unravel and compare human DNA. In theory, experts could engineer organisms to attack genetic variations commonly found in, say, Chinese or German populations. Genetically engineered anthrax, smallpox and polio viruses are also "approaching reality", the BMA claims in a new report, Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II. The report, released yesterday in...

HMX is a rocket propellant, and a highly toxic substance that the US Military is working to clean up using various methods. Did the Iraqis intend to use this chemical fuel to propel medium or long-range missles, delivering WMDs? This angle should be mentioned on Rush, Hannity, Shnidt, and on the networks. An additional source can be found at: http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/h/hm/hmx.html

After the release of the Iraq Survey Group's Duelfer report, the headlines blazed "No WMD Found." ...This reflects the notion that Iraq was only a threat if it had military munitions filled with WMD. The claim "Iraq was not an imminent threat" was also expounded by pundits that seemingly crawled out of the woodwork as well as those opposed to President Bush. But have these individuals read carefully the report...? While no facilities were found producing chemical or biological agents on a large scale, many clandestine laboratories operating under the Iraqi Intelligence Services were found to be engaged in small-scale...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 - A new report on Iraq's illicit weapons program is expected to conclude that Saddam Hussein's government had a clear intent to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons if United Nations sanctions were lifted, government officials said Thursday. But, like earlier reports, it finds no evidence that Iraq had begun any large-scale program for weapons production by the time of the American invasion last year, the officials said. The most specific evidence of an illicit weapons program, the officials said, has been uncovered in clandestine labs operated by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, which could have produced small...

Did the First Americans Come From, Er, Australia? Mon Sep 6, 9:24 AM ET EXETER, England (Reuters) - Anthropologists stepped into a hornets' nest on Monday, revealing research that suggests the original inhabitants of America may in fact have come from what is now known as Australia.   The claim will be extremely unwelcome to today's native Americans who came overland from Siberia and say they were there first. But Silvia Gonzalez from John Moores University in Liverpool said skeletal evidence pointed strongly to this unpalatable truth and hinted that recovered DNA would corroborate it. "This is very contentious," Gonzalez,...

08/13/04 -- A look inside a wristwatch reveals that timekeeping is a complex affair, involving the coordination of mechanical parts providing the impulses and feedback needed to achieve precisely recurring movement. Biological clocks are equally complex, regulated by a network of genes and transcriptional factors that interact to stabilize the rhythms of numerous physiological systems. Unlike the wristwatch, however, there is no visible readout or display showing an individual's body time, a lack which has stood as one of the major barriers to realizing the promise of chronotherapy, which seeks to deliver drug treatments at optimal body times.A new study...

Papers have been flapping with new headlines about the latest in a long line of alleged dinosaur ancestors of birds. This one is claimed to be a sensational dinosaur with feathers on its hind legs, thus four ‘wings’.1 This was named Microraptor gui—the name is derived from words meaning ‘little plunderer of Gu’ after the paleontologist Gu Zhiwei. Like so many of the alleged feathered dinosaurs, it comes from Liaoning province of northeastern China. It was about 3 feet (1 meter) long from its head to the tip of its long tail, but its body was only about the size...

Former UT professor says the hunt for WMD continuingBy Dick Stanley AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, April 30, 2004 While some critics of the Bush administration contend Americans were misled into believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a former University of Texas professor of nuclear engineering said Thursday that the search for those weapons nevertheless continues. "It's just going to take time," said Dale Klein, assistant to the U.S. secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons defense. "It's a vast country. Clearly (Saddam Hussein) had them, he used them, and he had the capability to use them again."...

Syria in the Gunsights Jack Wheeler Monday, April 26, 2004 The argument for taking out the government of Syria is growing by the day. The only things holding back the Marines from seizing downtown Damascus and imprisoning Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad as a war criminal are (a) the lack of manpower to prevent the place from collapsing into anarchic chaos before a transitional government can be set up, and (b) the literally hysterical objections of the State Department. Consider these justifications, any one of which would be reason alone to rid Syria of the al-Assad pestilence: Syria has a 600-mile...

Background Briefing Friday, November 14, 1997 Subject: Iraq's Chemical & Biological Weapons Capability Senior Defense Officials ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mr. Bacon: Many of you have asked questions about the chemical and biological weapons capability of Iraq, so we' gotten a senior military official and several of his civilian assistants to come down and answer your questions. The senior military official will begin with a brief opening statement, and then he and the senior civilian officials will respond to your questions for the next 20 minutes or so. Briefer: You did a great job of delivering my opening statement! I am, of course,...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department said Friday that it remains "deeply concerned" al Qaeda is planning more deadly attacks against Americans overseas and at home.</p> <p>The department urged U.S. citizens to "increase their security awareness," especially when traveling abroad.</p>

Yahoo! News   Sun, Mar 14, 2004 Rumsfeld: Iraq Weapons May Still Be Found 1 hour, 20 minutes ago By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials said Sunday they do not regret that America went to war against Iraq (news - web sites) even though banned weapons have not been found one year after the U.S.-led invasion. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he believes weapons of mass destruction could still turn up. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said even if they don't, that doesn't mean prewar intelligence was distorted to make...

Yahoo! News   Sat, Feb 07, 2004 Search for Senate Ricin Source Widens Fri Feb 6, 3:29 PM ET By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Searches of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's offices in Tennessee have uncovered no ricin or other evidence that might explain how the poison wound up in his Capitol Hill mailroom, officials said Friday. The senator's six offices in Tennessee reopened Thursday after being closed for two days while the FBI (news - web sites) and other investigators checked the mail and searched for other evidence. Nothing was found, said a federal law enforcement...

Chemical and biological warfare isn't new. Even in ancient times, war wasn't all swords and longbows. Some examples: * 1000 BC. Arsenic smoke used by the Chinese. * 600 BC. During a siege of the city, Solon of Athens poisoned the drinking water of Kirrha. * 184 BC: In a sea battle, Hannibal of Carthage hurled clay pots full of vipers onto the decks of enemy ships. * Dating back to at least the 1100s, there are many examples of hurling the bodies of plague or smallpox victims over city walls. * 1400s: Leonardo da Vinci proposed an arsenic-based anti-ship...

Vice President Dick Cheney continued to insist last week that Iraq had been trying to make weapons of mass destruction, apparently oblivious to the findings of the administration's own chief weapons inspector that Iraq had possessed only rudimentary capabilities and unrealized intentions. The vice president's myopia suggests a breathtaking unwillingness to accept a reality that conflicts with the administration's preconceived notions. This kind of rigid thinking helped propel us into an invasion without broad international support and, if Mr. Cheney is as influential as many say, could propel us into further misadventures down the road. Mr. Cheney has long been...

Here are excerpts of a telephone interview conducted with David Kay, after he stepped down as the chief United States arms hunter in Iraq: Why did you decide to step down? It was, as usually it is in these cases, a complex set of issues, it related in part to a reduction in the resource and a change in focus of ISG (Iraq Survey Group). When I had started out, I had made it a condition that ISG be exclusively focused on WMD. That's no longer so. The reduction of resources. And the reason those were important is, and at...

Al-Qaida terror plot foiled, say French police Jon Henley in Paris Monday January 12, 2004 The Guardian (UK) The French police are convinced that their country has escaped a planned chemical or biological attack by an Islamist cell linked to al-Qaida. An interior ministry official said evidence from Islamist militants arrested in the Lyon area last week made it "very plain" that an attack with the deadly botulism or ricin toxins was being actively prepared. The eight suspects arrested on Tuesday were mainly relatives of Menad Benchellali, the son of a radical imam in the Lyon suburb of Venisseux, who...