Posted on 02/12/2005 8:49:38 AM PST by FairOpinion
The Iraqi Survey Group also found that supposed "humanitarian" imports under Oil-for-Food gave Saddam the ability to restart his biological and chemical warfare programs at a moment's notice. Spertzel said what scared him the most in Iraq was the discovery of secret labs to make deadly weapons like the nerve agent, sarin, and the biological poison, ricin, in spray form.
"If that were released in a closed [area], such as Madison Square Garden or, even some, some of your smaller closed malls, shopping malls, it would have a devastating effect killing hundreds or thousands," Spertzel said.
But Spertzel believes Saddam was cooking up an even more sinister plan putting the poisons on department store shelves across the United States and Europe. He said that plan was "actively pursued" as late as March 2003. And that plan was at least, in part, funded by Saddam's corrupt Oil-for-Food activities.
"Some of the photographs that were obtained from this same laboratory had multiple different shapes of glass spray bottles, perfume spray bottles presumably to mimic different brand names," Spertzel said. "Can you imagine somebody going into Macy's department store and spray a little bit of a perfume to see whether they like the scent, only instead of perfume they're getting a face full of sarin?
"That would kill within, within a few minutes. If this were to appear at a couple different locations, imagine the economic impact in the U.S. people would be afraid to buy anything."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Excellent information in the full link; I hadn't heard about the perfume method of spreading WMD.
I always thought there was something sinister about those perfume ladies who greet you in department stores!
How the United Nations works (or doesn't):
A doctorate-holding relative has a business surrounding his speciality. In that role, he occasionally serves as a consultant to the United Nations. He recently prepared a report for the UN regarding the wisdom of a particular domestic issue in a 3rd world country. The conclusion of the report was that the proposed course of action was impractical because it involved some expensive equipment.
Well, his contacts at the UN called him and said "we can't submit this!" When he asked why, he was told, "Well, a european country is going to transfer to this nation tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment. And members of the government are getting a major kickback!"
In other words: don't rock the boat.
There's nothing the UN does in this world that we couldn't do ourselves as the United States more efficiently if we so desired. In a post cold-war world, there is no need for such an agency to begin with.
It's time to pull the plug.
The temptation to hype risks is endemic to journalism, but only risks that are simple. There was a huge risk the world's legitimate economies and politics were being successfully undermined by the "tribe and bribe" economy of Muslims. The fact this was facilitated by the UN's "humanitarian" Oil-for-Food program is so preposterous it defies journalists' abilities to comprehend. So much simpler to cry "no WMDs".
Having NBC suits, antidotes, or filter-air bunkers etc is not indicative of actually having weapons of mass destruction. Iraqs neighbours have such munitions and Iran used them against Iraq. All these attacks were limited to the front but they could have easily ended up on SCUDs during the wars of the cities.
Many nations train their armed forces to operate and fight in an NBC environment. Iraq was no different and knew first hand the devasting effects on the battlefield.
Will post this on NoE thanks for the heads up Fair!
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