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Discussion of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction concerns the Iraqi government's use, possession, and alleged intention of acquiring more types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. During his reign of several decades, he was internationally known for his use of chemical weapons in the 1980s against civilians and in the Iran-Iraq War. Following the 1991 Gulf War he also engaged in a decade-long confrontation with the United Nations and its weapons inspectors, which ended in the 2003 invasion by the United States. For the Xzibit album, see Weapons of Mass Destruction (album). ...
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. ...
Combatants Iran Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Iraq Peoples Mujahedin of Iran Commanders Ruhollah Khomeini Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Ali Shamkhani Mostafa Chamran †Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid Strength 305,000 soldiers 500,000 Pasdaran and Basij militia 900 tanks 1,000 armored vehicles 3,000 artillery pieces 470 aircraft...
For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ...
UN and U.N. redirect here. ...
This article is about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ...
The United Nations located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi WMD throughout the 1990s in spite of persistent Iraqi obstruction. Washington withdrew weapons inspectors in 1998, resulting in Operation Desert Fox, which further degraded Iraq's WMD capability. The United States and the UK, along with other countries and intelligence experts, asserted that Saddam Hussein still possessed large hidden stockpiles of WMD in 2003, and that he must be prevented from building any more. Inspections restarted in 2002, but hadn't turned up any evidence of ongoing programs when the United States and the "Coalition of the Willing" invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein in March 2003. United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was a United Nations organisation performing arms inspections in Iraq after the Gulf War. ...
For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ...
Combatants United States, UK Iraq Commanders General Tony Zinni Saddam Hussien Strength 30,500 unknown Casualties none 600-2,000 dead Operation Desert Fox was the military codename for a major four-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from December 16-December 19, 1998 by the United States and United...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with multinational force in Iraq. ...
Great controversy emerged when no such weapons were found, leading to accusations that the United States, and in particular its President George W. Bush had deliberately inflated intelligence or lied about Iraq's weapons in order to justify an invasion of the country. While various leftover weapons components from the 1980s and 1990s have been found, most weapons inspectors do not now believe that the WMD program proceeded after 1991.[1] George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ...
[edit] First use The first use of chemical weapons in Iraq was in 1919, when Britain's Royal Air Force dropped mustard gas on Bolshevik troops.[2] Winston Churchill, secretary of state for war and air, suggested the RAF use "poisonous gas" the succeeding year, during a major revolt there, though historians are divided as to whether or not gas was in fact used.[3][4] RAF redirects here. ...
Churchill redirects here. ...
[edit] Program development 1960s - 1980s 1959 — 17 August USSR and Iraq wrote an agreement about building an atomic power station. Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1968 — a Russian supplied IRT-2000 research reactor atomic power station together with a number of other facilities that could be used for radioisotope production was built close to Baghdad.[5][6] Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ...
1975 — Saddam Hussein arrived in Moscow in April. He asked about building an advanced model of an atomic power station. Moscow would approve, but only if the station was regulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iraq refused. Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. ...
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. ...
After 6 months Paris agreed to sell 72 kg of 93% Uranium[7] and built the atomic power station without International Atomic Energy Agency control at a price of $3 billion. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. ...
In the early 1970s, Saddam Hussein ordered the creation of a clandestine nuclear weapons program.[8] Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs were assisted by a wide variety of firms and governments in the 1970s and 1980s.[9][10][11][12][13] As part of Project 922, German firms such as Karl Kobe helped build Iraqi chemical weapons facilities such as laboratories, bunkers, an administrative building, and first production buildings in the early 1980s under the cover of a pesticide plant. Other German firms sent 1,027 tons of precursors of mustard gas, sarin, tabun, and tear gasses in all. This work allowed Iraq to produce 150 tons of mustard agent and 60 tons of Tabun in 1983 and 1984 respectively, continuing throughout the decade. Five other German firms supplied equipment to manufacture botulin toxin and mycotoxin for germ warfare. In 1988, German engineers presented centrifuge data that helped Iraq expand its nuclear weapons program. Laboratory equipment and other information was provided, involving many German engineers. All told, 52% of Iraq's international chemical weapon equipment was of German origin. The State Establishment for Pesticide Production (SEPP) ordered culture media and incubators from Germany's Water Engineering Trading.[14] The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ...
Airborne exposure limit 0. ...
For other uses, see Sarin (disambiguation). ...
Tabun or GA (Ethyl N,N-dimethylphosphoramidocyanidate) is an extremely toxic substance that is one of the worlds most dangerous military weapons. ...
A riot control agent is a type of lachrymatory agent (or lacrimatory agent). ...
Tabun or GA (Ethyl N,N-dimethylphosphoramidocyanidate) is an extremely toxic substance that is one of the worlds most dangerous military weapons. ...
Botulin toxin or botox is the toxic compound produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. ...
Mycotoxin (from Gk. ...
This article is about the scientific device. ...
France built Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in the late 1970s. Israel claimed that Iraq was getting close to building nuclear weapons, and so bombed it in 1981. Later, a French company built a turnkey factory which helped make nuclear fuel. France also provided glass-lined reactors, tanks, vessels, and columns used for the production of chemical weapons. Around 21% of Iraq’s international chemical weapon equipment was French. Strains of dual-use biological material also helped advance Iraq’s biological warfare program. The reactor after the Israeli raid. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Italy gave Iraq plutonium extraction facilities that advanced Iraq’s nuclear weapon program. 75,000 shells and rockets designed for chemical weapon use also came from Italy. Between 1979 and 1982 Italy gave depleted, natural, and low-enriched uranium. Swiss companies aided in Iraq’s nuclear weapons development in the form of specialized presses, milling machines, grinding machines, electrical discharge machines, and equipment for processing uranium to nuclear weapon grade. Brazil secretly aided the Iraqi nuclear weapon program by supplying natural uranium dioxide between 1981 and 1982 without notifying the IAEA. About 100 tons of mustard gas also came from Brazil.
The United States exported $500 million of dual use exports to Iraq that were approved by the Commerce department. Among them were advanced computers, some of which were used in Iraq’s nuclear program. The non-profit American Type Culture Collection and the Centers for Disease Control sold or sent biological samples to Iraq under Saddam Hussein up until 1989, which Iraq claimed it needed for medical research. These materials included anthrax, West Nile virus and botulism, as well as Brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene. Some of these materials were used for Iraq's biological weapons research program, while others were used for vaccine development.[15] American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) is a private, not-for-profit biological resource center whose mission focuses on the acquisition, authentication, production, preservation, development and distribution of standard reference microorganisms, cell lines and other materials for research in the life sciences. ...
West Nile virus (WNV) is a virus of the family Flaviviridae; part of the Japanese encephalitis (JE) antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. ...
Botulism (Latin, botulus, sausage) is a rare, but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin, botulin, that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. ...
Binomial name Brucella melitensis Brucella melitensis is one of the species of bacteria that cause brucellosis, a disease affecting sheep, cattle, and sometimes humans. ...
Binomial name Clostridium perfringens Veillon & Zuber 1898 Hauduroy 1937 Clostridium perfringens (formerly known as Clostridium welchii) is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium of the genus Clostridium[1]. is ubiquitous in nature and can be found as a normal component of decaying vegetation, marine sediment, the intestinal...
The United Kingdom paid for a chlorine factory that was intended to be used for manufacturing mustard gas.[16] The government secretly gave the arms company Matrix Churchill permission to supply parts for the Iraqi supergun, precipitating the Arms-to-Iraq affair when it became known. The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerned the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Saddam Husseins Iraq. ...
Project Babylon was a project alledgedly commissioned by the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War to build a series of superguns, with the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull supplying the designs for the guns. ...
The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerned the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Saddam Husseins Iraq. ...
Many other countries contributed as well; since Iraq's nuclear program in the early 1980s was officially viewed internationally as for power production, not weapons, there were no UN prohibitions against it. An Austrian company gave Iraq calutrons for enriching uranium. The nation also provided heat exchangers, tanks, condensers, and columns for the Iraqi chemical weapons infrastructure, 16% of the international sales. Singapore gave 4,515 tons of precursors for VX, sarin, tabun, and mustard gasses to Iraq. The Dutch gave 4,261 tons of precursors for sarin, tabun, mustard, and tear gasses to Iraq. Egypt gave 2,400 tons of tabun and sarin precursors to Iraq and 28,500 tons of weapons designed for carrying chemical munitions. India gave 2,343 tons of precursors to VX, tabun, Sarin, and mustard gasses. Luxembourg gave Iraq 650 tons of mustard gas precursors. Spain gave Iraq 57,500 munitions designed for carrying chemical weapons. In addition, they provided reactors, condensers, columns and tanks for Iraq’s chemical warfare program, 4.4% of the international sales. China provided 45,000 munitions designed for chemical warfare. Portugal provided yellowcake between 1980 and 1982. Niger provided yellowcake in 1981.[17] A Calutron was a mass spectrometer used for separating the isotopes of uranium developed by Ernest O. Lawrence during the Manhattan Project. ...
[edit] Iran-Iraq war In 1980 the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency filed a report stating that Iraq had been actively acquiring chemical weapons capacities for several years, which later proved to be accurate.[18] In November 1980, two months into the Iran-Iraq War, the first reported use of chemical weapons took place when Tehran radio reported a poison gas attack on Susangerd by Iraqi forces.[19] The United Nations reported many similar attacks occurred the following year, leading Iran to develop and deploy a mustard gas capability. By 1984, Iraq was using poison gas with great effectiveness against Iranian "human wave" attacks [1]. Chemical weapons were used extensively against Iran by Iraq.[20] On January 14, 1991, the Defense Intelligence Agency said an Iraqi agent described, in medically accurate terms, military smallpox casualties he said he saw in 1985 or 1986. Two weeks after, the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center reported that eight of 69 Iraqi prisoners of war whose blood was tested showed a current immunity to smallpox, which had not occurred naturally in Iraq since 1971; the same prisoners had also been inoculated for anthrax.[21] All of this occurring while Iraq was a party to the Geneva Protocol on September 8, 1931, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on October 29, 1969, signed the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, but did not ratify until June 11, 1991. Iraq has not signed to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Overview The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), designated in 1986 as a United States Department of Defense combat support intelligence agency was established in 1961. ...
Combatants Iran Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Iraq Peoples Mujahedin of Iran Commanders Ruhollah Khomeini Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Ali Shamkhani Mostafa Chamran †Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid Strength 305,000 soldiers 500,000 Pasdaran and Basij militia 900 tanks 1,000 armored vehicles 3,000 artillery pieces 470 aircraft...
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The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. ...
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Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Opened for signature July 1, 1968 in New York Entered into force March 5, 1970 Conditions for entry into force Ratification by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and 40 other signatory states. ...
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Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ...
Biological Weapons Convention Opened for signature April 10, 1972 at Moscow, Washington and London Entered into force March 26, 1975 Conditions for entry into force ??? Parties ??? The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (usually referred to...
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Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...
Chemical Weapons Convention Opened for signature January 13, 1993 in Paris Entered into force April 29, 1997 Conditions for entry into force Ratification by 50 states and the convening of a Preparatory Commission Parties 181 (as of Oct. ...
The Washington Post reported that in 1984 the CIA secretly started providing intelligence to the Iraqi army. This included information that was used by the Iraqis in targeting chemical weapons strikes. The same year it was confirmed beyond doubt by European doctors and U.N. expert missions that Iraq was employing chemical weapons against the Iranians.[22] Most of these occurred during the Iran-Iraq War, but WMDs were used at least once to crush the popular uprisings of 1991.[citation needed] Chemical weapons were used extensively, with more than 100,000 Iranian soldiers as victims of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons during the eight-year war with Iraq,[23] Iran today is the world's second-most afflicted country by weapons of mass destruction, only after Japan. The official estimate does not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for Veterans. Nerve gas agents killed about 20,000 Iranian soldiers immediately, according to official reports. Of the 90,000 survivors, some 5,000 seek medical treatment regularly and about 1,000 are still hospitalized with severe, chronic conditions. Many others were hit by mustard gas. Despite the removal of Saddam and his regime by American forces, there is deep resentment and anger in Iran that it was Western nations that helped Iraq develop and direct its chemical weapons arsenal in the first place and that the world did nothing to punish Iraq for its use of chemical weapons throughout the war. For example, the US and UK blocked condemnation of Iraq's known chemical weapons attacks at the UN Security Council. No resolution was passed during the war that specifically criticised Iraq's use of chemical weapons, despite the wishes of the majority to condemn this use. On 21 March 1986 the United Nation Security Council recognised that "chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian forces"; this statement was opposed by the United States, the sole country to vote against it in the Security Council (the UK abstained). [2] For the Xzibit album, see Weapons of Mass Destruction (album). ...
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Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ...
On March 23, 1988 western media sources reported from Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan, that several days before Iraq had launched a large scale chemical assault on the town. Later estimates were that 7000 people had been killed and 20000 wounded. The Halabja poison gas attack caused an international outcry against the Iraqis. Later that year the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the "Prevention of Genocide Act", cutting off all U.S. assistance to Iraq and stopping U.S. imports of Iraqi oil. The Reagan administration opposed the bill, calling it premature, and eventually prevented it from taking effect, partly due to a mistaken DIA assessment which blamed Iran for the attack. At the time of the attack the town was held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas allied with Tehran.[24] The Iraqis blamed the Halabja attack on Iranian forces. This was still the position of Saddam Hussein in his December 2003 captivity.[citation needed] On August 21, 2006, the trial of Saddam Hussein and six codefendants, including Hassan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali"), opened on charges of genocide against the Kurds. While this trial does not cover the Halabja attack, it does cover attacks on other villages during the Iraqi "Anfal" operation alleged to have included bombing with chemical weapons.[25] is the 82nd day of the year (83rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ...
Victims of the gas attack by Iraqi forces in 1988 Halabja (Arabic: , Kurdish: Helepçe) is a Kurdish town in Iraq about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. ...
For other uses, see Kurdistan (disambiguation). ...
Photo said to have been taken in the aftermath of the attack. ...
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Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
[edit] Chemical weapon attacks | Location | Weapon Used | Date | Casualties | | Haij Umran | Mustard | August 1983 | fewer than 100 Iranian/Kurdish | | Panjwin | Mustard | October-November 1983 | 3,001 Iranian/Kurdish | | Majnoon Island | Mustard | February-March 1984 | 2,500 Iranians | | al-Basrah | Tabun | March 1984 | 50-100 Iranians | | Hawizah Marsh | Mustard & Tabun | March 1985 | 3,000 Iranians | | al-Faw | Mustard & Tabun | February 1986 | 8,000 to 10,000 Iranians | | Um ar-Rasas | Mustard | December 1986 | 1,000s Iranians | | al-Basrah | Mustard & Tabun | April 1987 | 5,000 Iranians | | Sumar/Mehran | Mustard & nerve agent | October 1987 | 3,000 Iranians | | Halabjah | Mustard & nerve agent | March 1988 | 7,000s Kurdish/Iranian | | al-Faw | Mustard & nerve agent | April 1988 | 1,000s Iranians | | Fish Lake | Mustard & nerve agent | May 1988 | 100s or 1,000s Iranians | | Majnoon Islands | Mustard & nerve agent | June 1988 | 100s or 1,000s Iranians | | South-central border | Mustard & nerve agent | July 1988 | 100s or 1,000s Iranians | an-Najaf -
Karbala area | Nerve agent & CS | March 1991 | Shi’a casualties not known | (Source:[12]) Al-Faw Peninsula, Iraq This article is about the Iraqi peninsula. ...
Location of Basra Basra (also known as Başrah or Basara; historically sometimes called Busra, Busrah, and early on Bassorah; Arabic: البصرة, Al-Basrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of about 1,377,000 in 2003. ...
Halabja is a town in Iraq, located about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. ...
Najaf (نجف in the Arabic language) is a city in Iraq, about 160 km south of Baghdad, located at 31. ...
// Karbala (Arabic: ; BGN: Al-KarbalÄ’; also spelled Karbala al-Muqaddasah) is a city in Iraq, located about 100 km southwest of Baghdad at 32. ...
[edit] The 1991 Gulf War -
On August 2, 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait and was widely condemned internationally.[26] The policy of the United States on Hussein's government changed rapidly, as it was feared Saddam intended to attack other oil-rich nations in the region such as Saudi Arabia.[citation needed] As stories of atrocities from the occupation of Kuwait spread, several of which later proved false, older atrocities and his WMD arsenal were also given attention.[citation needed] Iraq's nuclear weapons program suffered a serious setback in 1981 when the reactor used to generate source material for its bomb was bombed by Israel [3]. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists concurs with this view: there were far too many technological challenges unsolved, they say.[27] An international coalition of nations, led by the United States, liberated Kuwait in 1991.[28] For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ...
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Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...
In the terms of the UN ceasefire set out in Security Council Resolution 686, and in Resolution 687, Iraq was forbidden from developing, possessing or using chemical, biological and nuclear weapons by resolution 686. Also proscribed by the treaty were missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometres. The UN Special Commission on weapons (UNSCOM) was created to carry out weapons inspections in Iraq, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was to verify the destruction of Iraq's nuclear program.[29][30] This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ...
United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 was adopted at the 2981st meeting on April 3, 1991, to welcome the restoration of the independence of Kuwait. ...
[edit] Between Gulf Wars
[edit] UNSCOM inspections 1991-1998 -
The United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) was set up after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait to inspect Iraqi weapons facilities. It was headed first by Rolf Ekéus and later by Richard Butler. During several visits to Iraq by UNSCOM, weapons inspectors interviewed British-educated Iraqi biologist Rihab Rashid Taha. According to a 1999 report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the normally mild-mannered Taha exploded into violent rages whenever UNSCOM questioned her about al-Hakam, shouting, screaming and, on one occasion, smashing a chair, while insisting that al-Hakam was a chicken-feed plant.[31] "There were a few things that were peculiar about this animal-feed production plant", Charles Duelfer, UNSCOM's deputy executive chairman, later told reporters, "beginning with the extensive air defenses surrounding it." The facility was destroyed by UNSCOM in 1996.[32] United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was a United Nations organisation performing arms inspections in Iraq after the Gulf War. ...
United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was a United Nations organisation performing arms inspections in Iraq after the Gulf War. ...
Rolf Ekéus (born 1935) is a Swedish diplomat. ...
Richard Butler (born May 13, 1942) served as an Australian diplomat, United Nations weapons inspector, and Governor of Tasmania. ...
Dr. Rihab Taha Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi is a British-educated Iraqi microbiologist who worked in Saddam Husseins biological weapons program and is known as Dr. Germ and Toxic Taha by the propaganda of U.S. and British governments. ...
In 1995, UNSCOM's principal weapons inspector, Dr. Rod Barton from Australia, showed Taha documents obtained by UNSCOM that showed the Iraqi government had just purchased 10 tons of growth medium from a British company called Oxoid. Growth media is a mixture of sugars, proteins and minerals that provides nutrients for microorganisms to grow. It can be used in hospitals and microbiology/molecular biology research laboratories. In hospitals, swabs from patients are placed in dishes containing growth medium for diagnostic purposes. Iraq's hospital consumption of growth medium was just 200 kg a year; yet in 1988, Iraq imported 39 tons of it. Shown this evidence by UNSCOM, Taha admitted to the inspectors that she had grown 19,000 litres of botulism toxin;[33] 8,000 litres of anthrax; 2,000 litres of aflatoxins, which can cause liver failure; Clostridium perfringens, a bacteria that can cause gas gangrene; and ricin, a castor-bean derivative which can kill by impeding circulation. She also admitted conducting research into cholera, salmonella, foot and mouth disease, and camel pox, a disease that uses the same growth techniques as smallpox, but which is safer for researchers to work with. It was because of the discovery of Taha's work with camel pox that the U.S. and British intelligence services feared Saddam Hussein may have been planning to weaponize the smallpox virus. Iraq had a smallpox outbreak in 1971 and the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center (WINPAC) believed the Iraqi government retained contaminated material.[21] An Agar Plate -- an example of a bacterial growth medium. ...
This article is about sugar as food and as an important and widely traded commodity. ...
A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ...
For other uses, see Mineral (disambiguation). ...
A nutrient is either a chemical element or compound used in an organisms metabolism or physiology. ...
A cluster of Escherichia coli bacteria magnified 10,000 times. ...
An agar plate streaked with microorganisms Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. ...
Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ...
Botulism (Latin, botulus, sausage) is a rare, but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin, botulin, that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. ...
Chemical structure of aflatoxin B1 Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus, most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. ...
Binomial name Clostridium perfringens Veillon & Zuber 1898 Hauduroy 1937 Clostridium perfringens (formerly known as Clostridium welchii) is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium of the genus Clostridium[1]. is ubiquitous in nature and can be found as a normal component of decaying vegetation, marine sediment, the intestinal...
Gangrene is the necrosis and subsequent decay of body tissues caused by infection or thrombosis. ...
Castor beans The protein ricin (pronounced ) is a toxin from the castor bean (Ricinus communis). ...
Cholera (or Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera) is an extreme diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. ...
Species S. enterica This article is about the bacteria. ...
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), sometimes called hoof-and-mouth disease, is a highly contagious but non-fatal viral disease of cattle and pigs. ...
Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a contagious disease unique to humans. ...
UNSCOM also learned that, in August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Taha's team was ordered to set up a program to weaponize the biological agents. By January 1991, a team of 100 scientists and support staff had filled 157 bombs and 16 missile warheads with botulin toxin, and 50 bombs and five missile warheads with anthrax. In an interview with the BBC, Taha denied the Iraqi government had weaponized the bacteria. "We never intended to use it", she told journalist Jane Corbin of the BBC's Panorama program. "We never wanted to cause harm or damage to anybody." However, UNSCOM found the munitions dumped in a river near al-Hakam. UNSCOM also discovered that Taha's team had conducted inhalation experiments on donkeys from England and on beagles from Germany. The inspectors seized photographs showing beagles having convulsions inside sealed containers.[citation needed]
The inspectors feared that Taha's team had experimented on human beings. During one inspection, they discovered two primate-sized inhalation chambers, one measuring 5 cubic metres, though there was no evidence the Iraqis had used large primates in their experiments. According to former weapons inspector Scott Ritter in his 1999 book Endgame: Solving the Iraq Crisis, UNSCOM learned that, between July 1 and August 15, 1995, 50 prisoners from the Abu Ghraib prison were transferred to a military post in al-Haditha, in the northwest of Iraq.[citation needed] Iraqi opposition groups say that scientists sprayed the prisoners with anthrax, though no evidence was produced to support these allegations. During one experiment, the inspectors were told, 12 prisoners were tied to posts while shells loaded with anthrax were blown up nearby. Ritter's team demanded to see documents from Abu Ghraib prison showing a prisoner count. Ritter writes that they discovered the records for July and August 1995 were missing. Asked to explain the missing documents, the Iraqi government charged that Ritter was working for the CIA and refused UNSCOM access to certain sites like Baath Party headquarters.[34] Although Ekéus has said that he resisted attempts at such espionage, many allegations have since been made against the agency commission under Butler, charges which Butler has denied [4][5]. Scott Ritter speaks at SUNY New Paltz on March 16, 2006. ...
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In August 1998, Ritter resigned his position as UN weapons inspector and sharply criticized the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter also accused U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan of assisting Iraqi efforts at impeding UNSCOM's work. "Iraq is not disarming", Ritter said on August 27, 1998, and in a second statement, "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike." In 1998 the UNSCOM weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq. They were not expelled from the country by Iraq as has often been reported (and as George W. Bush alleged in his infamous "axis of evil" speech). Rather, according to Butler himself in his book Saddam Defiant, it was U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh, acting on instructions from Washington, who suggested Butler pull his team from Iraq in order to protect them from the forthcoming U.S. and British airstrikes which eventually took place from December 16-December 19, 1998. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...
A session of the Security Council in progress The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations. ...
Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8, 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1, 1997 to January 1, 2007, serving two five-year terms. ...
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Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...
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Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...
[edit] Between inspections: 1998-2002 In August, 1998, absent effective monitoring, Scott Ritter remarked that Iraq could "reconstitute chemical biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their nuclear weaponization program."[35]
Ritter later accused some UNSCOM personnel of spying, and he strongly criticized the [[[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton administration]] for misusing the commission's resources to eavesdrop on the Iraqi military.[36]
In June, 1999, Ritter responded to an interviewer, saying: "When you ask the question, 'Does Iraq possess militarily viable biological or chemical weapons?' the answer is no! It is a resounding NO. Can Iraq produce today chemical weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Can Iraq produce biological weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Ballistic missiles? No! It is 'no' across the board. So from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq has been disarmed. Iraq today possesses no meaningful weapons of mass destruction capability."[37]
In June 2000, he penned a piece for Arms Control Today entiled The Case for Iraq's Qualitative Disarmament.[38] 2001 saw the theatrical release of his documentary on the UNSCOM weapons inspections in Iraq, In Shifting Sands: The Truth About Unscom and the Disarming of Iraq. The film was funded by an Iraqi-American businessman who, unknown to Ritter, had received Oil-for-Food coupons from the Iraqi regime.[39] Arms Control Association is a US-based group which publishes the magazine Arms Control Today. ...
In 2002, Scott Ritter stated that, as of 1998, 90–95% of Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical capabilities, and long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering such weapons, had been verified as destroyed. Technical 100% verification was not possible, said Ritter, not because Iraq still had any hidden weapons, but because Iraq had preemptively destroyed some stockpiles and claimed they had never existed. Many people were surprised by Ritter's "bizarre turnaround" in his view of Iraq during a period when no inspections were made.[40] During the 2002–2003 build-up to war Ritter criticized the Bush administration and maintained that it had provided no credible evidence that Iraq had reconstituted a significant WMD capability. In an interview with Time in September 2002 Ritter said there were attempts to use UNSCOM for spying on Iraq.[41] The Bush administration includes President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Bushs Cabinet, and other select officials and advisors. ...
UNSCOM encountered various difficulties and a lack of cooperation by the Iraqi government. In 1998, UNSCOM was withdrawn at the request of the United States before Operation Desert Fox. Despite this, UNSCOM's own estimate was that 90-95% of Iraqi WMDs had been successfully destroyed before its 1998 withdrawal. After that Iraq remained without any outside weapons inspectors for four years. During this time speculations arose that Iraq had actively resumed its WMD programmes. In particular, various figures in the George W. Bush administration as well as Congress went so far as to express concern about nuclear weapons. Combatants United States, UK Iraq Commanders General Tony Zinni Saddam Hussien Strength 30,500 unknown Casualties none 600-2,000 dead Operation Desert Fox was the military codename for a major four-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from December 16-December 19, 1998 by the United States and United...
There is dispute about whether Iraq still had WMD programs after 1998 and whether its cooperation with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was complete. Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said in January 2003 that "access has been provided to all sites we have wanted to inspect" and Iraq had "cooperated rather well" in that regard, although "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance of the disarmament."[42] On March 7, in an address to the Security Council, Hans Blix stated: "Against this background, the question is now asked whether Iraq has cooperated "immediately, unconditionally and actively" with UNMOVIC, as is required under paragraph 9 of resolution 1441 (2002)..... while the numerous initiatives, which are now taken by the Iraqi side with a view to resolving some long-standing open disarmament issues, can be seen as "active", or even "proactive", these initiatives 3-4 months into the new resolution cannot be said to constitute "immediate" cooperation. Nor do they necessarily cover all areas of relevance." Some US officials understood this contradictory statement as a declaration of noncompliance. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was created through the adoption of Security Council resolution 1284 of 17 December 1999. ...
(born 28 June 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden) is a Swedish diplomat and politician. ...
is the 66th day of the year (67th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
There were no weapon inspections in Iraq for nearly four years after the U.N. departed from Iraq in 1998, and Iraq asserted that they would never be invited back.[43] In addition, Saddam had issued a secret order that Iraq did not have to abide by any U.N. Resolution since in his view the U.S. had broken international law.[44]
In 2001 Saddam stated that "we are not at all seeking to build up weapons or look for the most harmful weapons . . . however, we will never hesitate to possess the weapons to defend Iraq and the Arab nation".[45] The International Institute for Strategic Studies in Britain published in September 2002 a review of Iraq's military capability, and concluded that Iraq could assemble nuclear weapons within months if fissile material from foreign sources were obtained.[46] However, it concluded that without such foreign sources, it would take years at a bare minimum. The numbers were viewed as overly optimistic by many critics (such as the Federation of American Scientists and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).[citation needed] The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a British think tank based in London. ...
[edit] The 2003 Iraq war
[edit] Prelude -
-
In late 2002 Saddam Hussein, in a letter to Hans Blix, invited UN weapons inspectors back into the country. Subsequently the Security Council issued resolution 1441 authorizing new inspections in Iraq. The carefully-worded U.N. resolution put the burden on Iraq, not U.N. inspectors, to prove that they no longer had weapons of mass destruction. The US claimed that Iraq's weapons report which was filed with the U.N. leaves weapons and materials unaccounted for; the Iraqis claimed that it was destroyed, something that had been confirmed years earlier by Iraq's highest profile defector, Hussein Kamel. According to reports from the previous U.N. inspection agency, UNSCOM, Iraq produced 600 metric tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX and sarin, and nearly 25,000 rockets and 15,000 artillery shells, with chemical agents, that are still unaccounted for. In fact, in 1995, Iraq told the United Nations that it had produced at least 30,000 liters of biological agents, including anthrax and other toxins it could put on missiles, but that all of it had been destroyed.[citation needed] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
This article is about the Anglo-American 2003 Invasion of Iraq. ...
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 is a resolution by the UN Security Council, passed unanimously on November 8, 2002, offering Iraq a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations that had been set out in several previous resolutions (resolution 660, resolution 661, resolution 678, resolution 686, resolution 687...
Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid (Arabic: Øسين كامل) (died February 23, 1996) was the son-in-law of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. ...
Airborne exposure limit 0. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
For other uses, see Sarin (disambiguation). ...
In January 2003, United Nations weapons inspectors reported that they had found no indication that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons or an active program. Some former UNSCOM inspectors disagree about whether the United States could know for certain whether or not Iraq had renewed production of weapons of mass destruction. Robert Gallucci said, "If Iraq had [uranium or plutonium], a fair assessment would be they could fabricate a nuclear weapon, and there's no reason for us to assume we'd find out if they had." Similarly, former inspector Jonathan Tucker said, "Nobody really knows what Iraq has. You really can't tell from a satellite image what's going on inside a factory." However, Hans Blix said in late January 2003 that Iraq had "not genuinely accepted U.N. resolutions demanding that it disarm."[47] He claimed there were some materials which had not been accounted for. Since sites had been found which evidenced the destruction of chemical weaponry, UNSCOM was actively working with Iraq on methods to ascertain for certain whether the amounts destroyed matched up with the amounts that Iraq had produced.[48][49] In the next quarterly report, after the war, the total amount of proscribed items destroyed by UNMOVIC in Iraq can be gathered.[50] Those include: Robert L. Gallucci is Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. ...
(born 28 June 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden) is a Swedish diplomat and politician. ...
- 50 deployed Al Samoud 2 missiles
- Various equipment, including vehicles, engines and warheads, related to the AS2 missiles
- 2 large propellant casting chambers
- 14 155 mm shells filled with mustard gas, the mustard gas totaling approximately 49 litres and still at high purity
- Approximately 500 ml of thiodiglycol
- Some 122 mm chemical warheads
- Some chemical equipment
- 224.6 kg of expired growth media
Scott Ritter stated that the WMDs Saddam had in his possession all those years ago has long since turned to harmless substances. Sarin and tabun have a shelf life of five years, VX lasts a bit longer (but not much longer), and finally botulinum toxin and liquid anthrax last about three years.[51] On March 7, 2003, Hans Blix's last report to the UN security Council prior to the US led invasion of Iraq, described Iraq as actively and proactively cooperating with UNMOVIC, though not necessarily in all areas of relevance and had been frequently uncooperative in the past, but that it was within months of resolving key remaining disarmament tasks.[52] The skeletal structure of thiodiglycol A space-filling model of thiodiglycol Thiodiglycol (bis(2-hydroxyethyl)sulfide) is a viscous, clear to pale-yellow liquid used as a solvent. ...
Scott Ritter speaks at SUNY New Paltz on March 16, 2006. ...
is the 66th day of the year (67th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
[edit] Legal justification -
On 17 March 2003, Peter Goldsmith, Attorney General of the UK, set out his government's legal justification for an invasion of Iraq. He said that Security Council resolution 678 authorised force against Iraq, which was suspended but not terminated by resolution 687, which imposed continuing obligations on Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. A material breach of resolution 687 would revive the authority to use force under resolution 678. In resolution 1441 the Security Council determined that Iraq was in material breach of resolution 687 because it had not fully carried out its obligations to disarm. Although resolution 1441 had given Iraq a final chance to comply, UK Attorney General Goldsmith wrote "it is plain that Iraq has failed so to comply". Most member governments of the United Nations Security Council made clear that after resolution 1441 there still was no authorization for the use of force. Indeed, at the time 1441 was passed, both the US and UK representatives stated explicitly that 144 contained no provision for military action. As the New York Times noted about the negotiations, The legality of the Iraq War has been widely debated since the United States, Great Britain, Italy and several other countries launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ...
is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
'There's no 'automaticity' and this is a two-stage process, and in that regard we have met the principal concerns that have been expressed for the resolution,’ [stated US ambassador Negroponte at the time] ‘Whatever violation there is, or is judged to exist, will be dealt with in the council, and the council will have an opportunity to consider the matter before any other action is taken.’[53] The British ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock concurred, We heard loud and clear during the negotiations the concerns about "automaticity" and "hidden triggers" - the concern that on a decision so crucial we should not rush into military action; that on a decision so crucial any Iraqi violations should be discussed by the Council. Let me be equally clear in response, as one of. the co-sponsors of the text we have adopted. There is no "automaticity" in this Resolution.[54] The UN itself never had the chance to declare that Iraq had failed to take its "final opportunity" to comply as the US invasion made it a moot point. American President George W. Bush stated that Saddam Hussein had 48 hours to step down and leave Iraq.[55] As the deadline approached, the US announced that forces would be sent to verify his disarmament and a transition to a new government.[citation needed]
[edit] Coalition expanded intelligence On May 30, 2003, Paul Wolfowitz stated in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine that the issue of weapons of mass destruction was the point of greatest agreement among Bush's team among the reasons to remove Saddam Hussein from power. He said, "The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason, but, there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. Actually I guess you could say there's a fourth overriding one which is the connection between the first two."[56] The same day, General James T. Conway, senior Marine commander in Iraq, expressed similar thoughts in a satellite interview with reporters at the Pentagon. "It was to do with information management. The intention was to dramatise it."[57] is the 150th day of the year (151st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (born December 22, 1943) is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, working on issues of international economic development, Africa and public-private partnerships. ...
Vanity Fair is a glossy American glamour magazine monthly that offers a mixture of articles on high-brow culture, jet-set and entertainment-business personalities, politics, and current affairs. ...
James Terry Conway (born December 26, 1947) is a General in the United States Marine Corps. ...
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. ...
In an interview with BBC in June 2004, David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group, made the following comment: David Kay Dr. David A. Kay (born c. ...
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force in Iraq after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs developed by Iraq under the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. ...
- "Anyone out there holding — as I gather Prime Minister Blair has recently said — the prospect that, in fact, the Iraq Survey Group is going to unmask actual weapons of mass destruction, [is] really delusional."
On 4 June 2003, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts announced that the U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence that he chaired would, as a part of its ongoing oversight of the intelligence community, conduct a Review of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. On 9 July 2004, the Committee released the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq. On July 17, 2003, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an address to the US congress, that history would forgive the United States and United Kingdom, even if they were wrong about weapons of mass destruction. He still maintained that "with every fiber of instinct and conviction" Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction. is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Charles Patrick Pat Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is a United States Senator from Kansas. ...
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell displays a vial of anthrax during his presentation to the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003. ...
is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell displays a vial of anthrax during his presentation to the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003. ...
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Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency...
On 3 February 2004, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced an independent inquiry, to be chaired by Lord Butler of Brockwell, to examine the reliability of British intelligence relating to alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[58] The Butler Review was published 14 July 2004. is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
John Whitaker Straw (born August 3, 1946) is a British Labour Party politician. ...
On February 3, 2004 the British Government announced an inquiry into the intelligence relating to Iraqs weapons of mass destruction which played a key part in the Governments decision to invade Iraq (as part of the U.S.-led coalition) in 2003. ...
Arms of Baron Butler of Brockwell The Right Honourable Frederick Edward Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, KG, GCB, CVO, PC (born 3 January 1938) is a retired British civil servant, now sitting in the House of Lords as a life peer. ...
For the Xzibit album, see Weapons of Mass Destruction (album). ...
On February 3, 2004 the British Government announced an inquiry into the intelligence relating to Iraqs weapons of mass destruction which played a key part in the Governments decision to invade Iraq (as part of the U.S.-led coalition) in 2003. ...
is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
In the build up to the 2003 war the New York Times published a number of stories claiming to prove that Iraq possessed WMD. One story in particular, written by Judith Miller helped persuade the American public that Iraq had WMD: in September 2002 she wrote about an intercepted shipment of aluminum tubes which the NYT said were to be used to develop nuclear material. It is now clear that they could not be used for that purpose. The story was followed up with television appearances by Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice all pointing to the story as part of the basis for taking military action against Iraq. Miller's sources were introduced to her by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile favourable to a US invasion of Iraq. Miller is also listed as a speaker for The Middle East Forum, an organization which openly declared support for an invasion. In May 2004 the New York Times published an editorial which stated that its journalism in the build up to war had sometimes been lax. It appears that in the cases where Iraqi exiles were used for the stories about WMD were either ignorant as to the real status of Iraq's WMD or lied to journalists to achieve their own ends. The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
Judith Miller Judith P. Miller (born January 2, 1948), is an American journalist. ...
Aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq were intercepted in Jordan in 2001. ...
General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret. ...
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a businessman, a U.S. Republican politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. ...
Condoleezza Rice (born November 14, 1954) is the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush to hold the office. ...
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi1 (Arabic: Ø£Øمد الجلبي Ahmad al-JalabÄ«) (born October 30, 1944) was interim oil minister in Iraq[1] in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. ...
The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American pro-Israel neoconservative think tank founded in 1990 by historian and columnist Daniel Pipes, who also serves as its director. ...
Despite the intelligence lapse, Bush stood by his decision to invade Iraq stating:
- But what wasn't wrong was Saddam Hussein had invaded a country, he had used weapons of mass destruction, he had the capability of making weapons of mass destruction, he was firing at our pilots. He was a state sponsor of terror. Removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing for world peace and the security of our country.
In a speech before the World Affairs Council of Charlotte, NC, on April 7, 2006, President Bush stated that he "fully understood that the intelligence was wrong, and [he was] just as disappointed as everybody else" when U.S. troops failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[59] April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ...
Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Intelligence shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq was heavily used as support arguments in favor of military intervention with the October 2002 C.I.A. report on Iraqi WMDs considered to be the most reliable one available at that time.[60]
"According to the CIA's report, all U.S. intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons. There is little question that Saddam Hussein wants to develop nuclear weapons." Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) - Congressional Record, October 9, 2002[61] John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the junior United State
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