AP Exclusive: Weapons Search Re-Examining Assertion That Iraqi Trailers Used for Bioweapons
By Dafna Linzer Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 3, 2003
U.S. weapons hunters are re-examining the only discovery the Bush administration has cited as evidence of an illicit Iraqi weapons program - a pair of trailers the CIA said were laboratories for making biological weapons, senior military officers involved in the hunt told The Associated Press.
The two metal flatbeds stocked with cooling equipment, a water tank, an air compressor and a battered fermenter were first described by Iraqi defectors as part of a weapons program. But that assertion, challenged by some U.S. defense analysts, has become the latest prewar intelligence called into question. (snip)
In fact, a re-examination of the trailers has been under way for several weeks in Iraq, led by a CIA representative, the senior military officers told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. (snip)
In a paper issued May 28, the CIA called the trailers "the strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program." But intelligence analysts from the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency have said they believe the trailers were probably used to fill hydrogen weather balloons.
Kay said an investigation of the trailers has "yielded a number of explanations including hydrogen, missile propellant and BW production but technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers."
(snip/...)
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAHN5MVBLD.html 
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
