Experts downplay bioagent (tube of botulism in Iraq fridge)

[Newsjock]

Friday's L.A. Times

By Bob Drogin, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — A suspicious sample of biological material recently found by U.S. weapons hunters in Iraq was probably purchased legally from a U.S. organization in the 1980s and is a substance that has never been successfully used to produce a weapon, experts said.

The discovery of the hidden vial of C. botulinum Okra B, which was revealed in an Oct. 2 interim report by chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay, was highlighted in speeches by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior administration officials as proof that Saddam Hussein's government maintained an illicit bio-weapons program before the war.

The significance of the vial is one of several elements of Kay's report that are being called into question by U.S. biowarfare experts and former United Nations weapons inspectors. While most praised Kay for uncovering numerous cases in which Iraq hid suspicious equipment and activities from U.N. inspectors, they said the report appeared misleading in several areas.

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[EX-CONservative]

1. Geez...

Someone leaves some food in the back of Saddam's fridge and it makes world news. :silly:

[Sinistrous]

2. But, you see, the vial is a miniature Tardis.

When you open it up you will find rooms and rooms full of the thousands of liters of botulinium toxin we were told Saddam had.

[Occulus]

3. Oh, wow, that's right

Iraq secretly developed advanced matter compression technology.

Yeah Iraq!!

*snort*