Bio weapons, or just a trailer?
2003-05-28 18:00
Washington - No traces of biological warfare agents have been detected in a specially equipped tractor-trailer found in Iraq but US intelligence has concluded that production of biological warfare agents was its "only consistent logical purpose," the CIA said on Wednesday.
Analysis of samples taken from the trailer, which was seized in April in northern Iraq, was "negative for five standard BW agents, including Bacillus anthracis, and for growth media for those agents," the Central Intelligence Agency report said.
"We suspect that the Iraqis thoroughly decontaminated the vehicle to remove evidence of BW agent production," the report said.
"Despite the lack of confirmatory samples, we nevertheless are confident that this trailer is a mobile BW production plant because of the source's description, equipment, and design," it said.
The report noted that an Iraqi source had alerted US intelligence before this year's war that led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein to the existence of similar mobile facilities for making biological warfare agents.
Experts who examined the trailer were unable to identify any legitimate industrial use that would justify the expense of a mobile production capacity, the report said.
"We have investigated what other industrial processes may require such equipment - a fermentor, refrigeration, and a gas capture system - and agree with the experts that BW agent production is the only consistent, logical purpose for these vehicles," it said.
- AFX