No smallpox in Iraq - team

2003-09-19 12:32

New York - Top American scientists assigned to the weapons hunt in Iraq found no evidence Saddam Hussein's regime was making or stockpiling smallpox, according to senior military officers involved in the search.

Smallpox fears were part of the case the Bush administration used to build support for invading Iraq - and they were raised again as recently as last weekend by vice-president Dick Cheney.

But a three-month search by "Team Pox" turned up only signs to the contrary: disabled equipment that had been rendered harmless by United Nations inspectors, Iraqi scientists deemed credible who gave no indication they had worked with smallpox, and a laboratory thought to be back in use that was covered in cobwebs.

Fears that smallpox could be used as a weapon led the Bush administration to launch a vaccination campaign for about 500 000 United Srares military personnel after the September 11 attacks, and to order enough vaccine to inoculate the entire US population if necessary.

Eradicated worldwide in 1980

President George W Bush also was vaccinated against the disease, which kills about a third of its victims.

The negative smallpox findings reported to US intelligence agencies come nearly six months after the Bush administration went to war to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam long denied having and that the US military hasn't been able to find.

Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. All samples of the virus were to have been destroyed except those held by special labs in Atlanta and Russia.

But some experts fear Russian samples could have got into the hands of hostile nations.

Two of the six members of Team Pox - whose existence and work hasn't been previously disclosed - have left Iraq while the rest remain involved in other aspects of the weapons hunt, said the officers who described the smallpox pursuit for the first time.

Although Team Pox is no longer operational, having carried out their work between May and July, their findings don't dismiss the possibility that smallpox still could be discovered, according to the officials, who want to be named.

However, there remains little to pursue in this area now.

"We found no physical or new anecdotal evidence to suggest Iraq was producing smallpox or had stocks of it in its possession," said one of the military officers.

- AP