By
Imad Khadduri
Former Iraqi nuclear
scientist
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (Canada)
(YellowTimes.org) -- As the swelter of anger bubbles
from the machination of misinformation that led to the
faltering WMD casus belli for invading Iraq, the
retreat and half-baked excuses of Bush, Blair, Cheney,
Wolfowitz and Powell further expose the sharp edge of
their deceit. Whether it was "intelligence" failure or
"flailing" the intelligence, time will soon tell. In the
meantime, the fig leaves keep falling.
During CNN's Late Edition with Colin Powell,
reported by the Toronto Star on June 9, 2003,
Powell claimed that "the two alleged mobile biological
weapons labs, which are being studied by allied
inspectors now in Iraq, are the same ones he described
to the world last Feb. 5 at a U.N. presentation which
was the result of four days and four nights of meetings
with the CIA." "I stand behind that presentation," he
said.
He further asserted, "I'll give you the
killer argument why these vans were exactly what I said
they were. I can assure you that if those biological
vans were not ... what I said they were on the 5th of
February, on the 6th of February Iraq would have hauled
those vans out, put them in front of a press conference,
given them to U.N. inspectors to try to drive a stake
through the heart of my presentation."
Only if the Iraqis knew which vans he was talking
about.
In an article published on the same day as Powell's
interview, Peter Beaumont and Antony Barnett reported in
the Observer that there is mounting indications
that these vans were for "balloons, not germs."
The Iraqis concur.
According to the article, "Senior Iraqi officials of
the al-Kindi Research, Testing, Development, and
Engineering facility in Mosul were shown pictures of the
mobile production trailers, and they claimed that the
trailers were used to produce hydrogen chemically for
artillery weather balloons. Artillery balloons are
essentially balloons that are sent up into the
atmosphere and relay information on wind direction and
speed, allowing more accurate artillery fire. Crucially,
these systems need to be mobile. The Observer has
discovered that not only did the Iraq military have such
a system at one time, but that it was actually sold to
them by the British. In 1987, Marconi, now known as AMS,
sold the Iraqi army an Artillery Meteorological System
or Amets for short."
Other experts who have examined the evidence agree
and have cast doubt over the Bush administration's
assertions. They argue that the lack of any trace of
pathogens found in the fermentation tanks, the use of
canvas sides on vehicles where technicians would be
working with dangerous germ cultures, and the lack of an
autoclave for steam sterilization all provide credence
to the Iraqi argument that the labs were merely used for
artillery balloons.
In fact, the American experts themselves concede that
the van could, at best, serve only one stage of the
process for biological weapons production. There would
need to be three or four other stages in the process, or
other complementary vans, to be able to produce Powell's
less than heuristic claim.
Powell is not new to this misinformation game.
In my earlier article, "The demise of the nuclear
bomb hoax," published on February 16, 2003, I referred
to Geoff Simons' The Scourging of Iraq in which
"Washington lied persistently and comprehensively to
gain the required international support [for the Gulf
war]. For example, the U.S. claimed to have satellite
pictures showing a massive Iraqi military build-up on
the Saudi/ Iraqi border. When sample photographs were
later obtained from Soyuz Karta by an enterprising
journalist, no such evidence was discernible."
Simons references an article by Maggie O'Kane,
published in the Guardian on 16 December 1995,
which revealed that the enterprising journalist was Jean
Heller of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
Eventually, the U.S. commander -- none other than
Colin Powell himself -- admitted that there had been no
massing of Iraqi troops. But by then the so-called
evidence had served its purpose.
So, was Powell really worried that the Iraqis might
"try to drive a stake through the heart of [his]
presentation"?
Well, it's never too late.
[Imad Khadduri has a MSc in Physics from the
University of Michigan (United States) and a PhD in
Nuclear Reactor Technology from the University of
Birmingham (United Kingdom). Khadduri worked with the
Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He
was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 with his family. He
now teaches and works as a network administrator in
Toronto, Canada. He has been interviewed by the United
Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, FOX,
the Toronto Star, Reuters, and various other news
agencies in regards to his knowledge of the Iraqi
nuclear program. This article was originally printed in
YellowTimes.org.]
Imad Khadduri encourages your comments: imad.khadduri@rogers.com
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Other articles by Imad Khadduri on YellowTimes.org:
''Iraq's
nuclear non-capability''
''La
incapacidad nuclear de Irak''
''La
non-capacité nucléaire de l’Irak''
"'Saddam's
bombmaker' is full of lies"
''The
nuclear bomb hoax''
"The
demise of the nuclear bomb hoax"
"The
fig leaf of moral impotence"
"Cheney's
bogus nuclear weapon"
''The
mirage of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction''
"Iraq's
free fall''
