Terror Attacks Planned From Iraq?

The recent Iraq Survey Group's Duelfer report, while acknowledging that no evidence has yet been found in Iraq of recent production of weapons of mass destruction, nonetheless did reveal evidence of chemical and biological weapons apparently designed for terror use.

Richard Spertzel, a member of the group, wrote in an Oct. 14 Wall Street Journal column that the group discovered the Iraqis had "a plan to bottle sarin and sulfur mustard in perfume sprayers and medicine bottles which they would ship to the United States and Europe" and that "ricin was being developed into stable liquid to deliver as an aerosol."

Mr. Spertzel concludes: "Such development was not just for assassination. If Iraq was successful in developing an aerosolizable ricin, it made a significant step forward. The development had to be for terrorist delivery. Even on a small scale this must be considered as a WMD.

" Biological agents, delivered on a small scale (terrorist delivery) can maim or kill a large number of people. The Iraqi Intelligence organizations had a history of conducting tests on humans with chemical and biological substances that went beyond assassination studies. While many of these were in the 1970s and 1980s, multiple documents and testimony indicate that such testing continued through the 1990s and into the next millennium, perhaps as late as 2002 . . .

"It is asserted that Iraq was not supporting terrorists. Really? Documentation indicates that Iraq was training non-Iraqis . . . in terrorist techniques, including assassination and suicide bombing. In addition to Iraqis, trainees included Palestinians, Yemenis, Saudis, Lebanese, Egyptians and Sudanese . . .

"Was Iraq an imminent threat? With the regime's intention and the activity of its intelligence organizations, and with the proven futility of uncovering its clandestine laboratory operations by the U.N. inspectors, it is hard to draw any other conclusion. Regretfully, terrorism is the wave of the future" (emphasis added). GN