Remember when US forces "found the weapons of mass destruction?" That announcement was made by President Bush on May 29, 2003 -- one day after this
CIA Intelligence assessment was published. In the weeks following,
reports emerged that disputed the CIA's findings. Now, three years later, the
Washington Post says that the US Intelligence authorities already had "powerful evidence" that Bush's biological weapons claim was simply untrue.
posted by 327.ca
on Apr 12, 2006 -
73 comments
Where did those chemical and biological weapons come from? ”According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.”
I’ve always been surprised that this type of report doesn’t get more attention. During the UN hearings I half expected the Administration to level with the world and simply say: ”We know they have the stuff because we sold it to them.”
posted by peebo
on Mar 26, 2003 -
32 comments
Buffy the Terrorism Slayer (PDF link) The
Center For Strategic & International Studies, which appears to be, like, a bunch of grown-up
ex-senators and
accused war criminals and
former top spooks and
such, released this white paper late last September.
Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation — and planning for it — is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or "chaos" theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the "Buffy Paradigm," and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the "Buffy Syndrome."
I am one vindicated overgrown Buffy fan. (Via
Need To Know.)
posted by nicwolff
on Jul 5, 2002 -
14 comments
Mystery Illness such a mystery? Help needed! (old news, new information?)
OK, I'm going to try and do this without naming names...
The British troops in Afghanistan have been struck down by a
mystery illness recently, with an investigation finding that the illness was just a "
winter vomiting" bug.
I've heard different.
The source may have been an Al Qaeda terrorist who had been captured.
The 'mystery illness' may have been caught when the British or US government used biological warfare to make it easier to find and capture members of Al Qaeda.
Can anyone help verify this? I should stress I only have word of mouth from a friend of a friend. All very speculative, but I've not been able to find anything else on this... yet...
posted by snowgoon
on May 21, 2002 -
13 comments
Beyond the Axis of Evil - The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria to its "axis of evil" - nations it claims are deliberately seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapons. The Under Secretary of State also warned that the US would take action.
posted by Stuart_R
on May 6, 2002 -
53 comments
Too many neighbors? Bioweapons can help solve that problem. Recently declassified documents say that one of Australia's leading scientists suggested just that in 1947.
posted by gimonca
on Mar 14, 2002 -
6 comments
More ammo for the "U.S. brought it on themselves" crowd, courtesy of the New York Times.
"One report obtained by Dr. Zilinskas from the government is "Development of `N' for Offensive Use in Biological Warfare." `N' was the code letter for Bacillus anthracis, the germ that causes anthrax. Another is "The Stability of Botulinum Toxin in Common Beverages." The germ-derived substance is the most poisonous known to science."
Seems that the United States has been selling instructions for the creation of bio-weapons.
posted by Yelling At Nothing
on Jan 12, 2002 -
4 comments
It's not about anthrax, but this piece (by
Hot Zone author Richard Preston) from the
New Yorker a couple of years ago discusses smallpox, the reasons why we keep samples around instead of getting rid of it, how effective it would be if used as a biological weapon, how prepared we are, etc. etc. Also contains an interesting bit mentioning other threats of anthrax (and this was '99).
posted by sherman
on Oct 14, 2001 -
6 comments
The Trial of Unit 731 "is the forgotten war-crimes prosecution of the 20th century." In 1949, Soviet courts tried a unit of the Japanese Imperial Army for wartime biological weapons experimentation on human subjects.
This article contains some gruesome descriptions.
posted by dfowler
on Jun 6, 2001 -
8 comments
