Blockbuster piece at NRO this morning on Saddam's WMD.
When American tanks smashed into Baghdad, Saddam had already completed
construction of an anthrax production facility, which was a week away
from going live. If it had been permitted to go into production, this
one facility could have produced ten tons of weaponized anthrax a year.
Experts estimate that anthrax spores that infect the skin will kill 50
percent of untreated victims. Inhaled anthrax will kill 100 percent of
untreated victims and 50 percent of those receiving immediate treatment.
That means that a mere 1 percent of Saddam’s annual production (200
pounds) sprayed by crop-duster over New York City would have killed
upwards of three million people.
There's more about the mobile weapons labs hidden in a mosque, the "public health laboratory," and a supposedly innocuous drug company.
Investigators also found two labs that appeared to be producing animal
vaccines. However, according to investigators, all of the equipment was
“dual use . . . and easily diverted to produce smallpox or other
pathogenic viruses.” Another nearby lab was busily working on cowpox
vaccines, with the exact same equipment necessary to create smallpox.
One should note that even a thimbleful of smallpox germs would be enough
to kill tens of millions. Smallpox, placed in the hands of a terrorist
group and released at a sporting event, would devastate a large swath of
the United States.
Well, ok, but that's a big "if," right? Why should we think the worst?
It should be noted that each of these facilities was staffed or often
visited by persons previously identified by the U.N. as being associated
with Saddam’s pre–Desert Storm WMD programs. One facility, often
visited by Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi, better known to Western
intelligence as Dr. Germ, maintained, according to investigators, a
“small” capacity for production of organic agents. When it comes to
smallpox, a “small” capacity is all one needs to create global havoc.
There's much more, but my take-away has less to do with my opinion of the war and more to do with public health. During the 9/11 anthrax scare --still not really explained-- we learned we didn't have enough Cipro for a public health emergency. So, whatever became of the smallpox vaccine stockpile we started working on then? And shouldn't there be a Cipro stockpile as well?
