-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Ex-UN inspector says Iraq had Brucella biological agent Washington |Reuters | 03-02-01 Iraq produced the Brucella bacteria as part of its weapons programme, although Baghdad denied it and United Nations reports have never mentioned it, a former UN biological weapons inspector said yesterday. "They did have scientists who specialized in Brucella, and they did have media imported that ... would be suitable for growing Brucella," said Rod Barton, a former biological weapons inspector with the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). UN reports have stated that Iraq produced other deadly biological agents including botulinum toxin, anthrax, and gas gangrene as part its weapons programme, before and after the 1991 Gulf War. But Brucella was never mentioned. The bacteria in humans can create flu-like symptoms: fevers, chills, aching joints and general feelings of malaise. The symptoms resemble some Gulf War syndrome complaints by American troops who have suffered from mystery illnesses after the Gulf War. But Barton and other experts say there is no evidence that Iraq used biological weapons during the war. He estimated Iraq had produced about 500 gallons (2,000 litres) of Brucella, though Baghdad has always denied it. "Iraq claims they never worked on, never weaponized (Brucella). We believe from the evidence we have there could be 2,000 litres," Barton told a meeting at the Monterey Institute, an arms-control think tank. "That's based upon the bacterial growth media, that we know we have documentation for, arrived in the country and cannot still be accounted for," he said. Brucella was never mentioned in UN reports because, he said, evidence about it only emerged in 1999 from old records. That was after UNSCOM had left Iraq at the end of 1998 complaining that Baghdad was making its work impossible. "There is no evidence that they (Iraq) used biological weapons in the Gulf War," Richard Butler, the former head of UNSCOM, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Sydney. "Maybe they were planning to and maybe they did and we don't know it. But one can only deal in hard evidence. And there is no hard evidence that says they did use biological weapons in the Gulf War," Butler said. "The problem we faced in knowing the exact quantities involved was a very large one because it was in the biological area more than any other area where Iraq had entered into the most elaborate forms of cheating, lying, deception," he said. Both Butler and Barton said they believed Iraq and continued its biological weapons programme in the two years that UN weapons inspectors have been barred from the country. Barton estimated that there were about three tonnes or more of unaccounted bacterial growth materials in Iraq, saying he believes Iraq's main motivation in retaining biological weapons was its fear of a potential threat from neighbours like Iran. "If that is the only motivation at this stage then they don't need a lot," Barton said. "My own view is I don't think they're into big scale production." Since 1995, Iraq has been doing trials of the L-29, a remote piloted aircraft of East European origin that appeared to have a range of reaching Israel, Barton said. The aircraft can be fitted with cameras for surveillance, but the way they were configured made that unlikely and they could be used to deliver biological agents, he said. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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