State Department spokesman: Lethal bio-toxin 'kills people, it kills people in large quantities'
Posted: October 4, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
The vial of botulinum bacteria discovered in Iraq by U.S. arms inspectors – which experts call the most poisonous substance known to man – is "a weapon of mass destruction," the State Department's top spokesman announced yesterday.
"Botulinum kills people, it kills people in large quantities. Botulinum is a weapon of mass destruction, yes," said State spokesman Richard Boucher," according to an Agence France-Presse report. "Anything that destroys on a massive scale is a weapon of mass destruction."
The botulinum had been stored in a vial discovered in an Iraqi scientist's refrigerator, where it had been stored for safe keeping since 1993.
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the press the report on ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons program, just released by the government's lead weapons inspector David Kay, justified the decision to invade Iraq.
Kay's "interim assessment" described discoveries of illicit arms programs, as well as evidence Saddam was intent on developing weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, despite United Nations prohibitions.
When reporters grilled Powell as to whether he thought weapons inspectors' efforts would ever yield "weapons of mass destruction," Powell replied rhetorically: "Do you think vials of botulinum should constitute a weapon of mass destruction?"
And President George Bush, before boarding Marine One, claimed the Kay report vindicated the Iraqi war effort:
"The report states that Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum, sophisticated concealment efforts and advanced design work on prohibited longer-range missiles," said Bush. "These findings already make clear that Saddam Hussein actively deceived the international community, that Saddam Hussein, was in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 and that Saddam Hussein was a danger to the world."
The president added that Kaye's "Iraq Survey Group" discovered "dozens of WMD (weapons of mass destruction)-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in 2002." He added that Kay and his team found "systematic destruction of evidence of these illegal activities."
The Bush administration had relied on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 as a legal basis for the March invasion. The resolution threatened the Saddam Hussein regime with "serious consequences" for failing to demonstrate that it had ended its WMD program.
Weeks before the invasion, on Feb. 5, Powell laid out the case against Saddam before the Security Council and the world, during which he referred to Iraq's biological weapons programs and its capability of producing deadly botulinum and other toxins.
"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more," Powell said, pointing out Iraq had admitted to producing botulinum. "And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction."
Noting that the vial of live botulinum bacteria had been hidden in an Iraqi scientist's home refrigerator, Kay, testifying before Congress, said the discovery "illustrates the point ... about the difficulty of locating small stocks of material that can be used to covertly surge production of deadly weapons."
According to Agence France-Presse, the Center for Civilian Bio-defense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University says: "Botulinum toxin is the single most poisonous substance known" and "poses a major bioweapons threat because of its extreme potency and lethality, its ease of production, transport and misuse, and the potential need for prolonged intensive care in affected persons."
Kay, a veteran former U.N. weapons inspector, says the investigation he is leading involves over 1,200 staffers, and is likely to take another six to nine months. He asked reporters for "time and patience in the answers you really deserve," noting that the regime of Saddam Hussein had "engaged in extensive deceptions."
In fact, said Kay, his team has found signs that arms may have been moved out of the country before Saddam's fall.
When reporters asked Kay at a telephone press conference whether chemical or biological weapons had been moved out of Iraq before the March invasion, reports AFP, the lead inspector replied: "We have multiple reports from Iraqis of substances being moved across borders." He added: "We've got information indicating movement to Iran, Syria, Jordan, essentially all states that border the north with Iraq, that's not surprising those routes have been long used. At least with regard to Syria and Jordan, certainly senior Iraqi officials, both military and scientific, moved to both countries pre-conflict and during the conflict, and some immediately after the conflict."
Earlier this week, biological and chemical weapons turned up in Kuwait, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassah.
The pro-government daily reported Kuwaiti security forces foiled an attempted smuggling of $60 million worth of chemical weapons and biological warheads from Iraq to an unnamed European country. Citing an unnamed security source, Al-Siyassah said the smugglers had been under surveillance since they arrived in Kuwait and were arrested "in due time."
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