US built Iraq's bioweapon program

How does the US know that Iraq has biological weapons? Easy. Because we sent them the equipment and anthrax spores to build them. None other than our cuddly Prince of Darkness, Bob Novak, takes Rumsfeld to task for lying at a Congressional hearing.

In 1985 (five years after the Iraq-Iran war started) and succeeding years, said the report, ''pathogenic (meaning ''disease producing''), toxigenic (meaning ''poisonous'') and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce.'' It added: ''These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction.''

The report then details 70 shipments (including anthrax bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding, ''It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program.''

As Novak points out, this by itself is not an argument for or against war. But isn't it ironic that our two greaters "enemies", Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, were both products of GOP foreign policy?

So GOP policies are not only bad for the pocketbook, but, looking at our "enemies" roster, clearly also bad for our national security.

Posted September 26, 2002 09:41 AM | Comments (0)