Mobile weapons laboratory

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Purported Iraqi mobile weapons laboratories

Mobile weapons laboratories were purported to be bioreactors and other processing equipment to manufacture and process biological weapons.

The then Secretary of State Colin L. Powell gave a presentation before the United Nations in February of 2003 showing a computer generated view of what the laboratories looked like. He said Iraq had as many as 18 mobile facilities for making anthrax and botulinum toxin. "They can produce enough dry, biological agent in a single month to kill thousands upon thousands of people." The information had come from the informant known as Curveball.

On April 29, 2003 it was reported that two of the mobile labs were found buried in Iraq. Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 8, 2003:

"The discovery by U.S. forces in Iraq of two mobile 'biological weapons laboratories' was touted by President Bush as clear evidence that Iraq possessed illegal weapons capabilities. However, it now is clear that these so-called labs were nothing more than hydrogen generation units based upon British technology acquired by Iraq in the 1980s, used to fill weather balloons in support of conventional artillery operations, and have absolutely no application for the production of biological agents."

[edit] Powell retraction

On April 3, 2004 in the New York Times he said: "I looked at the four [sources] that [the CIA] gave me for that one, and they stood behind them, ... Now it appears not to be the case that it was that solid. At the time I was preparing the presentation, it was presented to me as being solid."