- 28 May 2003 07:27
#12780
US finds evidence of WMD at last - buried in a field near Maryland
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday May 28, 2003
The Guardian
The good news for the Pentagon yesterday was that its investigators finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria. The bad news was that the stash was found, not in Iraq, but fewer than 50 miles from Washington, in the Maryland countryside.
The anthrax was a non-virulent strain, and the discoveries are apparently remnants of an abandoned germ warfare programme. They merited only a local news item in the Washington Post. But arguably lesser finds in Iraq have made front-page news, given the failure so far of US military inspection teams to find substantial evidence for the weapons that were the justification for the March invasion.
Even more embarrassing for the Pentagon, there was no documentation about the various biological agents disposed of at the US bio-defence centre at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The Iraqi government's failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was portrayed by the US as evidence of deception in the run-up to the war.
The US germ warfare programme at Fort Detrick was officially wound up in 1969, but the base has maintained a stock of nasty bugs to help maintain America's defences against biological attack.
The leading theory about the unsolved anthrax letter attacks in 2001 is that they were carried out by a disgruntled former Fort Detrick employee; equipment found dumped in a pond eight miles from the base has been linked to the crimes.
The clean-up at Fort Detrick has grown into the biggest army operation of its kind, unearthing more than 2,000 tonnes of hazardous waste at a cost of $25m (£15m).
The sanitation crews were shocked to find vials containing live bacteria. As well as the vaccine form of anthrax, the discarded biological agents included Brucella melitensis, which causes the virulent flu-like disease brucellosis, and klebsiella, a cause of pneumonia.
The clean-up crews, equipped with biological protection suits, also came across 50 pressurised cylinders of gases and liquids which are still being analysed, and four dissected laboratory rats in jars of formaldehyde.
"You never know what's there until you start digging," Colonel John Ball, the Fort Detrick garrison commander told the Post. "We've generally ruled out finding a nuclear weapon."
SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4678140,00.html
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday May 28, 2003
The Guardian
The good news for the Pentagon yesterday was that its investigators finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria. The bad news was that the stash was found, not in Iraq, but fewer than 50 miles from Washington, in the Maryland countryside.
The anthrax was a non-virulent strain, and the discoveries are apparently remnants of an abandoned germ warfare programme. They merited only a local news item in the Washington Post. But arguably lesser finds in Iraq have made front-page news, given the failure so far of US military inspection teams to find substantial evidence for the weapons that were the justification for the March invasion.
Even more embarrassing for the Pentagon, there was no documentation about the various biological agents disposed of at the US bio-defence centre at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The Iraqi government's failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was portrayed by the US as evidence of deception in the run-up to the war.
The US germ warfare programme at Fort Detrick was officially wound up in 1969, but the base has maintained a stock of nasty bugs to help maintain America's defences against biological attack.
The leading theory about the unsolved anthrax letter attacks in 2001 is that they were carried out by a disgruntled former Fort Detrick employee; equipment found dumped in a pond eight miles from the base has been linked to the crimes.
The clean-up at Fort Detrick has grown into the biggest army operation of its kind, unearthing more than 2,000 tonnes of hazardous waste at a cost of $25m (£15m).
The sanitation crews were shocked to find vials containing live bacteria. As well as the vaccine form of anthrax, the discarded biological agents included Brucella melitensis, which causes the virulent flu-like disease brucellosis, and klebsiella, a cause of pneumonia.
The clean-up crews, equipped with biological protection suits, also came across 50 pressurised cylinders of gases and liquids which are still being analysed, and four dissected laboratory rats in jars of formaldehyde.
"You never know what's there until you start digging," Colonel John Ball, the Fort Detrick garrison commander told the Post. "We've generally ruled out finding a nuclear weapon."
SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4678140,00.html
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