Comprehensive Report

• ISG is uncertain what the function of the multiple
IIS laboratories was, and who the scientists were
(see also CW section, Annex I). Some of the work
conducted there was probably a continuation of
the work at the Al Salman laboratories after their
destruction in the Gulf war in 1991 and that would
include forensic related work. Other objectives
were probably to develop poisons for assassination
or debilitation. Whether any of the research
was directly related to military development of
BW agents is uncertain; the nature of some of the
reported work would have had direct application to
dissemination of ricin.
Dr. Rihab hypothesized to ISG that if a BW program
had existed in Iraq prior to OIF, it would probably
have been conducted in secret within the intelligence
community. However, ISG’s inspection of assorted
equipment and sites has not uncovered evidence of
either the true nature of IIS laboratories or conclusive
links between these laboratories and Iraq’s BW
effort. ISG notes, in any case, that the tactic of using
IIS and covert laboratories has historical precedence
dating back to the program’s origins in the 1970s,
when the IIS provided the BW program with security
and participated in BW-related research. Reverting
to this practice would minimize the evidence available
to inspectors. It would also leave the known and
acknowledged BW workers free to deal with the UN
inspection regime. However, it would require another
cadre of scientists other than ones known to the UN
to conduct this kind of research. The discovery of
multiple IIS clandestine laboratories after OIF lends
some credence to this assessment.
• There is information that suggests that up to 5 IIS
laboratories operated in the greater Baghdad area at
various times up until OIF.
• ISG found a possible DGS laboratory in Baghdad
that contained a variety of chemicals but no laboratory
equipment. Residents in the building alleged
that the laboratory was a biological one. The investigating
team found several DGS administrative
documents, some of which were from employees
requesting approval for danger pay for their hazardous
work with biological and radioactive materials.
• Information collected at the time of OIF led to the
discovery of assorted laboratory equipment purportedly
used by a suspect BW scientist at a Mosque in
Baghdad.
• A clandestine laboratory was identified by an ISG
team at the Baghdad Central Public Health Laboratory
in the summer of 2003. According to an
employee of the laboratory, the IIS operated a laboratory
at that location for several years. In advance
of a 1998 UNSCOM inspection, secret documents
were removed and stored at the Director’s house. In
December of 2002, the laboratory was emptied of
all equipment and documents.
• A former IIS chemist indicates this five-story building
and adjacent warehouse complex comprises
the M16 training center at Djerf-al-Nadaf, SE of
Baghdad. A former member of the NMD reported
this site as one of the three IIS locations with equipment
and activities intentionally not declared to the
UN. Neither UNSCOM nor UNMOVIC were aware
of their existence and had not visited these facilities.
He believes the building contained a biological
laboratory for unspecified work. Site exploitation
revealed a modern building that probably housed
both offices and at least one laboratory on the first
floor. The building was completely looted, with
very few remnants of equipment, materials, or documents.
Neighbors indicated that the IIS removed
everything from the site just before the war.
• According to a former mid-level BW scientist,
Iraq conducted tests on prisoners using aflatoxin in
1994 at an undeclared clandestine facility. A former
member of the NMD indicated he visited the facility
in 1997 or 1998 to survey the equipment for
possible declaration to the UN; he was told on-site
that none of the equipment or activities there would
be declared.
• ISG also has evidence that, possibly as recently as
1994, an IIS chemist who immigrated to Iraq from
Egypt, Dr. Muhammad ‘Abd-al-Mun’im Al Azmirli
(now deceased), experimented on prisoners with
ricin resulting in their deaths.
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