Comprehensive Report

Weaponization
Between the late 1980s and the start of Desert Storm
in 1991, Iraq attempted to develop a range of systems
for the dispersion of BW agent. In the dash to
field viable BW weapons the workers in the program
adapted robust bombs capable of mounting on many
types of aircraft and warheads, including the Al
Husayn missile. They also worked furiously to ready
an aircraft spray system.
• The scientists and engineers conducted weapons
trials over some three years with both simulants and
BW agents, on occasion using living animals as
targets. Delivery systems tested included a
helicopter-borne spray system, aerial bombs,
artillery shells, multi-barrel rocket launchers, longrange
missile warheads and an aircraft mounting of
an adapted auxiliary fuel tank.
• In the haste to prepare for the 1991 conflict,
systems tried and tested with CW agents were
preferred; the R-400 aerial bomb and the Al Husayn
warhead, charged with anthrax, botulinum toxin
and aflatoxin. Additionally, engineers at
Al Muthanna rushed the auxiliary fuel tank,
modified into a spray system, of the Mirage F1
aircraft into service (see Figure 12).
• Shortly after the passage of Security Council
Resolution 687 in early April 1991, Iraqi leaders
also decided to erase all traces of the offensive BW
program.
• By the autumn of 1991, Iraq probably accomplished
both the destruction of the weapons stockpile and
surviving evidence of the BW program.
• Interviews conducted by ISG have produced a
reasonably coherent picture of this unilateral
destruction, with few conflicting details, although
important questions about the disposition of bulk
BW agent and bacterial reference strains remain.
• ISG judges that the former Regime destroyed most
of its hidden stockpile of BW weapons. A few
pre-1991 weapons probably either escaped destruction
in 1991 or suffered only partial damage. It is
thus possible that a few more will be found in the
months and years ahead.
ISG bases its reservations on the following factors:
• The security situation in Iraq has limited the
physical verification of Iraq’s unilateral destruction
claims—by excavating and counting weapon fragments,
for example.
• Prior to Desert Storm, Iraq had dedicated
complimentary programs to develop spray technology
that could effectively disseminate either
CW or BW agents. These spray dispersal systems
were intended for use in conjunction with various
developmental unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)
programs. Initial testing was quickly beginning to
show progress by the time of Desert Storm. Since
that time however, while their desire for these
systems remained, their developmental work shifted
focus. Due to the attention of the UNSCOM
inspectors, the developmental effort shifted away
from the more controversial spray technologies
toward completing the longer range UAV goals.
• Many of the officials interviewed by ISG had
previously lied–or told half-truths–to UNSCOM,
and they may have lied to ISG as well, though ISG
assesses that most were being open and truthful.
• The continuing exploitation of Iraqi documents may
produce evidence that contradicts the assertions of
the Iraqi officials.
• The efforts of the Iraqi Interim Government and
Coalition forces may yet result in the discovery
of unacknowledged WMD stockpiles left by the
former Regime, though ISG judges this to be very
unlikely.
Biological
ISG judges—with important reservations—that the
former Regime clandestinely destroyed almost all of
Iraq’s biological WMD and long-range missiles in
1991. Numerous interviews with high-ranking Iraqi
political figures, WMD scientists, and military and
security officers indicate that after a brief period of
concealment in 1991, Iraqi leaders decided to destroy
Iraq’s undeclared weapons stockpile in secret.
ISG has not discovered any evidence that Iraq has
conducted research or trials dedicated to the dispersion
of BW agents since declaring its offensive program
in 1995. Iraq pursued some delivery systems
projects until OIF that could have provided some
BW utility and whose origins lay in the development
of BW and CW dispersion systems.
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