Bush Administration Continued Claims on Mobile Iraqi Bioweapons Labs After Receiving Contrary Evidence
Global Security Newswire
Two trailers proclaimed by the Bush administration for months after the invasion of Iraq to be mobile biological weapons laboratories were believed even at the time by U.S. intelligence to have nothing to do with biological weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2005).
On May 29, 2003, Bush said, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."
However, U.S. intelligence officials had already received evidence to the contrary, according to the Post. Leaders of a secret Pentagon-sponsored fact-finding mission had concluded that the trailers were not involved with biological weapons and transmitted their findings in a report on May 27, 2003.
The report and a longer follow-up issued three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. White House and intelligence officials continued for nearly a year afterward to argue that the trailers were involved in biological weapons production.
"There was no connection to anything biological," said one expert who examined the trailers.
"Within the first four hours it was clear to everyone that these were not biological labs," said another team member.
A Defense Intelligence Agency spokesman said the findings were not covered up, but rather included in the work of the Iraqi Survey Group, which said in a final September 2004 report that the trailers were "impractical" for weapons production and were "almost certainly intended" as hydrogen-manufacturing laboratories for weather balloons.
Intelligence analysts said the initial team was one of several that analyzed the trailers in the months after the March 2003 invasion. They said two teams of military experts believed they were intended to produce weapons.
"It was hotly debated, and there were experts making arguments on both sides," said one former senior official.
On May 28, 2003, the CIA said in its first formal assessment of the trailers that U.S. officials were "confident" they were involved in "mobile biological weapons production." Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in June declared that the "confidence level is increasing" on that assessment. In September, Vice President Dick Cheney called the trailers "mobile biological facilities" possibly used to produce anthrax or smallpox, the Post reported.
Some team members complained that their report was never publicly acknowledged.
"I went home and fully expected that our findings would be publicly stated," one member said. "It never happened. And I just had to live with it" (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, April 12).
Two trailers proclaimed by the Bush administration for months after the invasion of Iraq to be mobile biological weapons laboratories were believed even at the time by U.S. intelligence to have nothing to do with biological weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2005).
On May 29, 2003, Bush said, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."
However, U.S. intelligence officials had already received evidence to the contrary, according to the Post. Leaders of a secret Pentagon-sponsored fact-finding mission had concluded that the trailers were not involved with biological weapons and transmitted their findings in a report on May 27, 2003.
The report and a longer follow-up issued three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. White House and intelligence officials continued for nearly a year afterward to argue that the trailers were involved in biological weapons production.
"There was no connection to anything biological," said one expert who examined the trailers.
"Within the first four hours it was clear to everyone that these were not biological labs," said another team member.
A Defense Intelligence Agency spokesman said the findings were not covered up, but rather included in the work of the Iraqi Survey Group, which said in a final September 2004 report that the trailers were "impractical" for weapons production and were "almost certainly intended" as hydrogen-manufacturing laboratories for weather balloons.
Intelligence analysts said the initial team was one of several that analyzed the trailers in the months after the March 2003 invasion. They said two teams of military experts believed they were intended to produce weapons.
"It was hotly debated, and there were experts making arguments on both sides," said one former senior official.
On May 28, 2003, the CIA said in its first formal assessment of the trailers that U.S. officials were "confident" they were involved in "mobile biological weapons production." Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in June declared that the "confidence level is increasing" on that assessment. In September, Vice President Dick Cheney called the trailers "mobile biological facilities" possibly used to produce anthrax or smallpox, the Post reported.
Some team members complained that their report was never publicly acknowledged.
"I went home and fully expected that our findings would be publicly stated," one member said. "It never happened. And I just had to live with it" (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, April 12).
