The $300 million spent so far in the search for the WMD whose purported existence brought on theinvasion has found a single vial of C. botulinum Okra B. This material:
1. Can't be weaponized.
2. Was stored in a kitchen refrigerator since 1993.
3. Was probably obtained from the United States.
Here are some details about some of what was shipped when and by whom from the Monterey Institute of International Studies:
* On 3/21/86, the US Department of Commerce issued a license to the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) to export aspergillus fungal cultures, used in the production of aflatoxin, to Iraq. ATCC officials said the cultures were not delivered.
* Between 1985-89, ATCC made 17 shipments of "attenuated strains of various toxins and bacteria" to Iraq’s Atomic Energy Commission.
* In 1985, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sent a shipment of West Nile Fever virus to an Iraqi researcher.
* On 11/30/84, the US Department of Commerce issued a license to ATCC to export aspergillus fungal cultures to Iraq for delivery to the College of Medicine in Baghdad. ATCC officials said the cultures were not delivered.
* In 1985, the CDC sent three shipments of West Nile Fever virus to Iraq for use in medical research.
* Between 1985-1989, the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) supplied Iraq with several pathogens, including Clostridium botulinum, and various strains of anthrax.
Sources: R. Jeffery Smith, "Iraq’s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin," Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1. Al J. Venter, "UNSCOM Odyssey: The Search for Saddam’s Biological Arsenal," Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1998, p. 19."
For more details, see "ExpertsDownplay Bioagent."
"The discovery of the hidden vial of C. botulinum Okra B, which was revealed in an Oct. 2 interim report by chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay, was highlighted in speeches by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior administration officials as proof that President Saddam Hussein's government maintained an illicit bio-weapons program before the war.
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