ANTHRAX - Iraq attempted to smuggle anthrax to US, Britain

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Researcher: Iraq attempted to smuggle anthrax to U.S., Britain

Special to World Tribune.com MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE

Saturday, October 27, 2001

TEL AVIV — Iraq has attempted to smuggle large quantities of anthrax into Britain and the United States, an Israeli analyst says.

Dany Shoham, a research associate at Tel Aviv University's Begin-Sadat Center of Strategic Studies, said the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein attempted to bring biological weapons agents into Britain and the United States in 1998. The attempt was reported by Israeli intelligence.

At the time, Shoham said, Iraqi women agents arriving in the United States were hiding vials filled with biological agents under their dresses.

Iraq was also attempting to smuggle biological and chemical agents into Britain hidden in duty-free goods.

Shoham, a reserve intelligence officer with close ties to Western intelligence agencies, said the Iraqi effort was foiled by British authorities. He suggested that Iraq succeeded in bringing the anthrax virus into the United States.

Iraq has been developing the same type of powder anthrax now being mailed to prominent Americans, Shoham said. He said another developer of powder anthrax has been the Al Qaida group headed by Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

"Bin Laden and several Arab countries — most specifically Iraq — have been working for years to develop this capacity," Shoham, who has published articles in leading professional journals, said. "Of course, we do not yet know for sure that Bin Laden and or Iraq is behind the recent anthrax attacks. But it is most probably so."

Shoham said Bin Laden and his agents obtained expertise and material for chemical and biological weapons from Iraq, which constructed a weapons of mass destruction facility in Sudan in the early 1990s. When Bin Laden left Sudan for Afghanistan in 1996, Shoham said, Bin Laden continued to purchase components for biological and chemical weapons from the Sudanese military.

On Thursday, the German Der Bild daily reported that Bin Laden aide Mohammed Ata, one of the leaders of the Islamic suicide attacks in New York and Washington, smuggled anthrax into the United States. The daily based its report on Israeli intelligence sources.

CIA officials concluded in 1999 that Iraq was most likely working with Bin Laden and other terrorist groups to develop weapons of mass destruction, Shoham said. Such weapons expertise might have also reached Palestinian groups.

Israeli security sources said two Palestinians were arrested on Oct. 10 upon their return to the West Bank from Pakistan. One Palestinian was identified as Amin Shawani, said to have studied pharmacology in Pakistan and an agent of Bin Laden. The other was identified as Mahmoud Azzam, described as a cousin of a Bin Laden aide.

In 1999, Shoham said, Israeli security forces arrested a squad from the Palestinian Hamas group. The squad was recruiting Palestinian biology and chemistry students as part of a project to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction against Israel.

Israeli officials acknowledge that Bin Laden and his Palestinian allies launched several attempts to stage a WMD attack in Israel. Health Minister Nissim Dahan said the prospect of such an attack is becoming increasingly likely.

"Our only scenario given by the appropriate authorities is that of anthrax," Dahan said. The other [WMD] scenarios are less likely. Luckily, we have a solution and with proper preparations, we could reduce the damage that our enemies seek to wrought upon us."

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2001


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