In a relatively little-noted finding, the Iraq Survey Group established that the Iraqi dictator was actually engaged in continuing, low-level research and development on and even production of chemical and biological agents such as sulfur mustard, nitrogen mustard, ricin and aflatoxin. He thus maintained not only the potential to generate small quantities of such toxic materials – say, the quantities suitable for terrorist or “intelligence” purposes. He actually was still in that business at or about the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Iraq Survey Group also found that Saddam Hussein’s henchmen had plans to emplace sarin nerve gas and sulfur mustard in “perfume sprayers and medicine bottles which they would ship to the United States and Europe.” This, Mr. Chairman, is for me the sort of “smoking gun” we should have been looking for: Hard evidence that the so-called “Butcher of Baghdad” was, in fact, bent on unleashing terror attacks against this country and its allies as part of his pursuit of revenge against those who humiliated him in the first Gulf War.
The Iraq Survey Group learned that “ricin [a deadly toxin] was being developed into stable liquid to deliver as an aerosol.” As one of the ISG’s inspectors, Richard Spertzel, observed in the Wall Street Journal last October: “Such development was not just for assassination. If Iraq was successful in developing an aerosolizable ricin, it made a significant step forward. The development had to be for terrorist delivery. Even on a small scale, this must be considered as a WMD.”
