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Second Possible Iraqi Mobile Lab Found
U.S. forces found another trailer in northern Iraq that appeared to be a mobile biological weapons laboratory, Pentagon officials said Monday. The trailer was similar to one seized last month that U.S. officials believe may have been a germ weapons workshop for the Iraqis, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.They're breeding like Winnebagos! American troops found the second trailer around the northern city of Mosul Friday night or Saturday morning, one official said. U.S. experts are examining it in Mosul before sending it to the Baghdad airport, where the first trailer is being held, the officials said. Pentagon officials have pointed to the discovery of the first trailer — seized at a checkpoint near Mosul by Kurdish forces on April 19 — as possible proof that Iraq indeed had active programs to produce weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Egypt Monday he expected U.S. teams to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ``We believe there are weapons of mass destruction and we presented last week some evidence of one such program,'' Powell said, referring to the first trailer. Weapons experts aren't sure if the latest trailer is connected with the first, but it appears to have many of the same components, one official said. The first trailer was painted in a military color scheme and mounted on a transporter usually used for tanks, the Pentagon's intelligence chief said last week. The trailer contained a device for fermentation, or growing microbes, and a system to capture exhaust gases from that process, said Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Fermentation, eh? Perhaps this is where the alk runners in Saudi-controlled Arabia buy their hootch? Posted by: Steve White 2003-05-13 |
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