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| Axis of Evil |
| Winnebagos of Death |
| 2002-11-27 |
| Civilian experts and government officials say Iraq has put many of its weapons laboratories on wheels, making them not only nearly impossible to detect and destroy, but also posing a grave threat in the event of war. The weapons labs might be hidden in anything from 18-wheel tractor-trailers to recreational vehicles to bread trucks — making a search for them in Baghdad, a city of 5 million, as futile as last month's search in Washington for white-paneled trucks driven by the Beltway sniper. In a recent address to the National Press Club, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned "there is evidence to support mobile production capability for chemical and biological weapons [in Iraq]." "It does not take a lot of space for some of this work to go on. It can be done in a very, very small location. And the fact that you can put it on wheels makes it a lot easier to hide from people that might be looking for it." Even more worrisome, experts say, is the fact that these mobile weapons labs, which a report in the Los Angeles Times dubbed "Winnebagos of Death," could be ready at a moment's notice. In his recent book, The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, Kenneth M. Pollack, director for Gulf Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1999 to 2001, wrote that Iraqi defectors have also alleged that "Saddam has taken the entire Iraqi program on the road." "For example, [Saddam] has taken his BW [biological weapons] program mobile by breaking it up into small, self-contained units that fit into the back of generic tractor-trailers and can be driven all over the country," Pollack wrote. But other experts have been more vague about the the extent and nature of these labs. The mobile weapons labs might be units for dispersing biological or chemical weapons in the event of a hostile action, or they might simply be parts of a weapons lab that was broken up to avoid detection. Iraqi officials might even use these vehicles to hide the elements that could be used to change civilian facilities into weapons-making facilities, experts said. The trucks could contain dual-use items like fermenters, spray dryers, centrifuges, and all they would need to do is drive up to an electrical source and a water source to begin producing weapons, said Richard Spertzel, the former U.N. chief biological weapons inspector in Iraq from 1994 to 1998. Dual-use items are necessary for legitimate civilian purposes, like making paint or animal feed, but they are also essential elements for making certain weapons of mass destruction. Such mobile weapons labs could transform a civilian facility into a weapons facility "just by being there," Spertzel said. I have no hope that the UN inspectors could find these even if they ran into one on the street. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I question whether or not Iraqis could have sourced carriers with adequate humidation and temperature control. However, if they did and one of these was bombed, a local catastrophe could result. I oppose close quarters' conflict, and favor exercise of the nuclear blackmail option. When it looks to Iraqis like they might have to die, with only regime change in the balance, they will submit to occupation, pending democratization. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-11-27 22:54:18 |
| #2 suggestion to CentCom: Bomb the ones marked "BabyMilk Delivery" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2002-11-27 21:27:04 |
| #1 Prediction: when the air war starts, we'll bomb a whole bunch of tractor-trailers, RVs and bread trucks. And the leftie community in the EU and US will go ape complaining of wholesale violations of the "rules of war." I'll put $2 on this: any takers? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-11-27 18:45:56 |