Researcher: Iraq attempted to smuggle anthrax to U.S., Britain
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Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Sunday, October 28, 2001
TEL AVIV Ñ 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 Ñ most specifically Iraq Ñ 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."
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