Some US and British intelligence analysts who have examined trailers found in Iraq doubt the US government's conclusion that they were used to produce biological weapons, the New York Timesreported this morning.
Three teams of Western experts have now examined the trailers and evidence they contained, the report said. While the first two groups concluded the trailers could have been used to manufacture germ agents, a third, more senior group was sharply divided on the issue, it said.
A May 28th CIA report detailing the find and conclusions drawn from it "was a rushed job and looks political," said one senior analyst, who asked the Times not to print his name.
That report stated that although no traces of biological warfare agents were detected in the specially equipped tractor-trailers, US intelligence has concluded that production of biological warfare agents was their "only consistent logical purpose."
Not everyone within the intelligence community agrees, according to the Times.
The skeptics cite what they say are three flaws in the government's argument, zeroing in on a central processing unit, or fermenter, needed to multiply germs to a level of concentration that makes them deadly.
First, the trailers lacked gear for steam sterilization, described as "a prerequisite for any kind of biological production." Without it, the germs would likely become contaminated, the experts said.
Second, each unit could produce only a small amount of germ-filled liquid, which would then require further processing at another facility, the Times said.
Third, technicians would have no easy way of removing germs from the processing tank, the report said.
Iraqi scientists have said the trailers were used to produce hydrogen for weather balloons -- an assertion some analysts now view as "potentially credible," the Times said.
Other officials interviewed by the Times disputed the skeptics and provided alternate explanations.
Iraq could have used a separate mobile unit to supply steam to the trailer, or sterilized the tanks with pure water instead of steam, they said.
They disagreed that the trailers could only make a small amount of concentrated weapons and said Iraqi scientists could drain the tanks of germ-laden liquids through a pipe on the trailer's bottom, using an air compressor to speed the process.
Controversy has been raging over whether the United States and Britain fudged the data to back up their claims about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, advanced as the main reason for the war but still missing after extensive coalition-led searches throughout the country.
The Times report comes after the revelation Friday that as of September 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency was unable to pin down any Iraqi facilities or locations where chemical weapons were being stored or produced.
Defense officials confirmed the revelation Friday but insisted it was a single sentence taken out of the context of a longer report.
AFP