PoliBlog

Clever Concealment?

An interesting story from yesterday's WaPo about Saddam's "dual use" facilities":

The Bush administration says it has been told by an Iraqi scientist that Saddam Hussein in past years decentralized the chemical and biological weapons programs by putting production equipment within commercial facilities so that it would not be discovered but could be used when needed to produce deadly agents.

The scientist, in a May 7 White House document made available to The Washington Post, describes Iraq as having "carefully embedded its [weapons of mass destruction] infrastructure in dual-use facilities" with chemical weapons production "on demand" or "just in time."

The document noted that "facilities for making deadly nerve agents were also producing legitimate products like pesticides," but "such sites also could employ 'just in time' manufacturing and delivery systems to reduce the need for stockpiles." It said the Iraqi tractor-trailer seized in northern Iraq in April and outfitted with equipment that could be used to manufacture biological agents represented "physical evidence of such an approach."