U.S Guilty of Biological Threat From Iraq?
This story is now being run and was pulled from the internet:
By MATT KELLEY
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (Oct. 1) - Iraq’s bioweapons program that President Bush wants to eradicate got its start with help from Uncle Sam two decades ago, according to government records getting new scrutiny in light of the discussion of war against Iraq.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent samples directly to several Iraqi sites that U.N. weapons inspectors determined were part of Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program, CDC and congressional records from the early 1990s show. Iraq had ordered the samples, claiming it needed them for legitimate medical research.
The CDC and a biological sample company, the American Type Culture Collection, sent strains of all the germs Iraq used to make weapons, including anthrax, the bacteria that make botulinum toxin and the germs that cause gas gangrene, the records show. Iraq also got samples of other deadly pathogens, including the West Nile virus.
My God, were we really that stupid? I find it unbelievable that we did not realize the potential dangers of sending all types of biological material to Iraq as early as 1990. Hadn’t the man proven himself as dangerous prior to this time? Shouldn’t some red flags have been waved when the guy was writing the mailing address onto the box of anthrax? If this is true, and it appears to be, then aren’t we to blame for the current situation we claim to be faced with in Iraq? The idiotic nature of this is astounding. Perhaps our government should also send botulinum toxins to Korea, gangrene to Iran, or automatic weapons to a group living outside of Buffalo that are of Middle Eastern decent and claim to have research they need to conduct.
We have been so quick to point the finger at other nations, what are we going to do to clean up our own backyard? Should we implement a series of sanctions against ourselves so that we don’t do this again? With all of the checks and balances that our government must have in place to get anything done, doesn’t it seem amazing that one person, JUST ONE DAMN PERSON, in an authoritative position didn’t stop and say, “Hey, should we be sending this stuff over there?”
Many people have been demanding that President Bush prove his case against Iraq to the U.N. and provide evidence that Saddam has the potential to create biological weapons. My picture of this occurring now goes something like this:
Kofi Annan: So, President Bush, what evidence do you have that Saddam Hussein has access to materials to make biological weapons?
Bush: Well, um, I know because we sent them to him. Now I want him dead or alive. I?m a patient man. We have resolve. He is an evildoer.
Kofi Annan: You did what? You sent them to him? Were you high?
Bush: Actually, I might have been high, but my daddy was in office then, not me. I was busy making money with the Texas Rangers. How about that Alex Rodriguez, he can really play, can?t he?
Annan: Mr. Bush, that is off topic. You are out of order.
Bush: I?m out of order? You?re out of order!! This whole United Wild Kingdom of Omaha is out of order. You guys don?t do any real hunting any more???.
I digress, my random thoughts spilling onto the page. The fact is we sent biological materials to Iraq, yet we condemn other nations for doing the same thing. I?m sure we aren?t sending these materials today, but I can?t imagine that Hussein?s record on human rights was much more glowing a decade ago. Maybe Reagan did it as his mind began to fade, or the elder Bush did it because the economy was going in the tank and he needed some extra cash. Whatever happened, I expect somebody will have some explaining to do. Wouldn?t it be classic if the younger Bush discovered mistakes his father made through this? Time will tell.
Come on America, wake up and smell the coffee. Don?t send hazardous materials to dictators who hate everyone and are quite capable of killing their own people.
