Commission stated that with Iraq’s failure to account for the use of these items and
materials for legitimate purposes, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that there
is a high risk that they had been purchased and used for a proscribed purpose—
acquisition of biological warfare agent. Iraq was provided with evidence collected by
the Commission. On 1 July 1995, Iraq, for the first time, acknowledged that it had
had an offensive BW program but still denied any weaponization. Subsequently, in
August 1995, after the departure from Iraq of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Hassan, Iraq
admitted that it had weaponized BW agents and deployed biological weapons for
combat use.
- Since August 1995, Iraq has submitted a number of “Full, Final and Com-
plete Disclosures” (FFCD) of its declared BW program. These declarations have been
assessed by the Commission and by international experts as incomplete, inadequate
and containing substantial deficiencies. They were not accepted as a full account of
the scale and the scope of Iraq’s BW program. This refers in particular to weaponiza-
tion of produced BW agents, bulk BW agent production and acquisitions for the BW
program. - In the Commission’s view, Iraq has not complied with requirements of the
relevant Security Council resolutions on the disclosure of its biological warfare pro-
gram. A full, complete and verifiable disclosure of all its biological weapons activities
needs to be presented by Iraq. - Because Iraq has failed to disclose fully, the scope and nature of its BW pro-
gram, the priority issue in this weapons area involves the whole scope of the BW pro-
gram. This means that Iraq must furnish a complete and verifiable disclosure as a mat-
ter of absolute first priority. The Commission would then need to assess and verify
that disclosure. - Finally, it needs to be recognized that Iraq possesses an industrial capability
and knowledge base, through which biological warfare agents could be produced
quickly and in volume, if the Government of Iraq decided to do so.
SOURCE: United Nations, http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/s99-94.htm.Iraq War Prelude
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
The long road to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had many twists and turns. It
can be argued that Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 set in motion a series of events
that ultimately led to the war of 2003. The conclusion of the Persian Gulf War in
February 1991 with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein weakened but still in power is
486 IRAQ AND THE GULF WARS