Back برنامج الأسلحة البيولوجية العراقية Arabic Biowaffenprogramm des Irak German Program senjata biologis Irak ID
Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) began an extensive biological weapons (BW) program in Iraq in the early 1980s, despite having signed (but not ratified until 1991) the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972. Details of the BW program and a chemical weapons program surfaced after the Gulf War (1990–91) during the disarmament of Iraq under the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM). By the end of the war, program scientists had investigated the BW potential of five bacterial strains, one fungal strain, five types of virus, and four toxins.[1] Of these, three—anthrax, botulinum and aflatoxin—had proceeded to weaponization for deployment.[2] Because of the UN disarmament program that followed the war, more is known today about the once-secret bioweapons program in Iraq than that of any other nation.
The program no longer existed when the George W. Bush administration cited it as justification for its 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Iraq War.
- ^ Zilinskas, Raymond A. (1999), "Iraq's Biological Warfare Program: The Past as Future?", Chapter 8 in: Lederberg, Joshua (editor), Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat (1999), The MIT Press, pg 138.
- ^ Zilinskas (1999), Op. cit., pg 143.