The State Department expressed concern Thursday that some countries were seeking to develop biological weapons, but refused to confirm a report that Iraq was among them.
State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said he could not comment on a report by NBC News on Wednesday night that Iraq had developed biological weapons capable of spreading death and disease to all the cities in Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
NBC said Iraq was using Western European equipment to make weapons from anthrax, typhoid and cholera bacteria, and viruses, which could be carried by missiles.
“The United States is very concerned about the spread of this particulary horrible form of warfare in the world,” Boucher said.
He said the United States believes some nations are trying to develop biological weapons capability. “We cannot identify these nations further for intelligence reasons,” he said.
“But regardless of what countries are involved, we call upon all nations to comply with existing international agreements banning these weapons.”
These agreements not only ban such weapons, Boucher added, “but they also ban development, production, stockpiling, possession or transfer of biological weapons. Iraq is a signatory to these agreements.”
The NBC report came just as British customs officials announced that they seized what they believed to be the 130-foot barrel of a “super gun” as it was being loaded on a vessel bound for Iraq.
ABILITY TO FIRE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
If Iraq were to build such a gun, it would be able to fire nuclear or chemical shells at Israel and presumably also shells carrying deadly biological material.
The seized gun barrel was contained in eight crates.
Its British manufacturer, Sheffield Forgemaster, insisted that it was not a gun barrel, but parts of a pipeline for an Iraqi petro-chemical project.
On March 28, British customs agents seized crates at Heathrow Airport carrying what they said were U.S.-made trigger mechanisms for nuclear weapons.
While denying Iraq was attempting to make a nuclear weapon, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein warned that half of Israel would be destroyed if Israel tries to repeat its 1981 air strike, which destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.
He said Iraq doesn’t need nuclear weapons, since it has binary chemicals, or poison gas. “I swear to God, we will let our fire eat half of Israel if it tries to wage anything against Iraq,” he warned.
Meanwhile, it was reported from Mosul, Iraq, on Thursday that Hussein told a Senate delegation — headed by Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) — that Iraq would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction if Israel would do the same.
Boucher stressed that the United States by itself or together with other countries controls the sale or transfer to Iraq of “sensitive dual use military items.”
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