Iraq's weapons of mass casualty - Jane's International Security News

Iraq's weapons of mass casualty - Jane's International Security News Iraq's weapons of mass casualty

By Al Venter

Saddam Hussein, we are now aware, has prepared - by international standards - a modest, but deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He has already used some of these weapons against his enemies and, by all accounts, is ready to do so again. Why else would he have manufactured hundreds of tons of nerve agents including tabun, sarin, cyclosarin and VX? Those are the ones we know about; there could be others.

In a submission before the House Armed Services Committee on 10 September 2002 biowarfare expert Dr Richard Spertzel, who spent years trying to uncover Saddam's secrets while heading the biological wing of UNSCOM in Iraq after Operation Desert Storm, said that there was some evidence that the Iraqis might now also have the deadliest nerve gas of all: Novichok. A product of the Cold War, Novichok is a dozen times more potent than any other agent easily penetrates all known gas masks produced in the West - Israel's included.

There are not many people unaware that Saddam used chemical weapons (CW) against the Kurds in northern Iraq. However, few know the full extent of CW deployment in the war with Iran, or that Iraq also used biological weapons in that struggle.

In answer to the most obvious question being asked - whether Saddam would use the WMD he is purported to have at his disposal - one need only look at the preparations he made prior to Operation Desert Storm to bomb coalition forces with nerve and bacterial agents.

The danger was more powerfully underscored by Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies in September 2002 when it released a think-tank dossier stating that Saddam could have nuclear weapons within months if he were successful in acquiring fissile material.