Post by no name on May 31, 2004 22:01:11 GMT -5
1997, May. The Russian ministry of Science and Technology sponsors a biotechnology trade fair in Teheran.
1997, June. UNSCOM reports that one of their Iraqi escorts attempted to wrest the controls of a U.N. helicopter from its Chilean pilots to keep it from flying over a suspected arms site and even threatened to shut off the fuel pump to the engine, stating he would, “do whatever he could to stop the aircraft from flying."
In another case an Iraqi helicpoter blocked the progress of a U.N. helicopter by flying dangerously close to it.
1997, October. A protracted confrontation with Saddam Hussein begins after Iraq accuses U.S. members of the U.N. inspection teams of being spies and expels the majority of U.S. participants. The U.N. Security Council threatens renewed economic sanctions. The confrontation continues into November as Iraq expels the remaining six U.S. inspectors and the United Nations withdraws other inspectors in protest. Inspectors are readmitted after the United States and Great Britain again begin a military build-up in the Gulf. However, in November, Iraq announces it will not allow inspectors access to sites designated as "palaces and official residences." U.N. officials protest, having long suspected that such sites were being used to conceal possible weapons of mass destruction.
1998, March. The Defense Department begins an vaccination program to immunize all military personnel against Anthrax.
1998, October 31. Iraq cuts off all work by U.N. monitors. The United States and Great Britain warn of possible military strikes to force compliance. A renewed military build-up in the Persian Gulf begins.
1998, November 5. The U.N. Security Council condemns Iraq for violating agreements signed after the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
1998, November 11. U.N. weapons inspectors are kicked out of Iraq by Saddam. Based on the UNSCOM report to the UN Security Council in January 1999 and earlier UNSCOM reports, when the UN inspectors left Iraq they were unable to account for: up to 360 tonnes of bulk chemical warfare agent, including 1.5 tons of VX nerve agent; up to 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals, including approximately 300 tons of which, in the Iraqi chemical warfare program, were unique to the production of VX; growth media procured for biological agent production (enough to produce over three times the 8,500 liters of anthrax spores Iraq admits to having manufactured); over 30,000 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents.
During their tenure, UNSCOM turns up several “cookbooks” for chemical and biological weapons.
1998, November 14. With B-52 bombers in the air and within about 20 minutes of attack, Saddam Hussein agrees to allow U.N. monitors back in. The bombers are recalled before an attack occurs. Weapons inspectors return to Iraq a few days later.
1998, December 8. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler reports that Iraq is still impeding inspections. U.N. teams begin departing Iraq.
1998, December 15. A formal U.N. report accuses Iraq of a repeated pattern of obstructing weapons inspections by not allowing access to records and inspections sites, and by moving equipment records and equipment from one to site another.
1998, December 16. The United States and Great Britain begin a massive air campaign (Operation Desert Fox) against key military targets in Iraq. Targets include the Castor Oil Production Plant at Fallujah, which was damaged, but has been rebuilt. The residue from the castor bean pulp can be used in the production of the biological agent Ricin
1999, January. The UN Special Commission reports that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that 550 mustard gas-filled artillery shells and 400 biological weapons-capable aerial bombs had been lost or destroyed.
UNSCOM concludes that Iraq has not accounted for 1.5 tons of VX, a powerful nerve agent. Former UNSCOM head Richard Butler wrote that “a missile warhead of the type Iraq has made and used can hold some 140 liters of VX... A single such warhead would contain enough of the chemical to kill up to 1 million people.”
1999, March. The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Launches project “Bacchus.” Its purpose is to determine if it can set up a working germ-factory by purchasing readily available, off-the-shelf technology in the U.S. and overseas. By buying both new and used equipment they set up a working facility at the Nevada Test Site and produce about 2 lbs. of “simulated” anthrax. None of the purchases are detected by any reporting agency. Later, the site is used to train anti-terrorism teams how to “assault” a bio-weapons lab without causing an outbreak or infecting themselves--a feat that turns out to be much more difficult than first thought.
1999, April. A man claiming to be Saddam’s former personal driver publishes a book in Britain. He quotes Saddam as saying he might one day use the West Nile virus against his enemies.
1999, August. An outbreak of West Nile Virus strikes New York. 62 people become ill and seven die. Most doctors are stumped by the flu-like symptoms, but an astute lab-technician notifies the CDC which confirms West Nile. The Mayor orders spraying the city for mosquitoes, which prevents a wider outbreak. This is the first known outbreak in North America. Experts still don’t know how the virus found its way to New York from the Middle-East.
2000. Iraqi authorities reportedly introduced tongue amputation as a punishment for persons who criticize Saddam Hussein or his family, and on July 17, government authorities reportedly amputate the tongue of a person who allegedly criticized Saddam Hussein. Authorities perform the amputation in front of a large crowd. Similar tongue amputations also reportedly occurred.
Iraq attempts to procure dual-use chemicals for the “reconstruction” of civil chemical production at sites formerly associated with the chemical warfare program. Iraq also tries to procure dual-use materials and equipment which could be used for a biological warfare program.
145 male prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison. Dozens of women accused of prostitution were beheaded without any judicial process. Some were accused for political reasons. Prisoners at the Qurtiyya Prison in Baghdad and elsewhere are kept in metal boxes the size of tea chests. If they do not confess they are left to die.
Other methods of torture used in Iraqi jails include using electric drills to mutilate hands, pulling out fingernails, knife cuts, dripping with acid, sexual attacks and 'official rape'.
2000, Spring. George Tenet, director of the CIA reports to a panel of experts that Osama bin-Laden has been training his operatives in the use of chemical and biological toxins.
2000, June. A former Iraqi general reportedly received a videotape of security forces raping a female family member. He subsequently received a telephone call from an intelligence agent who stated that another female relative was being held and warned him to stop speaking out against the Iraqi Government.
2000, May. Federal officials stage the largest emergency-preparedness exercise ever. The scenario is the hypothetical release, by a lone-terrorist, of a Pneumonic Plague virus in Denver. The exercise lasts five days and is ended when the results show that spread of the virus has overwhelmed the ability of emergency worker to respond and it has spread out of control into neighboring states. The death-toll estimates for the period of the exercise range between 1,000 and 2,000. The simulated outbreak not only overwhelms Colorado health services, but the CDC’s ability to respond as well.
2000, October. The U.S.S. Cole, a modern warship is crippled and nearly sunk by suicide bombers piloting a dinghy packed with explosives. 17 Sailors are killed and scores injured.
2001. An Iraqi defector, Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, says he has visited twenty secret facilities for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Mr. Saeed, a civil engineer, supports his claims with stacks of Iraqi government contracts, complete with technical specifications. Mr. Saeed said Iraq uses front companies to purchase dual-use equipment with the blessing of the United Nations – and then secretly used the equipment for their weapons programs.
2001. Iraq announces that it will begin renovating the al-Dawrah Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Facility, one of two known bio-containment, level-three, facilities in Iraq that have an extensive air handling and filtering system. Iraq has admitted that this was a biological weapons facility. Iraq starts the plant without UN approval, ostensibly to produce vaccines that it could more easily and more quickly import through the UN.
1997, June. UNSCOM reports that one of their Iraqi escorts attempted to wrest the controls of a U.N. helicopter from its Chilean pilots to keep it from flying over a suspected arms site and even threatened to shut off the fuel pump to the engine, stating he would, “do whatever he could to stop the aircraft from flying."
In another case an Iraqi helicpoter blocked the progress of a U.N. helicopter by flying dangerously close to it.
1997, October. A protracted confrontation with Saddam Hussein begins after Iraq accuses U.S. members of the U.N. inspection teams of being spies and expels the majority of U.S. participants. The U.N. Security Council threatens renewed economic sanctions. The confrontation continues into November as Iraq expels the remaining six U.S. inspectors and the United Nations withdraws other inspectors in protest. Inspectors are readmitted after the United States and Great Britain again begin a military build-up in the Gulf. However, in November, Iraq announces it will not allow inspectors access to sites designated as "palaces and official residences." U.N. officials protest, having long suspected that such sites were being used to conceal possible weapons of mass destruction.
1998, March. The Defense Department begins an vaccination program to immunize all military personnel against Anthrax.
1998, October 31. Iraq cuts off all work by U.N. monitors. The United States and Great Britain warn of possible military strikes to force compliance. A renewed military build-up in the Persian Gulf begins.
1998, November 5. The U.N. Security Council condemns Iraq for violating agreements signed after the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
1998, November 11. U.N. weapons inspectors are kicked out of Iraq by Saddam. Based on the UNSCOM report to the UN Security Council in January 1999 and earlier UNSCOM reports, when the UN inspectors left Iraq they were unable to account for: up to 360 tonnes of bulk chemical warfare agent, including 1.5 tons of VX nerve agent; up to 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals, including approximately 300 tons of which, in the Iraqi chemical warfare program, were unique to the production of VX; growth media procured for biological agent production (enough to produce over three times the 8,500 liters of anthrax spores Iraq admits to having manufactured); over 30,000 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents.
During their tenure, UNSCOM turns up several “cookbooks” for chemical and biological weapons.
1998, November 14. With B-52 bombers in the air and within about 20 minutes of attack, Saddam Hussein agrees to allow U.N. monitors back in. The bombers are recalled before an attack occurs. Weapons inspectors return to Iraq a few days later.
1998, December 8. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler reports that Iraq is still impeding inspections. U.N. teams begin departing Iraq.
1998, December 15. A formal U.N. report accuses Iraq of a repeated pattern of obstructing weapons inspections by not allowing access to records and inspections sites, and by moving equipment records and equipment from one to site another.
1998, December 16. The United States and Great Britain begin a massive air campaign (Operation Desert Fox) against key military targets in Iraq. Targets include the Castor Oil Production Plant at Fallujah, which was damaged, but has been rebuilt. The residue from the castor bean pulp can be used in the production of the biological agent Ricin
1999, January. The UN Special Commission reports that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that 550 mustard gas-filled artillery shells and 400 biological weapons-capable aerial bombs had been lost or destroyed.
UNSCOM concludes that Iraq has not accounted for 1.5 tons of VX, a powerful nerve agent. Former UNSCOM head Richard Butler wrote that “a missile warhead of the type Iraq has made and used can hold some 140 liters of VX... A single such warhead would contain enough of the chemical to kill up to 1 million people.”
1999, March. The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Launches project “Bacchus.” Its purpose is to determine if it can set up a working germ-factory by purchasing readily available, off-the-shelf technology in the U.S. and overseas. By buying both new and used equipment they set up a working facility at the Nevada Test Site and produce about 2 lbs. of “simulated” anthrax. None of the purchases are detected by any reporting agency. Later, the site is used to train anti-terrorism teams how to “assault” a bio-weapons lab without causing an outbreak or infecting themselves--a feat that turns out to be much more difficult than first thought.
1999, April. A man claiming to be Saddam’s former personal driver publishes a book in Britain. He quotes Saddam as saying he might one day use the West Nile virus against his enemies.
1999, August. An outbreak of West Nile Virus strikes New York. 62 people become ill and seven die. Most doctors are stumped by the flu-like symptoms, but an astute lab-technician notifies the CDC which confirms West Nile. The Mayor orders spraying the city for mosquitoes, which prevents a wider outbreak. This is the first known outbreak in North America. Experts still don’t know how the virus found its way to New York from the Middle-East.
2000. Iraqi authorities reportedly introduced tongue amputation as a punishment for persons who criticize Saddam Hussein or his family, and on July 17, government authorities reportedly amputate the tongue of a person who allegedly criticized Saddam Hussein. Authorities perform the amputation in front of a large crowd. Similar tongue amputations also reportedly occurred.
Iraq attempts to procure dual-use chemicals for the “reconstruction” of civil chemical production at sites formerly associated with the chemical warfare program. Iraq also tries to procure dual-use materials and equipment which could be used for a biological warfare program.
145 male prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison. Dozens of women accused of prostitution were beheaded without any judicial process. Some were accused for political reasons. Prisoners at the Qurtiyya Prison in Baghdad and elsewhere are kept in metal boxes the size of tea chests. If they do not confess they are left to die.
Other methods of torture used in Iraqi jails include using electric drills to mutilate hands, pulling out fingernails, knife cuts, dripping with acid, sexual attacks and 'official rape'.
2000, Spring. George Tenet, director of the CIA reports to a panel of experts that Osama bin-Laden has been training his operatives in the use of chemical and biological toxins.
2000, June. A former Iraqi general reportedly received a videotape of security forces raping a female family member. He subsequently received a telephone call from an intelligence agent who stated that another female relative was being held and warned him to stop speaking out against the Iraqi Government.
2000, May. Federal officials stage the largest emergency-preparedness exercise ever. The scenario is the hypothetical release, by a lone-terrorist, of a Pneumonic Plague virus in Denver. The exercise lasts five days and is ended when the results show that spread of the virus has overwhelmed the ability of emergency worker to respond and it has spread out of control into neighboring states. The death-toll estimates for the period of the exercise range between 1,000 and 2,000. The simulated outbreak not only overwhelms Colorado health services, but the CDC’s ability to respond as well.
2000, October. The U.S.S. Cole, a modern warship is crippled and nearly sunk by suicide bombers piloting a dinghy packed with explosives. 17 Sailors are killed and scores injured.
2001. An Iraqi defector, Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, says he has visited twenty secret facilities for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Mr. Saeed, a civil engineer, supports his claims with stacks of Iraqi government contracts, complete with technical specifications. Mr. Saeed said Iraq uses front companies to purchase dual-use equipment with the blessing of the United Nations – and then secretly used the equipment for their weapons programs.
2001. Iraq announces that it will begin renovating the al-Dawrah Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Facility, one of two known bio-containment, level-three, facilities in Iraq that have an extensive air handling and filtering system. Iraq has admitted that this was a biological weapons facility. Iraq starts the plant without UN approval, ostensibly to produce vaccines that it could more easily and more quickly import through the UN.