Does Iraq have a biological or chemical warfare capacity?
Bennis: As far as we know, there are no viable biological or chemical weapons programs now. We know that Iraq did have biological and chemical weapons, because we sold supplies to them. The Brits sold the growth medium, we sold the biological seed stock for things like anthrax, E. coli, botulism and a host of other diseases, the Germans sold the chemical weapons. This was when Iraq was on our side throughout the 1980s. That was also the period when Iraq used those weapons, both against Iranian troops and against Kurdish civilians. MM: How much of Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program was uncovered by UN inspectors in the 1990s? Bennis: When the inspectors left Iraq in 1998, they said that they had found and destroyed or rendered harmless 90 to 95 percent of Iraq’s chemical/biological capacity. There are some unresolved questions, for example about warheads Iraq said they destroyed but for which they do not have a paper trail. The inspectors said they had found and des
