Does Iraq have mobile biological weapons labs?
U.S. officials claim that Iraq has developed mobile biological-weapons laboratories, described as “Winnebagos of death.” Secretary of State Powell claimed on 5 February that Iraq “is continuing to make these weapons.” Powell said that the United States has “firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails.” He cited Iraqi defectors as sources for these charges. He offered no physical or documentary evidence, however, providing only an animation to depict such facilities.31 The claims about mobile biological laboratories stem from UNSCOM’s discovery of a document on Iraqi Military Industrial Commission letterhead indicating that Iraq was interested in developing mobile fermentation units. Iraqi defectors associated with the Iraqi National Congress (INC) have told U.S. officials that Iraq was trying to move in the direction of mobile BW production. UN inspectors searched extensively for mobile laboratories during the 1990s but never found any evidence confirm
