Mold T-2 mycotoxin biological warfare sources and consequences
Between 1985-89, US firms exported Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Clostridium botulinum, Histoplasma capsulatam, Brucella melitensis, Clostridium perfringens (gas gangrene), Clostridium tetani (tentanus), Escherichia coli, and ‘dozens of other pathogenic biological agents,’ to Iraq.”
Foreign Suppliers to Iraq’s Biological Weapons Program
Obtain Microbial Seed Stock for Standard or Novel Agent
Agriculture and Water Resource Department:
On 3/21/86, the US Department of Commerce issued a license to the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) to export aspergillus fungal cultures, used in the production of aflatoxin, to Iraq. ATCC officials said the cultures were not delivered.[1]
Atomic Energy Commission:
Between 1985-89, ATCC made 17 shipments of “attenuated strains of various toxins and bacteria” to Iraq?s Atomic Energy Commission.[2]
Basra University:
According to a 1991 US military intelligence memo, Japanese scientists had been assisting scientists from Basra University since 1984 in researching mycotoxins produced by soil fungi, including aflatoxin. The Japanese-Iraqi team used three species of aspergillus mold to produce aflatoxin.[3]
In 1985, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sent a shipment of West Nile Fever virus to an Iraqi researcher.[4]
College of Medicine (Baghdad):
On 11/30/84, the US Department of Commerce issued a license to ATCC to export aspergillus fungal cultures to Iraq for delivery to the College of Medicine in Baghdad. ATCC officials said the cultures were not delivered.[5]
State Establishment for Pesticide Production (SEPP):
Iraq?s State Establishment for Pesticide Production (SEPP) ordered incubators and culture media from Germany?s Water Engineering Trading (W.E.T.).[6]
Salman Pak:
In 1985, the CDC sent three shipments of West Nile Fever virus to Iraq for use in medical research.[7]
University of Baghdad:
Between 1985-1989, the ATCC supplied Iraq with several pathogens, including Clostridium botulinum, and various strains of anthrax.[8]
Unspecified Locations:
Between 1985-89, US firms exported Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Clostridium botulinum, Histoplasma capsulatam, Brucella melitensis, Clostridium perfringens (gas gangrene), Clostridium tetani (tentanus), Escherichia coli, and “dozens of other pathogenic biological agents,” to Iraq.[9]
Between 1985-89, the US firm ATCC sent Iraq up to 70 shipments including 21 strains of anthrax, 15 Class III pathogens, E. coli, Salmonella cholerasuis, Clostridium botulinum, Brucella meliteusis, and Clostidium perfringens. [This may include shipments already listed to the Agriculture and Water Resource Department, Atomic Energy Commission, and College of Medicine].[10]
Between 1984-89, the CDC sent Iraq more than 80 agents, including botulinum toxoid, Yersinia pestis, dengue virus, and West Nile antigen and antibody. [This may include shipments already listed to Basra University, and Salman Pak.][11]
In 1988, Iraq unsuccessfully attempted to obtain biological agents from the UK military research center at Porton Down.[12]
In 2/87, Germany?s Sigma Chemie supplied seven ounces of trichothecene mycotoxin, including T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin, to the German firm Plato Kuehn, which indicated that the material would be exported to Iraq.[13]
In 1987, Josef Kuhn of Germany delivered 100 milligrams of trichothecene mycotoxin T-2 to Iraq.[14]
According to US Senator John McCain, Iraq obtained tularemia virus from the United States. The US Department of State said it had found no evidence to support Senator McCain?s allegation.[15]
Iraq obtained “deadly pathogens” from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.[16]
Notes:
John Hanchette and Norm Brewer, “U.N., Intelligence Reports Show Iraq Could Have Spread Deadly Aflatoxin,” Gannett News Service, December 7, 1996.
Eric Nadler, and Robert Windrem, “Deadly Contagion: How We Helped Iraq get Germ Weapons,” The New Republic, February 4, 1991, p. 18.
John Hanchette and Norm Brewer, “U.N., Intelligence Reports Show Iraq Could Have Spread Deadly Aflatoxin,” Gannett News Service, December 7, 1996.
Eric Nadler, and Robert Windrem, “Deadly Contagion: How We Helped Iraq get Germ Weapons,” The New Republic, February 4, 1991, p. 18. Bill Lambrecht, “‘Satan?s Bug’: U.S. Readies for Possible Iraqi Use of Bacteria,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 10, 1990, p. 1A. Chuck Raasch and Robert Barton, “U.S. Firms Sold Iraq Potential Warfare Material, Hill Officials,” Gannett News Service, August 23, 1998. Michael White, “207 Western Companies Sold Chemicals, technology to Iraq, Report Says,” AP, October 3, 1990.
John Hanchette and Norm Brewer, “U.N., Intelligence Reports Show Iraq Could Have Spread Deadly Aflatoxin,” Gannett News Service, December 7, 1996.
“We Have Surprises,” Der Spiegel, October 8, 1990, p. 148-152; in FBIS-WEU-90-196, (10 October 1990).
Valerie Kuklenski, “Western Firms Supplied Iraq with Chemical Weapons,” UPI, October 2, 1990.
Although the pathogens were sent to the University of Baghdad, the order was paid for by the Iraqi military. The anthrax strains originated in the UK and US military biological weapons programs. R. Jeffery Smith, “Iraq?s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin,” Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1. Al J. Venter, “UNSCOM Odyssey: The Search for Saddam?s Biological Arsenal,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, March 1998, p. 19.
William Blum, “Anthrax for Export: U.S. Companies Sold Iraq the Ingredients for a Witch?s Brew,” The Progressive, 4 (April 1998), p. 18.
Michael White, “UK Anthrax Strains ?Sold to Iraq?,” The Guardian, April 3, 1998, p. 10; Martin Hickman, “Britain Exported Anthrax to Iraq Says Lib Dem,” Press Association, April 2, 1998; Keith Bradsher, “Senator Says U.S. Let Iraq Get Lethal Viruses,” The New York Times, February 10, 1994, p. A9; Kevin Merida and John Mintz, “Rockville Firm Shipped Germ Agents to Iraq, Riegle Says,” The Washington Post, February 10, 1994, p. A8; William Blum, “Anthrax for Export: U.S. Companies Sold Iraq the Ingredients for a Witch?s Brew,” The Progressive, April 1998, p. 18; Jim Abrams, “U.S. Firms Sold Possible Biological warfare Agents to Iraq,” Associated Press, February 10, 1994; “Conflict Alleged for Head of Study on Gulf War Illness,” The Baltimore Sun, November 29, 1996, P. 20A.
Leonard A. Cole, The Eleventh Plague: The Politics of Biological and Chemical Warfare, (New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1997), p. 85-86.
R. Jeffery Smith, “Iraq?s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin,” Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1.
“W. German Firm Says Toxic Chemicals Went to Iraq,” Reuters, January 30, 1989. “Magazine: German Firms Supplied Toxic Chemicals to Iraq,” UPI, January 29, 1989.
“Worse Than Plague,” Der Spiegel; in “Der Spiegel on German Arms Sales to Iraq ? ?Worse Than the Plague?,” Telegram from the US Embassy in Bonn to the Secretary of State, August 16, 1990 (Released December 16, 1996).
Reuters, “State Department Probes Charge of U.S. Bio Weapon Aid to Iraq,” January 26, 1989. Reuter, “State Department Disputes Senator on Biological Weapon for Iraq,” January 26, 1989.
R. Jeffery Smith, “Iraq?s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin,” Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1.
Prepared by Michael Barletta and Christina Ellington, November 1998
? Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.
