WAR.WIRE
CIA warns Iraqi insurgents trying to fashion chemical weapons
 WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 26, 2005
 Insurgents engaged in a guerrilla campaign against US forces and the new government in Iraq are making a concerted effort to gain chemical weapons capability and have already used old Iraqi chemical munitions in their attacks, the top US weapons investigator warned Monday.

Charles Duelfer, head of a CIA-led expert team that unsuccessfully searched for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the aftermath of the March 2003 US-led invasion of the country, said the danger that rebels could gain the know-how for manufacturing crude chemical devices "remains an important concern."

The warning is contained in a final installment of last year's report by the Iraq Survey Group, which concluded that alleged massive stockpiles of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons used by the administration of President George W. Bush to justify the war simply did not exist.

The addendum reaffirms that conclusion, with Duelfer pointing out that the investigation "has gone as far as feasible" and the reservoir of available data about Baghdad's weapons programs "has been exhausted."

But for the first time, the group showcases evidence that insurgents are trying to set up chemical weapons laboratories with the help of Iraqi scientists who worked for the Saddam Hussein regime, and that on at least two occasions used chemical munitions remaining from the 1980s Iran-Iraq war in attacks against coalition forces.

According to the report, the assailants most likely "did not know the rounds contained CW agent because the rounds were not marked to indicate they contained" it.

During one of these attacks, a round containing mustard gas was used as part of an improvised explosive device outside Abu Ghurayb barracks on May 2, 2004, the document said.

The agent, Duelfer noted, was old and "degraded to such an extent to be ineffective." Nevertheless, the rebels were taking specific steps to come up with a new and more potent arsenal.

"There are multiple reports of Iraqis with general chemical and biological expertise helping insurgents to produce chemical and biological agents," warned the weapons investigator.

The CIA was aware of one unnamed Iraqi scientist associated with the country's pre-Gulf War weapons of mass destruction program assisting guerrillas while another was involved in clandestine attempts to produce chemical mortar munitions, according to the report.

In addition, a string of underground chemical laboratories allied with Sunni extremists known as the Al Abud network was found in and around Baghdad.