- Dear Friends: It is a matter of public
record that the United States government relatively recently used a biological
herbicide in Peru in the Upper Huallaga Valley, allegedly for the purpose
of destroying the coca plant, but undoubtedly as part of counter-insurgency
warfare against the guerillas there. In any event, the biological herbicide
destroyed most of the food crops for the campesinos. The US government
is now contemplating doing the same thing in Afghanistan.
-
- Francis A. Boyle
- Professor of International Law
-
- Francis A. Boyle
- Law Building
- 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
- Champaign, Ill. 61820
- Phone: 217-333-7954
- Fax: 217-244-1478
- fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
-
-
-
- International Action Center
- 39 West 14th St. #206, NY, NY 10011
- (212) 633-6646 (212) 633-2889 fax
- email: iacenter@iacenter.org
- web page: http://www.iacenter.org
-
- For Immediate Release
- Press Contact: Sarah Sloan/Deirdre Sinnott
- Attention: News Editor Kadouri Al-Kaysi
(212) 633-6646
-
- February 2, 1999
-
- Biological Warfare Against Iraq: A Supplement
to Sanctions
-
- The United States is engaged in biological
warfare in Iraq. Hoof-and-Mouth disease has either killed or crippled more
than one million sheep and cattle in Iraq in the last seven weeks. The
destruction of Iraq's livestock will have a catastrophic impact on the
protein intake of the Iraqi people who are already malnourished from eight
years of economic sanctions.
-
- Nearly all of Iraq's eighteen provinces
have been hit by outbreaks of the viral disease, according to United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) officials who were interviewed
by Associated Press reporter Vijay Joshi.
-
- The Hoof-and-Mouth outbreak was reported
just seven weeks ago, according to the UN official. Since then 982,000
sheep and 50,000 cattle have been infected. More than 50,000 new-born lambs
and calves have died. Unless the disease is quickly contained it may well
become a full-blown epidemic that is likely to infect Iraq's other seven
million farm animals.
-
- Did the United States cause this disease
outbreak? The answer to this question is yes!
-
- Did the CIA actually implant the virus
into Iraq's livestock herds? That is still unknown. But the UN weapons
inspectors (UNSCOM), who were thoroughly penetrated by the CIA, purposely
destroyed Iraq's vaccine laboratory in 1993. This laboratory, located in
Baghdad, had produced the vaccine that wiped out Hoof-and-Mouth disease
in Iraq.
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- This laboratory was so effective that
it produced enough vaccine so that Iraqi farmers were able to vaccinate
their animals three times a year, 50% more than the minimum requirement.
Thus, Hoof-and-Mouth disease was completely eradicated in Iraq. The Iraqi-produced
vaccine was manufactured in such large quantities that it was even exported
throughout the Middle East.
-
- But this facility was destroyed in 1993
because the United States insisted that the facility could potentially
be used to produce biological and chemical weapons. If the United States
government did not insist on destroying this vaccine facility there would
be no Hoof-and Mouth disease in Iraq. It is as simple as that.
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- Isn't the destruction of this facility
an act of biological warfare? That Hoof-and-Mouth disease would return,
absent the vaccine, was entirely predictable.
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- Iraq allowed this facility to be destroyed
in 1993 for only one reason: They were promised that eventually sanctions
would be lifted, that commerce would begin again, that oil sales would
allow them to begin rebuilding their industrial, scientific and healthcare
infrastructure.
-
- Five years later, after 9,000 "weapons
inspections," after Iraq has been crippled economically, the U.S.
is still insisting that economic sanctions must be maintained.
-
- Because the United States has not been
able to overthrow the current Iraqi government and replace it with a Kuwaiti-style
puppet regime, a new strategy has evolved in the recent months. New massive
bombings like the Dec. 16-19, 1998, raids in which more than 1,000 bombs
and missiles were dropped have been coupled with an intensified CIA covert
operation - funded by Congress to the tune of $97 million.
-
- This is the full-court press to destabilize
and overthrow the current government of Iraq. The U.S. wants to act quickly
because world public opinion is turning against the economic sanctions
that have killed more than 1.7 million Iraqis from hunger and disease in
the last eight years.
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- Is it possible that the United States
government has actually introduced the virus into Iraq's livestock? An
independent investigation of this possibility needs to be urgently undertaken.
It is certainly not out of the question given the biological warfare resources
and strategic thinking current in the Pentagon.
-
- "Biological warfare can include
the use of bacteria, rickettsia, viruses, and toxins to induce illness
or death in humans, animals, and plants," wrote United States Air
Force Lt. Colonel Robert P. Kadlec, in a recent document for the Air Force.
-
- Lt. Col. Kadlec cites Winston Churchill's
1925 vision of the use of Biological Weapons when he wrote "pestilence's
methodically prepared and deliberately launched upon man and beast. Blight
to destroy cattle,_ Anthrax to slay horses and cattle _"
-
- This document, entitled "Biological
Weapons for Waging Economic Warfare," speaks of how biological weapons
could affect the economies of targeted Third World countries. "Lesser
developed or developing countries are in a much more precarious position.
If the target commodity was a principal cash crop or food sources, using
Biological Warfare weapons may inflict a grave blow to that nation's economy
or society and possibly result in some political impact. History has recorded
the chaos and instability created by such natural catastrophes as famines
and epidemics. Using Biological Weapons in this fashion would have applications
to waging low intensity warfare with strategic outcomes," concluded
this recently written document. This document couches the biological weapons
scenarios in the language of "defense," but the U.S. has both
an offensive and defensive orientation in the use of these weapons.
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- The U.S. has the largest stockpile of
biological weapons in the world. It has used biological weapons against
Cuba's sugar in the twentieth century; the same methods were used in the
war against Indian peoples in North America in the 19th century. Is it
impossible that the U.S. war to destabilize Iraq would include the introduction
of viral diseases among Iraq's livestock?
-
- Even if the CIA didn't implant this virus
into Iraq's farm animals, Washington's strategic planners knew full well
that Hoof-and-Mouth disease would certainly come back to haunt Iraq once
its capacity to vaccinate its animals was destroyed.
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