NB: This piece explains that chemicals for making hydrogen cyanide were
found in Fallujah. Some FBI agents who investigated the 1993 bombing of the
World Trade Center believed that that bomb was meant to produce hydrogen
cyanide, but the material was burnt up in the heat of the explosion. In
fact, in the sentencing hearing for the defendants in the first WTC bombing
trial, that is what the judge charged.
Iraqi bomb labs signal attacks in the works
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 30, 2004
Chemicals and bomb-making literature found at two houses in Fallujah, Iraq,
last week show Iraqi rebels are prepared to use chemical and biological
weapons in future attacks, a U.S. military spokesman said yesterday.
Rebels in Fallujah had materials for making chemical blood agents and
also a "cookbook" on how to produce a deadly form of anthrax, said Army Lt.
Col. Steven A. Boylan in a telephone interview.
Col. Boylan said there are no signs to date that the terrorists actually
used chemical or biological weapons in homemade bombs that the military
calls improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
"But this definitely shows that they had the intent and willingness to
go down that road," he said. "The intent is there to at least make it and
potentially to use it."
A U.S. military team trained to handle chemical weapons removed the
materials and equipment, and testing is under way, Col. Boylan said.
The two houses in Fallujah were used by terrorists linked to Abu Musab
Zarqawi, the al Qaeda-linked leader who is behind many of the suicide
bombings and attacks against Iraqi civilians and U.S. military personnel,
Col. Boylan said.
Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military uncovered one chemical and
bomb-making factory Wednesday, Col. Boylan said. A day later, a second
residence was found with bomb-making and chemical-weapons material in
another part of the city, he said.
The chemical lab was found during house-to-house searches of the city,
where some 2,000 terrorists and former fighters for Saddam Hussein's regime
were killed in recent battles.
"The chemical labs had cookbooks that had formulas for making
explosives," Col. Boylan said. "One of them had directions on how to make
anthrax. One of them had ingredients and directions on how to make blood
agent."
Chemicals for the blood agent hydrogen cyanide that were found included
potassium cyanide and hydrochloric acid, he said.
Hydrogen cyanide, which affects the blood, is extremely poisonous and
can be used as a weapon in both vapor and liquid form.
In addition to chemical-weapons materials, the troops uncovered other
bomb-making materials in the residence, including ammonium nitrate and
military explosives that are used in making roadside and vehicle bombs, he
said.
It is believed the Fallujah rebels had planned to lace their improvised
bombs with hydrogen cyanide, he said.
Soldiers also found testing kits labeled "Soman, Sarin and V-Gases,"
which are used to test for the presence of chemical nerve agents.
The kits contained vials labeled in English, Russian and German that
read, "For working instructions, refer to the instructions leaflet."
Col. Boylan noted that the chemical weapons are "indiscriminate" terror
weapons that were to be used against Iraqi civilians as well as against
U.S., Iraqi and allied troops.
He said Fallujah has been neutralized as a center for terrorist bombing
operations by the U.S. military's ongoing operation there.
"We're finding tons of weapons -- caches with hundreds of weapons,
ammunition, IEDs and factories," he said.
"These locations were being used to do nothing but fabricate IEDs and
other weapons."
He noted that Fallujah is considered the single largest place for
weapons and explosives used by rebels in Iraq.
"We're still going house to house" in Fallujah, he said.
Troops are fighting to clear buildings of insurgents, but "we still have
pockets [of resistance] and sporadic fighting as they find holdouts, and
that's to be expected," Col. Boylan said.
"It's not an easy process. It's a slow, methodical process that once
completed will have cleared the city" of insurgents, he said.
Iraqi Minister of State Kassim Daoud said last week that the chemical
laboratory "was used to prepare deadly explosives and poisons."
