Malone LaVeigh
May 29, 2003, 12:34 AM
Too bad it's up to the foreign press to let us know this stuff.
Published on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 by the Guardian/UK
US Finds Evidence of WMD At Last - Buried in a Field Near Maryland
by Julian Borger in Washington
The good news for the Pentagon yesterday was that its investigators had finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria.
The bad news was that the stash was found, not in Iraq, but fewer than 50 miles from Washington, near Fort Detrick in the Maryland countryside.
Crews looking for industrial waste at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland have found more than 2,000 tons of hazardous waste and live bacteria. The contaminated soil is being stored in red containers. Crews expected to find industrial waste, but they did not realize how much dangerous material they would find. Crews found 40 drums of chemicals and 113 vials, some with samples of live bacteria like E. coli. Investigators also found a non-disease-forming strain of anthrax. (Photo/nbc4.com)
The anthrax was a non-virulent strain, and the discoveries are apparently remnants of an abandoned germ warfare program. They merited only a local news item in the Washington Post.
But suspicious finds in Iraq have made front-page news (before later being cleared), given the failure of US military inspection teams to find evidence of the weapons that were the justification for the March invasion.
Even more embarrassing for the Pentagon, there was no documentation about the various biological agents disposed of at the US bio-defense center at Fort Detrick. Iraq's failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was portrayed by the US as evidence of deception in the run-up to the war.
[more] (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0528-02.htm)
Published on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 by the Guardian/UK
US Finds Evidence of WMD At Last - Buried in a Field Near Maryland
by Julian Borger in Washington
The good news for the Pentagon yesterday was that its investigators had finally unearthed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, including 100 vials of anthrax and other dangerous bacteria.
The bad news was that the stash was found, not in Iraq, but fewer than 50 miles from Washington, near Fort Detrick in the Maryland countryside.
Crews looking for industrial waste at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland have found more than 2,000 tons of hazardous waste and live bacteria. The contaminated soil is being stored in red containers. Crews expected to find industrial waste, but they did not realize how much dangerous material they would find. Crews found 40 drums of chemicals and 113 vials, some with samples of live bacteria like E. coli. Investigators also found a non-disease-forming strain of anthrax. (Photo/nbc4.com)
The anthrax was a non-virulent strain, and the discoveries are apparently remnants of an abandoned germ warfare program. They merited only a local news item in the Washington Post.
But suspicious finds in Iraq have made front-page news (before later being cleared), given the failure of US military inspection teams to find evidence of the weapons that were the justification for the March invasion.
Even more embarrassing for the Pentagon, there was no documentation about the various biological agents disposed of at the US bio-defense center at Fort Detrick. Iraq's failure to come up with paperwork proving the destruction of its biological arsenal was portrayed by the US as evidence of deception in the run-up to the war.
[more] (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0528-02.htm)