Another Look At Those Iraqi Trailers

Project on Government Secrecy Director Steven Aftergood on why Mr. Bush may have acted hastily when he stated the following;

"For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them," Bush said May 30, referring of the trailers.

In its report last week, the CIA said that the mobile plants could only be used for illicit production of biological weapons.

"We have investigated what other industrial processes may require such equipment -- a fermentor, refrigeration, and a gas capture system -- and agree with the experts that BW agent production is the only consistent, logical purpose for these vehicles," the CIA report said.

But this seems to be an overly hasty conclusion.

"Mobile pilot plant fermentation facilities are not uncommon," observed chemist George C. Smith. In fact, they have a sufficient number of conventional applications, he noted, that they are commercially marketed. One such mobile fermentor is described here:

The CIA report said the Iraqi plant design could be specifically identified as a banned weapons system because of its device for capturing exhaust gases: "The capability of the system to capture and compress exhaust gases produced during fermentation is not required for legitimate biological processes and strongly indicates attempts to conceal production activity."

But that's not necessarily so either, said Smith, a senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org.

Thus, a design for a mobile bioreactor that is used to decontaminate soil at the U.S. Department of Energy Savannah River site features an optional "noxious gas adsorber" that has nothing to do with biological weapons production. See the schematic diagram on this page:

"Perhaps the CIA analysts are correct when they claim the fermentors in Iraq are part of a biological weapons program," Dr. Smith said. But "a vapor trap is no smoking gun indicating the labs must be for bioweapons production."

Furthermore, "it is not that difficult to think of legitimate reasons for the generation and uses of microbial products in Iraq." He cited the production of Bacillus thuringiensis for pest control as one illustrative hypothesis.

In short, the CIA report does not conclusively prove the case that it asserts.