Archived Material

This page is no longer being reviewed/updated.

The content on this page may be outdated.

Iraq's Biological Weapons Program

Current WMD Middle East Information

Please note this section is no longer being updated. For the latest Middle East WMD information, please visit these links:

Country Profiles
Information on nuclear, biological & chemical weapons and missile programs, with details on capabilities, facilities, chronologies, and imports/exports.

CNS maintains these Country Profile databases for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

Return to Iraq's Biological Weapons Program.

Foreign Suppliers to Iraq's Biological Weapons Program

Mass Produce Agent

Al-Hakam:

  • In 1989, Denmark’s Niro Atomizer Co. supplied Iraq with two spray dryers, one of which was installed at Al-Hakam in 1992.[1]

Unspecified locations:

  • At the end of 1997, a UN inspection team seized confidential Iraqi documents describing 1995 negotiations between Russia and Iraq for fermentation equipment, including a 5,000-liter fermentation vessel. UN inspectors are uncertain if the equipment was delivered to Iraq, and Russia denied that it had ever concluded such a deal with Iraq.[2]
  • Between 1991-94, the UK firm Oxoid, a subsidiary of the UK-Dutch firm Unilever, sent a total of 3,000 lbs of growth medium to Iraq in four shipments licensed by the United Kingdom’s Department of Trade and Industry.[3]
  • In 1987-88, Iraq ordered a total of 39 tons of growth media from the UK firm Oxoid and the Swiss firm Fluka Chemie AG.[4]
  • Firms in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany supplied fermentors to Iraq.[5]

 

Notes:

  1. The Danish firm believed that the equipment was to be used in Iraq civilian nuclear reactor program. R. Jeffery Smith, "Iraq’s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin," Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1. Al J. Venter, "UNSCOM Odyssey: The Search for Saddam’s Biological Arsenal," Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1998, p. 19.

  2. R. Jeffrey Smith, "Did Russia Sell Iraq Germ Warfare Equipment? Document Seized by U.N. Inspectors Indicates Illicit Deal," Washington Post, February 12, 1998, p. A1. "Russia Denies Report It Helped Iraq Develop Biological Weapon," Baltimore Sun, February 13, 1998, p. 14A.

  3. Tim Butcher, "Britain Sent Anthrax Agent to Saddam," Electronic Telegraph, February 14, 1998, (http://www.telegraph.co.uk).

  4. Both firms stated that they shipped the order without asking how it was to be used. R. Jeffery Smith, "Iraq’s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin," Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1. Al J. Venter, "UNSCOM Odyssey: The Search for Saddam’s Biological Arsenal," Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1998, p. 19.

  5. According to UN officials, the German firm knew the fermentor it supplied would be used in Iraq biological weapons program. R. Jeffery Smith, "Iraq’s Drive for a Biological Arsenal; U.N. Pursuing 25 Germ Warheads It Believes Are Still Loaded with Deadly Toxin," Washington Post, November 21, 1997, p. A1.

Prepared by Michael Barletta and Christina Ellington, November 1998
© Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.


Return to the WMDME home page.

Return to Top