Top Reasons You Wouldn't Want a Mobile Biological Weapons Lab
Not only did Bush and Cheney and Libby tell bare-faced lies about the alleged "mobile biological weapons labs" in Iraq, the idea of such never made any sense anyway.
1. How could you have a clean room in a mobile biological weapons laboratory?
2. Petrie dishes might vibrate off the table.
3. Germs might get carsick. Now that's something you don't want to have to clean up.
4. Biologists keep pulling up at the drive-through at McDonald's.
5. What if you hit a big bump while working on the plague?
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/12/2006 05:12:00 PM
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Not to mention the fact that an overt accumulation of lab bunny poop would quickly become a problem in the enclosed space of your average Winnebago.
I take it that this is a bit of irony.
But, yet another case of the administration lying to the American people after the fact. Forget that this would be bad politics, dishonet (lying about a war = impeachable in my book too), it is also bad strategy. Fighting insurgency requires political will.
Well I don't come here often enough, obviously. I had no idea you delved into snarkdom. Thanks for that.
However, like some babies I know, anthrax will go to sleep immediately in a moving vehicle. The jostling and whirring reminds these microbes of the primordial ooze and encourages them to mutate into more virulent strains.
I think the neocon idea of the mobile labs was to be able to move them as to hide WMD from weapons inspectors. But I certainly agree from a practical standpoint, it would not be an effective way to produce biological warfare agents.
By the way, what happened to all those underground labs that Saddam had that we heard about before the war and were secretly producing WMD?
I guess maybe they are in the same place where bin Laden's massive secret underground cave complex is...
A Bioweapons Lab in Mobile, AL is fine with me. What's all the fuss about.
A big sigh from me at any idiot commenters who have asked for more posts like this.
Allow me, please, to cast a vote for your more serious side.
--J.D.
Dear Professor Cole,
Nice shot: Since the vices of this administration are hereto of no serious consequences, maybe your ridicule can kill some of those self-agrandizing neocon characters.
Though IMHO those mobile labs warrant some more digging:
During the session of the Security Council on February 5, 2003 the US Secretary of State Colin Powell mentioned a German "eye witness" to support his argument for the existence of mobile bio labs. I think he referred not to the discredited Iraqi informer "curveball" but to the former UN weapon inspector Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack. The German veterinary officer was convinced that the Saddam regime had highly developed programmes of weapons of mass destruction and was bullish about the case for military intervention.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,294118,00.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/12/1031608299446.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/hutton/story/0,13822,1041813,00.html
What was her role in the intelligence charade leading up to the war? What was written on the two page hand written note Kelly left? Did she play a role in recruiting 'curveball'?
6) Imagine rolling down a hill, exceeding the speed limit and then having to explain to a cop what all the anthrax is all about?
Thank you for the hilarious post.
When the claims were being made I recall thinking, "How the hell does one ride around in a mobile lab full of dangerous "stuff" and not worry for his/her own safety knowing that satellites were watching and that American and British planes were overhead (or could be in a matter of minutes).
They'd be out of there the minute they got out of Hussein's view.
The ridiculous nature of such a thing quickly led me to the same conclusions that you point out here.
Forget about bombs, worry about speedbumps (or the occasional sandstorm or two or 100).
This Administration has succeeded in making the world think that what was once a nation know for analysis, intellect, and power into an impotent group of greedy creationist idiots.
Back to Iraqi mobile biolabs
Discussing IWMD seriously is a challenge, but still possible. So, although technically imaginable, to the best of my knowledge, mobile biolabs were never heard of neither before nor after neocons started hyping them in Iraq.
The problem is, nobody ever cared to describe Russian or Western mobile biolabs, so one can think that Rihab Taha developed them from scratch. No, of course she was not that good as a scientist!
Or, putting it differently, Dr.Germ was smart enough to figure out that this kind of weapons system makes no sense: if a country cannot maintain stationary weapons production then it has no use for mobile units as well.
My guess is, this delusional idea originates from the inflamed imagination of a journalist who had some vague memories of mobile ICBMs. Maybe he/she thought it is all pretty much same thing? You never know.
It is pretty obvious that most of the people who have commented on Sadaam's "mobile bio-labs" have never really seen the technical facillities required to provide for the secure containment for hazardous chemical or biological agents. It is not something that you would try to build into your family trailer.
All human beings lie. All color the truth too. The legal test of a lie (perjury) is rather stiff. Bush and Cheney might excape conviction. However, it can be more serious to mislead persistently than to lie. The proof of misleading (bad leadership) is much easier, too, and the solution (new leaders) more obvious.
It is valid to ask whether the alleged mobile bio-weapons labs had a real basis, a mirage perceived by photo analysts under orders to spot them, or an outright hoax by exiles. Bush and Cheney probably did not invent the the concept from scratch. More likely, they picked or encouraged the explanations that fit their theories.
Is there a clear boundary between "connecting the dots" and fabrication? Where does vision become delusion? Where does delusion end and mendacity begin?
In this case, a courtroom prosecutor might not be able to prove presidential perjury. The more important case is whether Bush and Cheney, in the grand sum of decisions and actions, showed a negligent regard for proper assessment and execution of the whole war.
The notion of mobile weapons facilities is not silly, per se. This would be one way to frustrate inspectors or aerial attacks. Most microbe cultures are not particularly infectious, unless in a highly processed or aerosol form, except to the people in direct contact.
There are dumber ideas. Some people say there should be hydrogen powered cars because they think they would create no CO. Aside from the fact that the hydrogen has to be created and compressed by burning something, they blithely ignore that a tank of liquid H is about the most explosive thing imaginable, after enriched U238. You'd not want one in your neighborhood, much less beneath your SUV.
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