Graham: I owe you an apology. I suppose, on the subject of the U. S. providing biological germs to Iraq, it depends on who you believe.

According to a report from the AP in our local newspaper today, "The U. S. likely supplied Iraq with germs in weapons." According to the story, "The exports were legal at the time and approved under a program administered by the Commerce Department."

"I don't think it would be accurate to say the United States government deliberately provided seed stocks to the Iraqis' biological weapons programs," said Jonathan Tucker, a former U.N. biological weapons inspector.

"But they did deliver samples that Iraq said had a legitimate public health purpose, which I think was naive to believe, even at that time."

Iraq later admitted to the U. N. that it had made weapons out of the strains they received.

Sources for the AP story are given as: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Senate Banking Committee, Associated Press.

So if one is to believe this story, the U. S. did in fact provide Iraq with the seeds of what has become an arsenal of WMD. However, they were not sent there for that purpose. It is conceivable, I believe, (though not reported in the AP story) that the U. S. may have supplied similar or the same biological strains to other countries as well. I do not believe when they were shipped, however, it was known they would be used to produce WMD.

DougR