Steve Quayle News Alerts

April 17, 2003

B A G H D A D, Iraq, — Dangerous strains of cholera, black fever, HIV, polio and hepatitis may have been
lost during the postwar looting of Iraq's key disease-control facility, ABCNEWS has learned. The U.S. military is worried they may be used as weapons.

In an exclusive report, ABCNEWS' Brian Ross revealed that scientists at Baghdad's Central Public Health Laboratory are worried that an unknown number of viruses have been stolen.

Scientists say looters took refrigerators full of the deadly viruses last Friday, but they're not sure what's actually missing.

"They are in containers, all of these things taken together, cholera, AIDS and black fever," chemist Rasa Al-Alaq said. "The viruses that are lost, we have no idea where they went."

U.S. Marines were sent to guard the facility today after Iraqi scientists reported the dangerous material had been removed by looters. U.S. officials admit they have no idea what was in there, how much was taken or where it is now.

U.S. sources are concerned that polio and hepatitis may have been stolen, in addition to other viruses that may not be reflected in the official records in Baghdad.

The Iraqi scientists say they have no idea who took the material. They don't know whether it was swept up in the looting rampage or taken by someone who knew what they had.

Lab‘s Director Angry It Wasn’t Protected

The failure of the U.S. military to prevent the looting greatly concerned and angered the director of the lab.

"The Americans shouldn't just protect Ministry of Oil, they should protect all the general public health services," said Mounier Kuba, the lab's director.

The lab was inspected by the United Nations as recently as Dec. 30. No biological weapons were found, but the United States has been suspicious that the Ministry of Health was involved in an Iraqi biological weapons program.

"A building like this should have been known to intelligence and it should have been a high-category target to come and secure this building," said Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat who is now an ABCNEWS consultant.

Marines said they saw the looting taking place last Friday but they had no instructions to protect the building — and not enough people, even if they had wanted to.

"I didn't know what this facility was," said Lt. Matthew Danner. "I probably should have done something, but I didn't have the manpower."

The Marines have been told to consider the inside of the building a hot zone. "I was ordered not to go in and I'm not going to go in. I can secure it without going in," Danner said, adding that he doesn't advise that anyone go inside the building.

As escaped laboratory animals roamed the compound, a new sign was posted in Arabic reading: "Stay away, extremely dangerous. Lab is polluted with viruses."

There have been no reports of illness yet and the greatest danger may be to the looter who took the viruses. In the wrong hands, however, the viruses could be considered a potent weapon.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Primetime/Iraq030417LostViruses.html