Al Qa'qaa and Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction
The Al Qa'qaa plant was heavily involved in Iraq's clandestine program to produce weapons of mass destruction, with its workers' expertise in explosives being used to develop explosive lenses for nuclear weapons. Iraq's program suffered serious setbacks due to the Israeli destruction of the experimental reactor at Osirak in June 1981 and a massive accidental explosion at Al Qa'Qaa in August 1989, which severely damaged the plant and was heard hundreds of miles away. British-Iraqi journalist Farzad Bazoft attempted to investigate the incident by disguising himself as a medical technician in order to infiltrate Al Qa'qaa. However, he was caught and executed on charges related to his visit.
In March 1990, customs officials at Heathrow Airport in London seized a case of military electrical capacitors - key components of triggers for explosive lenses - which was bound for Al Qa'qaa. The United States subsequently charged five people and two British companies with violations of export regulations.
During the 1991 Gulf War the facility was severely damaged by bombing. After the war, the UN weapons inspectors UNSCOM further destroyed and sealed weapons and facilities at the base. However, part of the base was rebuilt and attracted concern from Western countries. In September 2002, the plant was named by the British Government in Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (the "September Dossier") as being the site of a rebuilt phosgene production facility. Although phosgene has industrial uses in small quantities, there are no legitimate nonmilitary uses for such large scale production, and it is capable of being used as a chemical weapon, as was done by Germany in World War I. The British and Americans also alleged that a large consignment of 81 mm aluminium tubes delivered to the plant were to be used as rotors in centrifuges to produce enriched uranium.
IAEA officials inspected the site at least ten times in 2002 and 2003 but discovered no weapons of mass destruction. The aluminum tubes did exist, but they were determined to be for short-range artillery rockets (which Iraq was allowed to possess). The inspectors left the country in mid-March 2003 shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq. They sealed the bunkers where explosives were stored, but were not permitted to return after the United States took control.
The Al Qa'qaa high explosives controversy is over the question of when the IAEA-sealed explosives were removed from their bunkers; whether it happened before, during or after the invasion of Iraq.
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