U.S. ignored negative Iraq biolab report

WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Newly revealed documents show U.S. President George W. Bush and intelligence agencies ignored a report from Iraq that suspected biological labs were harmless.

The Washington Post spoke to members of a 9-man team that went to Iraq in May 2003 to examine two alleged mobile biological laboratories. The members interviewed asked not to be identified, but all said their final report on the trailers was quite clear and apparently ignored.

"Within the first four hours, it was clear to everyone that these were not biological labs," one member old the newspaper.

The report said the trailers were "impractical for biological agent production," lacking 11 crucial components for making biological weapons. Instead, the trailers were "almost certainly designed and built for the generation of hydrogen" for use in weather balloons, the group reported.

Their 3-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. However, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly claim that the trailers were weapons factories.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said initial intelligence assessments concluded the trailers were used for producing biological weapons, and that assessment "remained in place for quite some time." McClellan said the newspaper story was "simply reckless and it was irresponsible."

"The lead in The Washington Post left the impression for the reader that the president was saying something he knew at the time not to be true," said McClellan. "That is absolutely false and it is irresponsible."