Just a bit off
There's a strange phenomenon where most of us want to believe Colin Powell, even if it's obvious he's lying his ass off.

Since Powell said this almost a year ago (2/3/03 to be exact), I thought it would be worth revisiting.

"Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets. Even the low end of 100 tons of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to cause mass casualties across an area nearly five times the size of Manhattan."

"Iraq declared 8,500 litres of anthrax, but Unscom estimates that Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 litres. He has not verifiably accounted for even one teaspoon-full of this deadly material. Iraq has successfully weaponised not only anthrax, but also other biological agents, including botulinum toxin, aflatoxin and ricin. Saddam Hussein has investigated dozens of biological agents causing diseases such as gas gangrene, plague, typhus, tetanus, cholera, camelpox and hemorrhagic fever, and he also has the wherewithal to develop smallpox."

"Iraq has also developed ways to disperse lethal biological agents into the water supply, into the air. Iraq had a programme to modify aerial fuel tanks for Mirage jets. This video of an Iraqi test flight obtained by Unscom some years ago shows an Iraqi F-1 Mirage jet aircraft. Note the spray coming from beneath the Mirage; that is 2,000 litres of simulated anthrax that a jet is spraying."

A side note: David Kay, the head of the team looking for such weapons in Iraq, is looking to quietly resign without ever compiling a report. Where's that "Mission Accomplished" banner when we really need it?