Washington, D.C. ~ Swarms of screwworm flies suddenly hit Iraqi heards of cattle and sheep in late November and December when the US began to threaten military action against Iraq, ironically, for producing biological and chemical weapons.
International agricultural experts with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome report that Iraq’s immediate neighbors have experienced no such epidemics. . . .
Worried European officials allude to biological warfare being waged against Iraqis, alleging the denial of insecticides while targeting the US as the source of billions of screwworm parasites native to the Western Hemisphere. No such reports have appeared in the American press.
Agronomists in Rome note that 12 of Iraq’s 18 provinces have been hit, while in December alone 50,000 new infections were reported. . . .
The US monopolizes the artificial breeding of screwworm flies used to “eradicate” native pest epidemics elsewhere by “biological control” programs. Screwworm larvae from unsterile parent insects (also produced on a large-scale basis) are radiologically sterilized at the US-run production facility in distant Chiapas, Mexico.
Various unexplained biological outbreaks have also occurred in Cuba, Afghanistan, Libya, and Nicaragua, and El Salvador (during anti-US regimes) while screwworm infestation has lately been identified in Iran.
~ the Real wAshinGton, February 15, 1998; reported in Women Strike for Peace