Al Hakum, also romanizedAl Hakam, was at one timeIraq's most sophisticated and largestbiological weapons (BW) production factory. The facility was part of a large military complex atJurf Al Sakhar (Jur al-Sahkar), about 60–70 kilometers southwest ofBaghdad, nearal-Musayyib. It produced large quantities ofbotulinum toxin andanthrax from 1989 to 1996. The name derives from the commonArabic name or titleAl Hakam ("The Judge"), one of theNames of God in the Qur'an.
In the early 1980s, Iraq (underSaddam Hussein) violated theBiological Weapons Convention (BWC) by establishing extensive programs for the development of both chemical and biological weapons. Detailed confirmation of these programs only surfaced in the wake of theGulf War (1990–91), following investigations conducted by theUnited Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of the disarmament of Saddam's Iraq. One of several BW facilities in Iraq, the "Single-Cell Protein Production Plant" at Al Hakum was the main bioweapons production facility, built under the cover of ananimal feed facility.
The Al Hakum facility began mass production of weapons-gradeanthrax in 1989 and ultimately produced 8,000 liters or more.[1] (The 8,000 liter figure is according to a declaration by the Iraqi government itself.) In the aftermath of the Gulf War, Iraq officially acknowledged that it had worked with several species of bacterial pathogen, includingBacillus anthracis,Clostridium botulinum andClostridium perfringens (which causes gas gangrene) and several viruses (includingenterovirus 17 [i.e., humanconjunctivitis],rotavirus andcamel pox). The program also purified biological toxins, includingbotulinum toxin,ricin andaflatoxin. In total, a half million liters of biological agents were grown.
Among the products created by Iraqi bioweaponeers at the Al Hakum facility was an anthrax surrogate utilizingBacillus thuringiensis, which is essentially the anthrax agent affecting insects.B. thuringiensis is often used by gardeners to control grubs, thus the Iraqis at one time also used the cover story that the Al Hakum facility was created to deal with the Iraqi grub problem.[2]
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