By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON - Iraq's bioweapons program that President George W. Bush ( news - web sites) wants to eradicate got its start with help from the United States two decades ago, according to U.S. government records getting new scrutiny in light of the discussion of war against Iraq.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( news - web sites) sent samples directly to several Iraqi sites that U.N. weapons inspectors determined were part of Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites)'s biological weapons program, CDC and congressional records from the early 1990s show. Iraq had ordered the samples, claiming it needed them for legitimate medical research.
The CDC and a biological sample company, the American Type Culture Collection, sent strains of all the germs Iraq used to make weapons, including anthrax, the bacteria that make botulinum toxin and the germs that cause gas gangrene, the records show. Iraq also got samples of other deadly pathogens, including the West Nile virus ( news - web sites).
The transfers came in the 1980s, when the United States supported Iraq in its war against Iran. They were detailed in a 1994 Senate Banking Committee report and a 1995 follow-up letter from the CDC to the Senate.