By Norm Dixon
As US President Bill Clinton's justifications for the unprovoked cruise missile attack on the Al-Shifa medicine factory in Sudan on August 20 unravel, the attack is being exposed for what it was: a blatant act of state terrorism.
At 7.15pm on August 20, without warning, at least six cruise missiles slammed into the factory in the heavily populated northern suburbs of Khartoum, Sudan's capital, reducing it to rubble.
After the raid, Clinton said the missile strikes against Sudan, as well simultaneous raids on Afghanistan, were directed at an exiled Saudi religious fanatic and tycoon, Osama bin Laden.
Clinton claimed the US had "convincing evidence" that bin Laden and his followers played a "key role" in the terrible bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7. Clinton added the US had "compelling information" that bin Laden was planning more attacks.
Clinton and other US officials have persistently refused to reveal details of this "convincing evidence" and "compelling information".
The factory in Sudan, claimed Clinton, was "chemical weapons-related" and linked to bin Laden.
US defence secretary William Cohen declared that bin Laden "contributed [financially] to this particular facility, we know that he has an interest in acquiring chemical weapons, we know that this facility produces the precursor chemicals which would allow the production of VX nerve agents — that was enough of a connection for us."
The US claimed the plant had a secure perimeter patrolled by soldiers.
Al-Shifa was Sudan's main producer of medicine and veterinary drugs, supplying up to 60% of the impoverished country's needs, as well as exporting much needed medicines to the rest of Africa and the Middle East.
The plant produced antibiotics and drugs for the treatment of malaria, TB, rheumatism, ulcers, diabetes and many other disorders. It also produced drugs which help ease malnutrition and the pain reliever paracetamol.
The United Nations confirmed on August 21 that Al-Shifa was to supply 100,000 litres of anti-parasite veterinary drugs for Iraq under the provisions of the "oil for food" program.
The UN Security Council's sanctions committee approved the shipment on January 13. Payment to the company was to be drawn from a UN bank account which administers the program.
No link has been found between Al-Shifa and bin Laden. The factory was opened in December 1996, after bin Laden left Sudan for Afghanistan.
A majority of the company is owned by a Sudanese businessperson, while minority shareholders include the Economic Community for Central and Southern African States. It was financed in part by loans from the Nairobi-based Preferential Trade Area Bank.
The only tenuous — and so far unproven — link could be with companies that constructed the plant's buildings. Bin Laden's US$300 million fortune is based on his family's Saudi Arabian construction empire.
Gazi Suleiman, lawyer of the plant's owner and a leading opponent of the Sudanese regime, said the factory's owner had never met bin Laden. "I think it would have been prudent before destroying the plant to come and investigate", Suleiman understated wryly to Associated Press on August 22.
Al-Shifa was not subject to heavy security, nor were military personnel present. No attempt had been made to hide its location. Prominent road signs point the way to the factory from kilometres away.
The factory was considered a showpiece of Sudan's industrial development. It was the largest and most modern medicine factory in Africa. Visiting foreign dignitaries — including US officials and the British ambassador — were regularly invited to inspect the plant.
Belfast film-maker Irwin Armstrong, who made a video at the plant last year, told the August 23 London Observer, "In other parts of the country, I encountered heavy security but not here. I was allowed to wander about quite freely. This is a perfectly normal chemical factory with the things you would expect [to see]."
Tom Carnaffin, who was the Al-Shifa's technical manager from 1992 to 1996, added: "I have intimate knowledge of that factory and it just does not lend itself to the manufacture of chemical weapons. The Americans claimed that the weapons were being manufactured in the veterinary part of the factory ... unless there have been some radical changes in the last few months, it just isn't equipped to cope with the demands of chemical weapon manufacturing. You need things like airlocks but this factory just has doors leading out onto the street."
Following the raid, Sudanese authorities made no effort to prevent access to the destroyed plant. The rubble was left as it was, so as not to disturb the scene should an international investigation be launched.
Journalists reported that the site was littered with pills, plastic medicine bottles and the company's distinctive blue and white packaging, which is a common sight on the shelves of Khartoum chemist shops. Nothing sinister was apparent.
Sudan President Omar el-Bashir declared on August 21 that Sudan would "prove that the factory is specifically for pharmaceutical production". He asked the UN Security Council to send an independent team of investigators to determine whether the factory was producing chemical weapons.
El-Bashir's call was backed by a meeting of the 22-member Arab League on August 24.
The Observer's Washington correspondent revealed on August 23 that Clinton was aware of Al-Shifa's civilian status but chose to go ahead with the attack.
"US forces flew a reconnaissance mission to test for traces of gas and reported that there were none", reported the Observer's Ed Vulliamy. "Nevertheless, Clinton immediately authorised the attack."
Al-Shifa's export manager, Dr Alamaddin Shibli, told the August 23 London Observer that only luck prevented a large death toll.
"If the Americans had chosen Wednesday evening, instead of Thursday, it would have been a disaster", he said. Fifty workers stayed late that night to produce the special consignment for Iraq.
The impact on Sudan's poverty-stricken and famine-wracked population will be serious. "The loss of this factory is a tragedy for the rural communities who need those medicines", Tom Carnaffin told the Observer.
"The spectrum of drugs they produce is very wide. No other factory can produce all of it. There will be a loss", Mona Hamid, a doctor at Khartoum's Radiation and Isotope Centre, told Associated Press.
Honowa Hamad, a Khartoum pharmacist, told AP that imported medicines would be priced three times higher than the local product.
El-Bashir on August 24 lashed out at Clinton, describing him as "a war criminal of the first degree".
"The American president has violated international law, and he meant to destroy a civilian establishment and kill innocent people", el-Bashir said. The Sudanese leader demanded that the US compensate "all those who were harmed in the factory attack and publicly apologise".
Washington's case had become so shaky that it was forced to concoct a new story. According to the August 24 New York Times, "Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in the weeks leading up to last Thursday's strike, the United States had obtained a sample of a critical chemical used in the making of VX, a deadly nerve agent".
On August 25, Associated Press reported that "US intelligence officials" were now alleging that Al-Shifa "was working with Iraq to make deadly nerve gas" and that "a chemical in the soil at the plant ... unique to Iraq's nerve gas recipe" had been found by the CIA. The US refused to say how the soil sample came into its possession.
"US officials now concede their justification for the raid ... is less concrete than initially claimed", AP reported.
The officials admitted "there is no direct financial relationship between the plant and bin Laden". "We knew there were fuzzy ties between [bin Laden] and the plant but strong ties between him and Sudan and strong ties between the plant and Sudan and strong ties between the plant and Iraq", explained an "intelligence" official.
The August 26 London Independent reported that the "precursor chemical" is ethyl methyl-phosphonothioic acid or EMPTA.
Alfred Frey, a scientist with the Swiss laboratory that is also examining an Iraqi warhead for traces of chemical weapons, told the Independent the chemical could be used in anti-cancer drugs. The discovery of EMPTA "would tell me I found this compound and no more", he said.
The New York Times reported on August 27 that the international agency that oversees barring chemical weapons, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), confirmed that EMPTA could be used "for legitimate commercial purposes" in fungicides and anti-microbial agents.
The NYT reported that several US experts in chemical warfare pointed out that EMPTA is similar in structure to an agricultural insecticide commercially available in Africa. The newspaper also disclosed that an OPCW official in the Hague said that scientific research also suggested that EMPTA could be a by-product of the breakdown of other pesticides.
On August 25, the UN Security Council discussed Sudan's call for an independent investigation of the Al-Shifa plant for 10 minutes before dismissing the request for the time being.