Initial Positive Chemical Tests Discounted

N E A R  B A Y J I, Iraq, April 28, 2003 -- It's now believed that more than a dozen 55-gallon drums found in northern Iraq might contain rocket fuel — not the dangerous chemicals first suspected after two days of tests.

Lt. Col. Valentin Novikov, the chief chemical weapons officer of the 4th Infantry Division, the unit which found the site, told The Associated Press that new tests were conducted on one of the drums.

The results raised the prospect that this find would just be the latest in the series of false alarms in U.S. effort to prove Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.

More tests on the unmarked barrels found near Bayji, about 130 miles north of Baghdad are planned in the coming days.

Earlier today, chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons specialists from the Army's 5th Corps examined them, and tentatively concluded that there were no chemical weapons there, the leader of the team told a New York Times reporter embedded with the team.

"Our tests showed no positive hits at all," Capt. Ryan Cutchin, the leader of Mobile Exploitation Team Bravo told the Times.

The suspect site also included missiles, warheads and vehicles that were suspected to be mobile laboratories for banned weapons, but Cutchin said the vehicles were "probably for decontamination or some kind of fuel filling, consistent with the rockets found at the site."

Using high-tech gear unavailable to experts from another Army squad, Mobile Exploration Team (MET) Bravo — whose preliminary tests over the weekend identified a nerve agent and a blister agent — tests came up negative.

By design, initial test procedures favor positive readings, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers.

The investigators searching for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been frustrated by a lack of information and say they are understaffed and under-equipped.

Wary of False Alarms

Even before MET Bravo conducted tests on Sunday, at least one member of the team, which is responsible for moving samples of suspicious substances for laboratory analysis, was convinced the containers contained rocket fuel, not chemical weapons, sources told ABCNEWS.

The team, which does not talk to the media, arrived Sunday just as the Army 5th Corps experts were taking off their protective silver suits and orange boots.

Officials exercised caution in characterizing the Bayji discovery north of Tikrit. In recent weeks, U.S. forces have found a number of suspicious containers in Iraq that initial tests suggested contained potentially dangerous chemical agents. In each case, the initial results turned out to be false alarms.

Such initial field tests easily can confuse pesticides for dangerous military chemicals, as was the case in at least one previous discovery, experts note.

There are other reasons for caution: It is one thing to identify chemical weapons in the field, but in order for those results to hold up in an international court, they have to be tested under controlled laboratory conditions in three different labs.

Warheads, Vehicles

Military officials, and the chemical specialists at the site, were intrigued by other debris scattered near the suspect barrels. A U.S. Special Forces reconnaissance team on Friday found at least a dozen missiles, 150 gas masks and warheads at the site.

Local residents said the material was dumped at the location by Iraqi troops the day after U.S. forces took Baghdad. They said an Iraqi officer stayed behind and stood watch over the material for two more days.

"The warheads are in one place and the device, the rocket part of it, is in a different place," Novikov told ABCNEWS on Sunday. "That's why there's some thought that some of the drums are potentially propellant and some of the drums are potentially what they pour into the warhead."

Also raising suspicions were two partially looted vehicles at the site with dosage charts, a workstation, and what appeared to be a giant, Russian-made mixing device inside. Army Lt. Valerie Phipps, who gave ABCNEWS an exclusive tour of the site Saturday, said the vehicles might be mobile labs used to mix chemicals.

ABCNEWS' David Wright near Bayji, Iraq and Bill Blakemore in Baghdad, contributed to this report.