ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book concerns the secrecy surrounding biological and chemical weapons in a peculiarly Cold War context. Secrecy also played a role in the build-up to the second Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq. Kathleen Vogel has cast a sociological eye over the since discredited claims made by the Bush administration that Iraq possessed mobile biological weapons factories. A close reading of events in the history of chemical and biological warfare research and policy demonstrates how it is difficult to maintain the idea of secrecy as simply a veil drawn around an immutable activity. Curveball's information eventually resulted in a series of diagrams and sketches of the alleged mobile factories, which had been worked up from Curveball's original drawings into more stylised versions.
