By 1994, Unscom's biological team had discovered the existence of a secretive Iraqi group known as the Technical and Scientific Materials Import Division, which appeared to supply a potential germ factory in Iraq.

But the team needed more information in order to pressure Iraq to abandon its denials regarding the production of biological weapons. So in December 1994, members wrote to a handful of nations, asking if they had any information about biological materials sales to Baghdad.

Intelligence experts cited by the Times say that Israel provided copies documenting sales of 10 tons of growth media in the 1980s from a British company named Oxoid to Iraq.

Growth media, which are used to feed and breed germs, have many legitimate uses in hospitals and clinics. But the large amount of the media imported by Iraq indicated that they were being used to fill biological weapons.

Armed with this information, Unscom officials pressured Baghdad.

In a few months, their efforts paid off. In July 1995, Rihab Taha, the acknowledged leader of Baghdad's civilian germ effort, admitted, for the first time, that Iraq had produced germs for biological warfare.