
After the 1991 Gulf War, a UN Special Commission was set up to go into war-torn Iraq, seek out Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and destroy or disable them. This remarkable Horizon follows the tension of the inspectors' every move as they track down secret military bases, Scud missile launchers, the infamous super-gun barrels, decaying chemical weapons dumps, and the remains of the nuclear research establishment, cunningly hidden amongst debris and the innocent-looking rubble of post-war reconstruction. At each stage in the cat-and-mouse game with the Iraqi security forces, the UN team had to draw on cunning and courage to force their way into secret locations. Day by day, they recorded their progress on video, and charted the tensions of diplomatic stand-offs as the world was twice drawn close to another violent confrontation in the Gulf. The courage of the UN team, drawn from scientists from all over the world, is graphically revealed as they attempt to gauge the lethal nature of rusting canisters of poison gas, at Saddam's decaying chemical weapons store. After the immediate rush of successes, the inspectors' work became a steady process of attrition - grinding on against the stonewalling of their hosts. "The weapons programme is like layers of an onion. Every now and then, Saddam would allow us to peel one back, but there is always more underneath." But five years on, the inspectors had still not tracked down proof of the darkest of Saddam's secrets: his biological weapons programme. However, painstaking detective work revealed that huge quantities of the media needed for growing biological organisms had been imported, and Iraq finally admitted to having substantial biological weapons, which are cheaper and more simple to produce than nuclear and chemical weapons, yet have the same destructive power. Gradually the inspectors got close to the labs and animal testing stations where the lethal toxins had been produced. In addition to the most common biological warfare organisms, anthrax and botulinus, Iraq developed and tested strains of viruses never before adopted for weapons purposes. This was part of an ongoing international biological arms race to design novel weapons using gene-splicing or fibroviruses such as Ebola, Hanta fever and others.
Title | Horizon - Season 35 Episode 1 : Saddam's Secrets |
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Alternative Titles | BBC Horizon |
Subtitle Available |
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First Air Date | 1964-02-04 |
Last Air Date | 2024-07-22 |
Number of Episodes | 1169 |
Number of Seasons | 60 |
Genres | Documentary, |
Networks | BBC Two, |
Casts | |
Plot Keywords | , |










Episodes List
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 1 Saddam's Secrets Saddam's Secrets
1998-02-19Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 2 Dr Miller and the Islanders Dr Miller and the Islanders
1998-02-26Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 3 The Rainmaker The Rainmaker
1998-03-05Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 4 Hopeful Monsters Hopeful Monsters
1998-03-19Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 5 The Limits to Birth The Limits to Birth
1998-03-26Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 6 Overkill Overkill
1998-04-02Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 7 The Curse of Vesuvius The Curse of Vesuvius
1998-04-16Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 8 Mir Mortals Mir Mortals
1998-04-23Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 9 The Computer that Ate Hollywood The Computer that Ate Hollywood
1998-04-30Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 10 Magic Bullet Magic Bullet
1998-05-07Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 11 The Gulf War Jigsaw The Gulf War Jigsaw
1998-05-14Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 12 Sexual Chemistry Sexual Chemistry
1998-09-10Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 13 Chimps on Death Row Chimps on Death Row
1998-10-01Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 14 Dinosaurs in Your Garden Dinosaurs in Your Garden
1998-10-08Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 15 Mosquito! Mosquito!
1998-10-15Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 16 The Life and Times of Life and Time The Life and Times of Life and Time
1998-10-22Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 17 Thalidomide: A Necessary Evil Thalidomide: A Necessary Evil
1998-10-29Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
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Horizon Season 35 :Episode 18 Beyond a Joke Beyond a Joke
1998-11-05Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.