Richard O. Spertzel

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the United States government concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction during the period leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq after reviewing the Iraq Survey Group's final report on September 30, 2004. Claimed links of Iraq to terrorist groups like al Qaeda were never verified, and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States concluded that there was no real evidence of such links. Much of the "intelligence" suggesting WMD in Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion was fabricated by groups like the Iraqi National Congress.

As part of the Congressional hearings prior to authorization of the invasion of Iraq, Spertzel provided testimony to the United States House Committee on Armed Services on September 10, 2002.

Richard Oscar Spertzel (9 February 1933 – 24 March 2016) was a veterinarian, microbiologist and expert in the area of biological warfare. He participated in germ warfare research at U.S. Army Medical Unit (USAMU), Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland. (USAMU is now known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID). Spertzel held several positions USAMRIID including Deputy for Research, Deputy Commander, and Chief of the Animal Assessment Division. From 1994 to 1998 Spertzel served as the Senior Biologist for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq. His Congressional testimonial about the WMD capabilities of Iraq helped to justify the subsequent US invasion of Iraq. After the invasion, Spertzel was a member of the Iraq Survey Group, which found that Iraq was not producing nor planning to produce WMD at the time of the invasion.

He was born on February 9, 1933, in Huntington Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. In 1955, Spertzel earned a Bachelor of Arts in microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Sperzel did postgraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and in 1962 he was awarded a Master's Degree in radiation biology by the Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester. His terminal degree was obtained in 1970, a Doctor of Philosophy in microbiology from the University of Notre Dame.