---
title: Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents (UN Security Council slide)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003/
description: A computer-rendered diagram of truck-mounted biological-weapons plants, shown to the UN Security Council six weeks before the invasion of Iraq.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents (UN Security Council slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/powell-un-mobile-labs-2003.jpg)

# Mobile Production Facilities for Biological Agents (UN Security Council slide)

A computer-rendered diagram of truck-mounted biological-weapons plants, shown to the UN Security Council six weeks before the invasion of Iraq. The slide presented the labs as established fact. The claim rested mainly on one Iraqi defector, codenamed 'Curveball,' whose reliability had already been questioned inside the U.S. and German intelligence services, and those doubts were not on the slide.

- **Date:** February 5, 2003
- **Period:** [Contemporary](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=contemporary)
- **Made by:** U.S. Department of State (Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Document](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=document)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [George W. Bush Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=george-w-bush-administration)
- **Leader:** [George W. Bush](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=george-w-bush)
- **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance), [Science and technology](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=science-technology)
- **Event:** [Iraq War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=iraq-war)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Powell_UN_Iraq_presentation,_alleged_Mobile_Production_Facilities.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Department of State, remarks to the UN Security Council, 5 February 2003.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Mobile Production Facilities For Biological Agents

Active Material Tanks

Spray Dryers

Filling Machine

Fermentation

Control Panel
```

Label positions (top title; callout labels pointing to parts of the rendered trucks): Active Material Tanks and Fermentation/Control Panel label the left-hand truck, Spray Dryers and Filling Machine label the right-hand truck.

[← Homeland Security Advisory System threat-level chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/homeland-security-advisory-system-2002/) [Coalition leaflet warning Iraqi units not to use weapons of mass destruction →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-leaflet-do-not-use-wmd-2003/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.