The artillery balloons were used to get detailed weather data to be used to accurately direct artillery shelling. A British scientist and biological weapons expert was quoted "They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons." It was confirmed later that this expert was Dr David Kelly June 20, 2003, MP Paul Flynn: "To ask the Prime Minister what assessment has been made of the function of the two vehicles suspected of being biological weapons laboratories that were discovered in Iraq." The UK Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Investigations into their role are continuing." June 23, 2003: July 17/18, 2003: Dr. David Kelly, a key source for many of the newspaper articles doubting the Mobile weapons labs, is found dead. An inquiry into his death, The Hutton Inquiry, found his death to be suicide. September 8, 2003: Dick Cheney's continued support for the allegations September 14, 2003: January 22, 2004: Powell's retraction Pentagon report The Pentagon produced a secret report in 2003 entitled Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers that found that the trailers were impractical for biological agent production and almost certainly designed and built for the generation of hydrogen. See also Curveball (informant) Iraqi aluminum tubes Niger uranium forgeries Plame affair Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory References Iraq and weapons of mass destruction Military equipment Biological warfare facilities Causes and prelude of the Iraq War