A chemical plant, especially one that made dangerous chemicals, would be far more complex, with airlocks, piping webs, pressurized containers, cooling and heating units. Scattered throughout the wreckage of the plant were thousands upon thousands of blister packs of anti-biotics, empty glass bottles and plastic containers filled with veterinary medicines. Names on packages included Amoxonil, Shifatryp, Shifazole and many others. Some of them, like the reporters from the London Observer newspaper, spent days examining the site. They were joined by many Sudanese from surrounding neighborhoods in Khartoum.
Access is easy.
Much of Khartoum seems to have come to take a look. Plant designer Henry R. Jobe from the U.S., British technical manager Tom Carnaffin, who supervised construction from 1992-96, and Jordanian engineer Mohammed Abul Waheed, who supervised plant production in 1997, have all testified that it would have been impossible for this plant to have produced chemical weapons. The Al-Shifa facility was not only open after the attack, but ever since the plant dedication as well. The opening ceremony in 1997 was attended by heads of state, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. Since that time it had been a frequent stop for visiting dignitaries and groups of Sudanese school children.