Posted on 12/09/2002 5:38:35 PM PST by RCW2001
Dec. 9
— By Steve Holland and Hassan Hafidh
WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. officials began analyzing a 12,000-page dossier detailing Baghdad's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs on Monday as U.N. inspectors resumed their hunt for banned Iraqi arms with visits to several industrial sites.
The United States received an early unedited copy of the Iraqi weapons declaration after a deal was struck to override a U.N. Security Council decision to keep the report under wraps.
The huge document appeared to contain the names of foreign arms suppliers in a long declaration on Iraq's past weapons programs -- something that could prove embarrassing for the countries involved, including members of the Security Council.
The council had wanted to delay release of the Iraqi document until it had been screened for technical secrets on making nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, for fear that the information might fall into the wrong hands.
In a surprise move on Sunday, an arrangement was suddenly made to hand over the voluminous document to the United States, which is making copies for the other four permanent Security Council members. Britain and France received their copies late on Monday and Washington was expected shortly to deliver copies to Russia and China in New York.
The report, which is supposed to give a full accounting of Iraq's past and present weapons programs, was ordered by the Security Council as part of a tough new resolution to disarm or face war.
In the index, Iraq listed procurements for its nuclear programs as well as imported chemical precursors and foreign technical assistance for its chemicals weapons programs.
"There are lots of pages devoted to procurement information," said Gary Milholling, director of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, commenting on the dossier's information on suppliers.
"If they have listed all their suppliers, that is quite important and should be made public. If you expose this network, it means it is harder for them to continue."
COMPANIES NEVER IDENTIFIED
In the past such information has been submitted but not disclosed by U.N. weapons inspection units. Companies around the world that co-operated with the United Nations did so on condition they would not be publicly identified.
It is not known whether the United States or other council members might try to suppress this part of the Iraqi report, but after distribution to all of the Security Council's 15 member states, there is a good chance it will leak to the media.
Meanwhile, U.N. experts in New York and Vienna were poring over the report to judge whether it contained enough to satisfy U.N. demands for disarmament and perhaps to avert war with the United States.
U.S. experts are expected to search for discrepancies between the disclosures made by Iraq and what U.S. intelligence believes it knows about Baghdad's continuing efforts to develop banned weapons.
American officials say they have evidence of continuing Iraqi illegal weapons and insist Washington will take military action if necessary to rid Iraq of them.
Iraq says the declaration shows it has no weapons of mass destruction -- an assertion that puts it on a collision course with the United States.
In Washington, however, a group of Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill challenged the Bush administration to prove its assertions by releasing intelligence showing that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction.
"If the administration has evidence that counters the Iraqi disclosures, they should provide such evidence to the United Nations," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat. "The administration does not do well if it bypasses the United Nations and prepares to engage in war no matter what the U.N. findings."
WAR GAME IN QATAR
Strikes on Iraq are among the military scenarios to be tested in a major U.S. war game that began on Monday in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, site of Gen. Tommy Franks' new mobile headquarters for U.S. Central Command.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said President Bush had "patience."
"He would much prefer to have Iraq disarm herself," he told reporters during a visit to Tokyo. "But, as the president said, if Iraq won't disarm, then eventually, Iraq will be disarmed."
Bush was taking new steps to solidify support against Iraq, and will host a visit on Tuesday by Turkey's new political leader, Tayyip Erdogan, who is from an Islamic-related party.
A top aide to President Saddam Hussein hinted on Sunday that Iraq once came close to making a nuclear bomb. He invited the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to decide for itself how close.
"We have the complete documentation from design to all the other things. We haven't reached the final assembly of a bomb nor tested it," Amir al-Saadi told journalists.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Reuters in Vienna that this statement "was consistent with what we found between 1991 and 1998" and was no surprise to the U.N. agency.
The arms inspectors, who have resumed work in Iraq for the first time in four years, on Monday searched al-Tuweitha Nuclear Research Center, 12 miles south of Baghdad, the heart of Iraq's efforts to make nuclear weapons.
Other experts inspected a military industrial complex near Fallujah, 55 miles northwest of Baghdad, repeatedly investigated by the United Nations and bombed by Western warplanes in the 1990s as a suspected chemical weapons center.
Yashuhiro Ueki, spokesman for UNMOVIC and IAEA in Baghdad, said the site, known as Fallujah 2, contained tagged dual-use equipment that was all accounted for. "The objectives of the visit were successfully achieved," Ueki said in a statement.
The IAEA team also visited two other sites, called Ash Shakyli and al Qa Qaa.
Asked about estimates the inspection process could take up to a year, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in Tokyo: "I think that's accurate."
The arms inspectors must report to the Security Council by Jan. 26 under U.N. resolution 1441, which threatens Iraq with "serious consequences" if it fails to comply.
I wonder if this is the 'original' document that we are in possession of?
Also note how we are making the copies and providing them to the other 4 members of the Security Council. Nice 'clean' copies, perhaps?
I've no doubt that at a certain level of granularity pretty much every major nation, whether through goverenment or private contacts, has had some role in helping Iraq violate UN sanctions since the Gulf War. For Saddam, that's exactly the problem. When everyone's caught with their hands in the cookie jar the whitsleblower takes the heat. Any nation, because they will have so many cohorts, will only have to say "That dirty Saddam! He assured us he was using uranium to sterilize baby milk, and he lied!" Everyone else falls into line and POOF...no more Saddam.
If anyone would care to provide the proper quote of Stormin Norman's "He's a great military leader except..." rant I'd welcome it. I don't recall it off hand and I don't want to do it injustice.
U.N. to keep tight lid on Iraqi declaration - White House 'blindsided' by Blix announcement
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- On the eve of Iraq's official declaration on weapons of mass destruction, the United Nations Friday announced the document will not be given to the U.N. Security Council -- which demanded the declaration -- until weapons inspectors have examined it and possibly even edited out parts.Here's something from Sept. 4Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Friday that any parts of the declaration relating to the proliferation of prohibited weapons "or any other very sensitive thing, we'll say cannot be circulated to anybody."
France against publishing secret documents on Iraq's weapons programs (Sept. 4)
France said it was against publishing top-secret evidence on Iraq's alleged development of weapons of mass destruction, saying the public arena was not the place to wage such a campaign."These are not issues which we can deal with publicly. This calls for serenity and seriousness, and we should therefore beware of any leaks and any saber-rattling proposals," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told France Info radio.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would in the coming weeks release damning information about Baghdad's alleged efforts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, to prove the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
The foreign minister said that France and Britain had shared information on the proof of such a weapons program. and it "is out of the question to divulge these exchanges."
...snip..."
Notably, Blair's report didn't mention source countries.
Chief UN arms inspector to meet French officials before mission (Nov 14)
PARIS, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix will arrive in Paris on Saturday to meet with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin before starting his mission in Iraq, the French Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.France is covering up for itself, and hopes to keep their boy Saddam in power. Russia and Germany probably also have things to hide.Blix, chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), is expected to leave for Europe on Friday. He will be accompanied by a dozen aides.
Mohammed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will join Blix to finalise an operational plan forthe weapons inspections.
The UNMOVIC team will arrive in Baghdad on Monday. Among them will be eight French inspectors, including nuclear physician Jacques Baute, who will be in charge of the IAEA's ground inspections, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
Recall that the Bush administration does "leak.
When it wants to...
I fully expect we will become familiar with names like Pechiney, Thomson, Rhone-Poulenc, etc. soon enough...
The French should be left to turn slowly in the breeze. Not lynched with a noose, mind you, but hanged in a harness -- so that they can understand exactly what's happening to them. And why...
Mark Twain was right...
Security Council Agrees to Give U.S. and Four Others Uncensored Copies of Iraq Declaration
UNITED NATIONS Dec. 9 — In a surprise decision late Sunday, the Security Council agreed to give the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain full access to Iraq's arms declaration, U.N. officials and diplomats said.
The decision overrides one made Friday to distribute censored copies to the council
Under Sunday's agreement, the other 10 council members, including Syria, will only see the declaration once it is translated, analyzed and gleaned of sensitive material including possible instructions on bomb-making.
The decision was announced by Colombian Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, the current Security Council president, who met with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix late Sunday, several hours after Iraq's long-awaited dossier arrived at U.N. headquarters.
"After consultation with the members of the Security Council, the presidency decided to allow access to the Iraqi declaration to those members with the expertise to assess the risk of proliferation and other sensitive information to begin its immediate review," he said.
U.N. officials said the only countries with that level of expertise are the five permanent members.
Valdivieso said the experts would work "in close coordination and consultation," with weapons inspectors and "will assist them in producing a working version of the declaration as soon as possible."
According to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, largely drafted by the Bush administration and passed on Nov. 8, any omission or false statement that Iraq makes in the declaration would constitute a "material breach," a distinction which could open the door for another war against Saddam Hussein.
Sounds like some arms were twisted. And somebody hollered "Uncle"...
Giving credit where it's due: the Secretary of State, General Powell, and the Ambassador to the UN, Negroponte, probably are responsible for the about face.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.