Hunt for Iraqi [Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)] Shifting Gears

WASHINGTON - A large new U.S. team heading into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction will shift its focus away from areas identified as suspicious sites before the war, the Army general heading the effort said Friday.

Instead, the searchers will focus on areas where documents, interviews with Iraqis and other new clues suggest biological or chemical weapons could be hidden, Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton said.

Dayton leaves Monday for Baghdad, where he will head the Iraq Survey Group. The team of about 1,400 experts from the United States, Great Britain and Australia will take over the weapons search from a smaller U.S. military team.

The shift comes amid growing questions from allies and some members of Congress about why no chemical or biological weapons have been found. President Bush (news - web sites) said Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, as well as a nuclear weapons development program. Bush used the elimination of those programs as justification for waging war against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview this week the United States should have considered giving U.N. inspectors more time to find the weapons.

Lt. Gen. James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a video teleconference from his headquarters in southern Iraq that he remains puzzled why his troops have failed to uncover chemical or biological weapons.

"Believe me, it's not for lack of trying," Conway said. "We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."

Before the war, the United States drew up a list of more than 900 "suspect sites" where weapons of mass destruction or evidence of such programs might be found. Military teams have visited more than 200 of those sites without finding any actual weapons.

The United States has found two equipment-filled trailers in northern Iraq that American intelligence agencies say were mobile biological weapons production facilities. Bush and other administration officials say the finds show Iraq did indeed have clandestine programs to make germ weapons.

Dayton, a top official in the Defense Intelligence Agency, said he remains convinced his team will find chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. He said he believed the information the United States had before the war indicating Iraq had the banned weapons and continues to believe that.

"Do I think we will find something? Yeah, I kind of do," Dayton told reporters at a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference. "This is not necessarily going to be quick and easy, but it's going to be very thorough."

Dayton said the Iraq Survey Group will include 200 to 300 searchers to fan out around Iraq to look for weapons, hundreds of experts to interrogate Iraqis, about 250 people to analyze documents and computer files at a regional base in Qatar and analysts to put the pieces together and figure out what they mean.

The group will begin a two-week transition period to take over the weapons hunt in Iraq no later than June 7, Dayton said.

The group includes both military and civilian experts, including former United Nations (news - web sites) weapons inspectors. Stephen Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, said Friday he did not know whether the United States would agree to have U.N. inspectors return to Iraq.

"Given the size and complexity of the task, it's unwise to turn down help from groups who have demonstrated expertise in this area," said Paul Kerr, an analyst at the Arms Control Association in Washington.

Cambone and Dayton said they did not know why no chemical or biological weapons have been found so far. Dayton echoed comments by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld earlier in the week speculating that Iraq could have destroyed such weapons before or during the war.

"These things could have been taken and buried. They could have been transferred. They could have been destroyed," Dayton said. "That doesn't mean they weren't there in the first place."

Comments by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz add further questions about weapons of mass destruction. In an interview in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Wolfowitz cites "bureaucratic reasons" for focusing on Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal.

Neither Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz suggested Washington fabricated weapons claims - and an aide to the defense secretary, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted their remarks had been misinterpreted.

However, the remarks were widely published in Europe and were seen by skeptical Europeans as a tacit admission that the United States overstated Iraq's weapons threat.

Along with the weapons search, the Iraq Survey Group also will investigate possible war crimes by Iraqis, links between Saddam's regime and terrorism and the fate of those missing in action or held prisoner since the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites).

Dayton said those other missions make sense because his team will be interrogating Iraqis who may know about all of those issues and because his analysts will be able to pull together clues on those matters.

"They're all interrelated," Dayton said. "We'll be connecting pieces that haven't been connected before."

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"These things could have been taken and buried. They could have been transferred. They could have been destroyed," Dayton said. "That doesn't mean they weren't there in the first place."

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Exactly. The accusers totally ignore that everyone agreed that Iraq had WMD, until the US & UK decided to do something about Saddam, since diplomacy and inspections didn't work.

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From Clinton's speech on Feb. 17, 2998:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/

And I want them to understand what we must do to protect the national interest, and indeed the interest of all freedom-loving people in the world.

Remember, as a condition of the cease-fire after the Gulf War, the United Nations demanded not the United States the United Nations demanded, and Saddam Hussein agreed to declare within 15 days this is way back in 1991 within 15 days his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them, to make a total declaration. That's what he promised to do.

The United Nations set up a special commission of highly trained international experts called UNSCOM, to make sure that Iraq made good on that commitment. We had every good reason to insist that Iraq disarm. Saddam had built up a terrible arsenal, and he had used it not once, but many times, in a decade-long war with Iran, he used chemical weapons, against combatants, against civilians, against a foreign adversary, and even against his own people.

And during the Gulf War, Saddam launched Scuds against Saudi Arabia, Israel and Bahrain.

Now, instead of playing by the very rules he agreed to at the end of the Gulf War, Saddam has spent the better part of the past decade trying to cheat on this solemn commitment. Consider just some of the facts:

Iraq repeatedly made false declarations about the weapons that it had left in its possession after the Gulf War. When UNSCOM would then uncover evidence that gave lie to those declarations, Iraq would simply amend the reports.

For example, Iraq revised its nuclear declarations four times within just 14 months and it has submitted six different biological warfare declarations, each of which has been rejected by UNSCOM.

In 1995, Hussein Kamal, Saddam's son-in-law, and the chief organizer of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, defected to Jordan. He revealed that Iraq was continuing to conceal weapons and missiles and the capacity to build many more.

Then and only then did Iraq admit to developing numbers of weapons in significant quantities and weapon stocks. Previously, it had vehemently denied the very thing it just simply admitted once Saddam Hussein's son-in-law defected to Jordan and told the truth. Now listen to this, what did it admit?

It admitted, among other things, an offensive biological warfare capability notably 5,000 gallons of botulinum, which causes botulism; 2,000 gallons of anthrax; 25 biological-filled Scud warheads; and 157 aerial bombs.

And I might say UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq has actually greatly understated its production.

As if we needed further confirmation, you all know what happened to his son-in-law when he made the untimely decision to go back to Iraq.

Next, throughout this entire process, Iraqi agents have undermined and undercut UNSCOM. They've harassed the inspectors, lied to them, disabled monitoring cameras, literally spirited evidence out of the back doors of suspect facilities as inspectors walked through the front door. And our people were there observing it and had the pictures to prove it.

Despite Iraq's deceptions, UNSCOM has nevertheless done a remarkable job. Its inspectors the eyes and ears of the civilized world have uncovered and destroyed more weapons of mass destruction capacity than was destroyed during the Gulf War.

This includes nearly 40,000 chemical weapons, more than 100,000 gallons of chemical weapons agents, 48 operational missiles, 30 warheads specifically fitted for chemical and biological weapons, and a massive biological weapons facility at Al Hakam equipped to produce anthrax and other deadly agents.

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