[117421] in Cypherpunks
Saddam secretly making weapons
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Thu Sep 2 20:54:43 1999
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 02:24:24 +0200 (CEST)
Message-Id: <199909030024.CAA12414@mail.replay.com>
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Saddam secretly making weapons
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Iraq is continuing secret work on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles that are banned under United Nations sanctions, according to a White House report sent recently to Congress. "We are concerned by activity at Iraqi sites known to be capable of producing [weapons of mass destruction] and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as by Iraq's long-established covert procurement activity that could include dual-use items with [weapons] applications," the report said. The six-page report, based on intelligence information and produced by the White House National Security Council, was required under a fiscal 1999 appropriations act and highlights the continuing problem caused by Iraq's expulsion of U.N. weapons inspectors in December. The Clinton administration began air attacks during Operation Desert Fox in December, prompting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to expel all U.N. weapons inspectors and end all cooperation with weapons dismantling. U.S. warplanes are con!
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tinuing to fly thousands of combat aircraft missions over Iraq in order to enforce -- Continued from Front Page -- sanctions that prohibit the Iraqi military from flying its planes or driving tanks over large sections of the country. Pentagon officials have described the ongoing actions as "a low-level war." The White House report runs counter to recent administration claims that there is no evidence Iraq is continuing to work on its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program and missile delivery systems. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told reporters in July that "we have no reason to believe there have been significant efforts to reconstitute their weapons of mass destruction program." But the report said: "Some eight years after the Gulf War and Saddam Hussein's defiance of the international community, we are under no illusions that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, will comply with [United Nations Security Council] resolutions on disarmament, human rights, accoun!
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ting for POWs, and the return of stolen property. "Our policy of containment plus regime change is designed to secure the interests of the citizens of Iraq and its neighbors from an aggressive and hostile regime, while U.N. sanctions help prevent Saddam Hussein from reconstituting his military or [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities." The report said that U.S. forces in the region are "robust." The United States is prepared to use force "should Saddam cross our well-established red lines: should he rebuild his [weapons of mass destruction], should he strike out at his neighbors, should he challenge allied aircraft in the no-fly zones, or should he move against people living in the Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq," the report said. David Leavy, a National Security Council spokesman, said the report outlines what is known about the Iraqi weapons activities. "We continue to support an internal-monitoring program or mechanism to be in place in Iraq because Saddam h!
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as used weapons of mass destruction in the past, and there's no reason to think he won't again in the future," Mr. Leavy said. "That remains an area of concern." The report was made public before debate at the U.N. Security Council on a resolution proposed by Britain and the Netherlands to set up a new weapons-inspection system. "We have made clear to Saddam that one of our red lines is the reconstitution of weapons of mass destruction," Mr. Leavy said. The report stated that as long as U.N. weapons inspectors are barred from working in Iraq, "our concerns about the potential meaning of these activities will persist." According to the report, U.S. spy satellites and electronic eavesdropping on Iraq can provide only limited information on the Iraqi weapons programs so weapons inspectors on the ground are needed. On Iraq's nuclear program, the report said the Iraqis did not have the capability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons in December, when inspection ended. However, "we c!
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annot rule out continued Iraqi nuclear weapons research." Questions remain about Iraqi nuclear weapons activities, the report said. Discrepancies still exist about the amount of chemical weapons held by the Iraqis, and Baghdad has not fully explained the extent of its germ-weapons programs. "Iraq retains the industrial capability and knowledge base to develop [biological weapons] agents quickly," the report said. As for long-range missiles banned under U.N. sanctions, the report states that the Iraqis may be hiding at least seven complete missile systems and major components. The report states that priority issues include resolving concerns that Iraq still has banned warheads capable of delivering chemical or biological weapons, including warheads filled with the nerve agent VX. The Iraqis also may have "single-use liquid missile propellent and indigenous missile production" programs hidden from inspectors. The report concluded that a long-term weapons monitoring method is cri!
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tical to detecting Baghdad's efforts to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction. Scott Ritter, a former chief inspector in Iraq for the United Nations, said in an interview that the report highlights contradictory policies by the administration. It appears to be aimed at bolstering the administration's covert efforts to oust Saddam rather than getting international weapons inspectors back inside Iraq, he said. "This paper shows that we are not really serious about the issue of weapons inspections," Mr. Ritter said. "If we were serious, we would understand the requirement for a new approach to inspections that achieves as much as we can get in terms of a viable inspection process. "This is purely a smoke screen on the part of the administration to legitimize its containment policy and the ultimate removal of Saddam." One senior U.N. official told The Washington Times: "If we get back in, we may have to approach the inspections like starting from square one." He confirmed that t!
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he United Nations may be forced to engage in new searches for weapons facilities built since the inspections ended. It could take a long time -- years, he explained. Marine Corps Sgt. John Baker, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said U.S. and allied warplanes have flown more than 14,500 patrol flights over the southern Iraq air exclusion zone since December 1998, when the military launched Operation Desert Fox. "There have been 51 strikes and about 120 targets have been fired on" since December, Sgt. Baker said. The command, which is in charge of the 31,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region, has logged about 215 Iraqi "provocations" that prompted retaliation by U.S. and allied warplanes, Sgt. Baker said. About 120 of the provocations were Iraqi aircraft penetrations into the air exclusion zone, which extends over most of Iraq south of Baghdad, he said. Over northern Iraq, the combat picture since the U.S. bombing raids in December is similar. Air Force jets dropped ei!
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ght bombs on northern Iraqi targets yesterday, a Pentagon official said.
Stewart Stogel contributed to this report from New York.
