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Iraq II: United States Prepares to Present Intelligence Information Washington is preparing to release some of its intelligence information on Iraq’s purported caches of weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 27). The move comes less than 24 hours after U.N. weapons inspectors told the U.N. Security Council they need more time to fully investigate U.S. and British allegations that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been developing illicit weapons of mass destruction. In a bid to increase support for possible military action against Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush and his senior advisers have decided to declassify some of the information and release it to the public, perhaps as soon as next week, officials said. The information will show what Iraq is “doing, what they’re not doing, how they’re deceiving,” a senior U.S. State Department official said. “We will lay out the case that we can, and we will leave it to others to judge,” the official said. “When you listen to it, it should be disturbing to those people who listen objectively. To those who have made up their minds and want to duck their heads in the sand, it will pass right over them,” the official added. The Bush administration believes the intelligence demonstrates that senior Iraqi officials and military officers ordered the movement and concealment of WMD stockpiles or knew of the plans, sources said. The concealment operations have occurred days, or even hours, before U.N. weapons inspectors arrive at a site, officials said. Inspectors have detected similar signs of concealment and the United States has verified their claims, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday. “The inspectors have also told us that they have evidence that Iraq has moved or hidden items at sites just prior to inspection visits. That’s what the inspectors say, not what Americans say, not what American intelligence says,” Powell said. “Well, we certainly corroborate all of that, but this is information from the inspectors,” he added (Bob Woodward, Washington Post, Jan. 28). The White House is also preparing to release new information directly linking Hussein with al-Qaeda, a senior official said yesterday. Powell will present new, “convincing” evidence of connections between Hussein and the terrorist organization after Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair meet at Camp David Friday, the official said. U.S information shows that al-Qaeda leaders have been traveling “in and out of Iraq” since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the official said. In his State of the Union address tonight, Bush would cite “developing information” obtained from captured al-Qaeda operatives to highlight connections between Hussein and al-Qaeda, which pose “a very grave threat,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday. There have been contacts between “senior Iraqi officials and members of the al-Qaeda organization going back for quite a long time,” Fleischer said. “We know, too, that several of the detainees, particularly some of the high-level detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al-Qaeda in chemical weapons development,” he added (Joseph Curl, Washington Times, Jan. 28). Iraq Says It Is Cooperating Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said yesterday his country has provided inspectors with “super cooperation” and that Iraq has done “everything possible” to head off a war with the United States. In remarks before yesterday’s Security Council briefing, Sabri said inspectors have so far visited about 500 sites without any resistance from the Iraqi government. “How were those things done without Iraqi cooperation?” he said. Iraq has also encouraged its scientists and technicians to agree to private interviews with inspectors, but it could not force them to do so, Sabri said. Scientists invited by inspectors to submit to such meetings have all declined the U.N. invitation. “I think you care very much in the United States and in Europe for personal freedom, personal liberties,” Sabri said. “Are those scientists not covered by this concept? You ask us to force them to accept unattended interviews. We have encouraged them but we cannot force them,” he added (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, Jan. 28). Iraq has denied that it did not provide full and accurate information on its WMD efforts in the declaration it submitted to the Security Council last month, according to the Associated Press. In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan released yesterday, Sabri said the declaration answered all outstanding questions concerning Iraqi WMD programs. “The full and complete declaration given by Iraq ... and the effective and genuine cooperation of Iraqi agencies with the inspection teams ... show that Iraq is acting in good faith and is firmly resolved to fulfill its obligations under the Security Council resolutions, despite all the difficulties, arbitrariness and bias involved therein,” Sabri said in the letter dated Jan. 24 (Priscilla Cheung, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 28). The decision of whether to go to war rests solely in the hands of the Untied States, Sabri told reporters. “The ball is in their court,” Sabri said. “We have done everything possible to let this country and the whole region avoid the danger and the threat of war and destruction by the warmongers of Washington,” he added (Chandrasekaran, Washington Post). Security Council Members’ Reactions Yesterday’s briefing by chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei did little to change any minds on the Security Council on the need to disarm Iraq by force or to give the inspectors more time. Speaking with reporters after their closed-door consultations yesterday, council diplomats emphasized the parts of the reports that supported their positions. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said after the council was briefed, “Iraq is back to business as usual. The danger is that the council may return to business as usual as well.” British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock called the reports “a catalogue of unresolved questions.” “It’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of attitude. The attitude we are getting from the Iraqis at the moment is just not sufficient for the eradication of the programs that we know about,” Greenstock added. Those council members who have argued for more time continued to press that case. French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said, “We need now more active cooperation from Iraq and we need more time. ... It could be several weeks, it could be a few months.” As long as inspections are “producing results,” he said, “they should go on.” Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov said, “The main conclusion, which we heard, is that all these new finds, documents and physical evidence do not change the basic assumption under which [the inspectors] are working — that they don’t have any evidence that Iraq has resumed its weapons of mass destruction program nor can they assert that all of these programs are stopped.” He added that Iraq “is trying to cooperate actively and should be encouraged.” Deputy Ambassador Zhang Yishan of China said that while “there are some doubts to be cleared ... this process needs to continue, and more time is needed for the inspectors.” He added, “Since we have started this process and there is no clear reason to stop it, we should continue.” France, Russia and China, as well as the United States and United Kingdom, all have veto power on the council. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger of Germany said, “We have just sharpened the tool of inspections, never before have the inspectors been so powerful. ... [it] should be used to the full, and we should give the inspectors a realistic opportunity to achieve their goals in a peaceful manner.” Germany will be president of the council in February and Pleuger has already said he wants another update from inspectors on Feb. 14. The United States has lately cited South Africa’s elimination of its nuclear weapons program in the last days of apartheid as an exemplary case of disarmament. South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said yesterday, “Rather than use South Africa as an example, please note that with ... absolute voluntary cooperation, it still took two years for inspectors to be satisfied that South Africa really did not have weapons of mass destruction. In this case, who knows how long it will take.” “What will convince me that Iraq is not cooperating would be when [Blix and ElBaradei come to the council] and say ‘we are giving up, Iraq is not cooperating,’” Kumalo added. “They didn't say that” (Jim Wurst, GSN, Jan. 28). Inspections U.N. inspectors yesterday visited at least nine Iraq sites, according to a U.N. press release. One group traveled via helicopter to the Az Zubayr Naval Complex. Missile experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) observed a static test of an al-Samoud missile engine at the al-Rafah Liquid Engine Test Facility. UNMOVIC chemical inspectors also examined sheets of metal alloy at the al-Majd Center in Amiriyah, the U.N. release said. IAEA inspectors yesterday conducted a radiation survey in the Taji area. Agency inspectors also visited the al-Kindi Research and Development Company, near the northern city of Mosul and the North Refinery Company, near the city of Baji (U.N. release, Jan. 27). Inspectors also declined to interview an Iraqi scientist after he requested some of his friends be present, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said. U.N. inspectors “asked to interview an Iraqi specialist and the National Monitoring Directorate informed him and encouraged him to go through with the interview,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. “He agreed but he demanded that his personal friends attend the interview as witnesses, but (the U.N. inspection team) declined to conduct the interview after its representatives tried to convince him to do it on his own,” the statement said. A U.N. spokesman did not comment on the incident. (Nadim Ladki, Reuters/Boston Globe, Jan. 28). For further information, see:
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