U.S. military experts yesterday discovered preliminary indications that the al-Tuwaitha complex — the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program — contains stockpiles of weapon-grade materials, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune (see GSN, April 10).

Members of a U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency team conducted a cursory inspection of what has been dubbed the “Yellowcake Facility,” a few hundred meters offsite, and told Marines guarding the facility that they believe it contains plutonium.  Further inspections have been planned.

“We are here to see what’s here,” said U.S. Army Maj. Ken Deal, a member of the team.  “We will determine when a larger team of scientists will show up.  This could take days.  We’ll know later in the week,” he said.

The team has also begun interviewing a former nuclear physicist and an engineer who worked at al-Tuwaitha, according to the Tribune.  The two men said they would show investigators “everything we didn’t show the inspectors” from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. Marines.

During the most recent series of international inspections, the IAEA investigated al-Tuwaitha a dozen times, but found no evidence of nuclear weapons efforts.  Some IAEA inspectors said they would be “surprised, but not necessarily shocked” if coalition scientists found evidence of nuclear weapons production at the site (Carl Prine, Pittsburgh Tribune, April 11).

Some officials said yesterday, however, that U.S. troops at al-Tuwaitha might have only discovered stockpiles of low-grade uranium, instead of weapon-grade materials.  An expert familiar with U.N. nuclear inspections in Iraq said it was implausible that U.S. forces had found anything new at the site.  Instead, the Marines had apparently broken U.N. seals meant to ensure that the radioactive materials stored there were not used to produce weapons or stolen, the official said.

Other Suspicious Finds

Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Iraq have also found several other suspicious sites that may be linked to Iraqi WMD efforts, according to reports. 

Soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division have found 11 shipping containers filled with sophisticated laboratory equipment buried underground at a chemical plant in the city of Karbala, according to the Associated Press.  A report in the Army Times said the equipment’s sophistication, and the fact that it was buried, has increased suspicions that the plant was used to produce chemical weapons.

U.N. inspectors visited a site near the plant in late February, but did not find the buried equipment (William Kole, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, April 10).

Coalition forces have recently discovered an abandoned Iraqi military prison near the southeastern city of Zubayr that contained discarded gas masks and injectors for atropine, a nerve gas antidote, according to the Washington Times.

U.N. inspectors have no record of the prison, which contains at least two cells that appear to have been recently sealed, according to the Times.  Several rooms have signs saying “chemical storage” and drawings of gas masks and protective gear (Betsy Pisik, Washington Times, April 11). 

A U.S. Marine unit has found a possible mobile biological laboratory near Baghdad, according to FOX News.  Investigators searched what appeared to be a refrigerator truck and found what appeared to be surface-to-air radar equipment.  Further investigation, however, discovered fake side panels that contained an electronic pulley system, open containers and a system to rinse and cool substances without manual help (FOX News, April 11).

About 30 Iraqi missiles have been found near a shopping center in northern Baghdad, according to Agence France-Presse.  The missiles were loaded onto 15 trailers, which witnesses said had been abandoned at the site several days ago (Agence France-Presse, April 11).

U.S., Russian Spies Scour Baghdad

U.S. forces in Baghdad have secured the Iraqi Interior Ministry for later search by the CIA in the hope of finding information on Iraq’s WMD efforts, according to intelligence sources.  Russian newspapers have reported that a unit of the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR), the Russian foreign intelligence service, has also been sent to Baghdad to secure the Russian Embassy there for storing Iraqi government archives.  The SVR has denied the reports (London Guardian, April 11).

Annan Reiterates Role for Inspectors

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday reiterated his desire to see U.N. inspectors return to Iraq, saying their mandate “is still valid.”

“I think on the question of the weapons inspectors — their mandate is still valid.  It is only suspended because it became inoperable on account of the war,” Annan said in a U.N. press release.  “I would expect [chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans] Blix and [IAEA Director General Mohamed] ElBaradei to be able to return as soon as it is possible and I think they are the ones with the mandate to disarm Iraq, and when the situation permits they should go back to resume their work,” he added (U.N. release, April 10).

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