Iraq:  Scientist Claims Baghdad Destroyed WMD Programs Shortly Before War

Iraq destroyed most of its biological and chemical weapons equipment shortly before the war began, according to an Iraqi scientist cooperating with a U.S. military team searching for banned Iraqi weapons, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, April 18). 

Members of Mobile Exploration Team Alpha (MET Alpha), who located the scientist last week, would not identify him, fearing that he might be subject to reprisals.  Military officials said the scientist told them that four days before U.S. President George W. Bush gave ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a 48-hour deadline to go into exile or face war, Iraqi officials destroyed a warehouse being used for biological weapons research. 

The scientist also said he had observed Iraqi officials burying chemical weapons precursors and other materials to preserve them for later use, the officials said.  Over the past three days, the scientist has led MET Alpha to several sites where chemical precursors were buried, according to the Times.

Military officials said the Iraqi scientist has told them that Iraq had begun destroying its biological and chemical stockpiles in the mid-1990s, had transported some materials to Syria, and had recently begun working on research and development programs that would have been difficult for U.N. inspectors to detect. 

The potential of MET Alpha’s work is “enormous,” said Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Army’s 101st Division.

“What they’ve discovered could prove to be of incalculable value,” Petraeus said.  “Though much work must still be done to validate the information MET Alpha has uncovered, if it proves out it will clearly be one of the major discoveries of this operation, and it may be the major discovery,” he added (Judith Miller, New York Times, April 21).

Meanwhile, two Iraqi scientific experts have either recently surrendered or have been captured by coalition forces, according to reports.

Coalition troops have arrested former Iraqi Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar, the U.S. Central Command said yesterday.  A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group, said al-Ghafar probably knows about Iraq’s nuclear weapons efforts.

“We know about his background, and he is certainly involved with those banned programs,” INC spokesman Haider Ahmed said (Price/Knickmeyer, Associated Press, April 21).

In addition, suspected VX expert Emad Husayn Abdullah al-Ani surrendered Friday (Andrew Gumbel, London Independent, April 20).

Although U.S. officials have hoped that Iraqi scientists would provide assistance to U.S. personnel searching for banned weapons, many scientists and officials have refused to cooperate for fear of being prosecuted for war crimes, according to Time.

One U.S. official described the responses of al-Ani and Iraqi Lt. Gen. Amir Saadi, formerly involved in Iraq’s chemical weapons program, during interrogations as:  “Weapons of mass destruction?  What weapons of mass destruction?  We have no stinking weapons for you” (Nancy Gibbs, Time, April 20).

U.N. Role

Meanwhile, Russia plans to insist that U.N. inspectors make the final determination of Iraq’s disarmament before Moscow agrees to lift sanctions on Iraq, said a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official. 

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei should be allowed to quickly resume their work in Iraq, the official said.

“This could be done within a couple of weeks as it is obvious that there are no such weapons there,” ITAR-Tass quoted the official as saying (Reuters, April 21).

A British Foreign Office official said today that any find of Iraqi WMD would need to be independently verified, which could possibly be done by U.N. inspectors.

“We need to have some element of independent verification,” said British Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien.  “The U.N. inspectors are clearly a possibility for doing that,” he said (Jane Merrick, Press Association, April 21).

Blair Rejects Parliamentary Inquiry Into Iraqi WMD

Also in London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected calls for an investigation into whether the British public was misled about the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, according to the London Independent.  Members of the British Parliament have begun calling for an investigation into whether British intelligence misled officials.

“We don’t believe any inquiry is needed, as we stand by our assessment that Saddam harbored an active WMD program,” a British spokesman said.  “We have had a conflict to fight as well as getting humanitarian aid to the people, but we are confident of finding weapons of mass destruction in the longer term,” the spokesman said (Jo Dillon, London Independent, April 20).

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Iraq:  United States Enlists Former U.N. Inspectors to Aid in WMD Search

Diplomatic sources have said former senior U.N. inspector Charles Duelfer is currently in Baghdad heading the U.S. effort to find Iraqi stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, April 17).

U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice chose Duelfer, a former State Department official, to head the search, according to the sources.  Neither State nor the United Nations would confirm Duelfer’s presence in Baghdad (Stewart Stogel, Washington Times, April 18).  From 1993 to 2000, Duelfer was deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, the inspection agency that preceded the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission that pulled out of Iraq just before the war began (GSN, April 18).

The United States has enlisted about 10 former U.N. inspectors to aid its efforts to find evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts, according to a U.S. Defense Department official.

The former inspectors have been “applying their experience and expertise to the effort,” the Pentagon official said, adding that some are currently in Iraq and other are preparing to travel there.  The official would not identify which inspectors are working for the United States, except to say that some are from the United States and some are possibly from the United Kingdom.

The former inspectors can provide the U.S. military, currently searching for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, with their expertise of Iraq programs, and can add extra legitimacy to the U.S. search, said Amy Smithson, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at the Henry L. Stimson Center.

“This is a mammoth effort.  They need all the help they can get,” Smithson said.  “Not only are these people well familiar with the tricks that the Iraqi regime has used in the past, but they know the programs, they know the weapons, they know the individuals who were involved, and can really be a valuable asset,” she said (Will Dunham, Reuters, April 17).

Meanwhile, FBI agents in Baghdad have begun examining the records of Iraq’s intelligence services, Bush administration officials said yesterday.  Other U.S. officials have begun interviewing former Iraqi intelligence agents that worked for Iraq’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

“FBI agents are now assisting in the review of documents obtained from Iraq in an effort to locate and extract any potentially valuable intelligence information,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said (Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, April 18).

U.S. special forces yesterday captured former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti during a raid in Baghdad, according to Reuters.  Barzan, a half-brother of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, has “extensive knowledge of the regime’s inner working,” the U.S. military said (Reuters/Financial Times, April 17).

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that U.S. forces were unlikely to find Iraqi WMD without assistance from Iraqis.

“I don’t think we’ll discover anything, myself,” Rumsfeld said.  “I think what will happen is we’ll discover people who will tell us where to go find it.  It is not like a treasure hunt where you just run around looking everywhere, hoping you find something,” he added (Associated Press/Jerusalem Post, April 18).

U.N. Role

In New York, several key U.N. Security Council members indicated yesterday that the United Nations must be given a broader role in the post-Hussein Iraq before they would agree to lift sanctions against Iraq, according to the Washington Post.

The debate within the Security Council on ending the sanctions, which the United States has called for, could delay any type of agreement on the issue until at least June 3, when the latest U.N. mandate allowing Iraqi oil exports expires, U.N. diplomats said.

Although U.S. President George W. Bush has called for an end to the sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the sanctions could not be lifted until a number of U.N.-set conditions have been met, including a finding that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.

“This decision cannot be automatic,” Ivanov said.  “For the Security Council to take this decision we need to be certain whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction or not,” he added.

Russia and other Security Council members have insisted that U.N. inspectors make the final determination of Iraq’s WMD disarmament, the Post reported.  The Pentagon, however, has balked at the idea of involving the inspectors.

U.S. and British officials have said they will attempt to build momentum within the Security Council for a common approach toward Iraq with a series of “easily resolvable” issues.

Such an approach could begin with a resolution setting out a list of principles that would govern a new Iraqi government, according to the Post.  After reaching an agreement on these simpler issues, the council would then move on to more controversial ones, such as the role of U.N. inspectors and the ending of sanctions.

Even with the current dispute over the sanctions, there is more agreement within the Security Council now than in March, when the United States and the United Kingdom attempted to obtain a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, U.N. diplomats said.  The change in mood is based, in part, on the attempts by some countries that opposed the war to rebuild their relationships with the United States, the Post reported.

“The public relations aspects look rather different this time,” a Security Council diplomat said.  “I don’t think they can hold the Iraqi economy hostage.  But they are not just going to hand it all over to the coalition,” the diplomat said (Lynch/McCartney, Washington Post, April 18).

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has said U.N. inspectors could return to Iraq within “about two weeks” if ordered to do so by the United Nations.

“We are ready to go in whenever the Security Council so decides,” Blix said.  The inspectors “are still on our contracts, they are home in their countries, and it would take about two weeks to get them back to Baghdad,” he said.

The United States will need the U.N. inspectors to legitimize their efforts to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which they have not yet accomplished, Blix said.

“So far they have not found any,” Blix said.  “I think at some stage they would like to have some credible international verification of what they find,” he added (Reuters, April 18).

If U.N. inspectors do resume their work in Iraq, they must be allowed to operate independently, Blix said.

“We’re not dogs on a leash,” Blix said.  “We have a mandate from the Security Council, and credibility requires that we have independent judgment,” he said (Associated Press II/Jerusalem Post, April 18).

Some Arab experts have raised the idea that the United States could attempt to plant evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts during its search, increasing the need for involvement by U.N. inspectors.

“What will stop the United States from bringing chemical weapons from outside Iraq and moving them into the country to prove their longstanding claims?” said Imad Jadd, international relations specialist at the al-Ahram Center for Studies, based in Egypt.  “They can do it because they are the authority now that is conducting the search,” Jadd said (Cilina Nasser, Al-Jazeera, April 18).

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Iraq:  Bush Calls for End to U.N. Sanctions

U.S. President George W. Bush called yesterday for the United Nations to end sanctions against Iraq, a step that may prove difficult because current U.N. resolutions allow for removing sanctions only after the United Nations determines that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction, according to the New York Times (see GSN, April 16).

In a speech yesterday, Bush said sanctions against Iraq should be ended now that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein no longer controls the country.

“Now that Iraq is liberated, the United Nations should lift economic sanctions on that country,” Bush said.

The sanctions were originally imposed through U.N. Security Council resolutions that allow, but do not require, the council to base its determination on the judgment of U.N. weapons inspectors.  The United States has not decided when, or if, it will allow U.N. inspectors to return to Iraq.

White House officials have not yet prepared a draft U.N. resolution that would lift the sanctions, the Times reported.

“Do we have a specific language or specific resolution to propose at this specific moment in time?  The answer is no,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte (Stevenson/Barringer, New York Times, April 17).

Another potential concern is that the sanctions system that has controlled Iraq’s imports since 1995, according to the Wall Street Journal.  White House officials had earlier indicated they wanted to keep such import controls in place to prevent Iraq from obtaining sensitive technologies that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.  That position has been dropped, however, to provide more incentive to Security Council members to lift the sanctions, they said.

“This is the carrot that we’re holding out to get all other countries involved:  that Iraq’s borders will be open to all trade,” a U.S. official said.

Some Security Council members, such as France and Russia, may oppose changes to the sanctions system that would indicate a support for the war or give the United States too much control over Iraq’s economy, the Journal reported (Neil King, Wall Street Journal, April 17).

The Security Council is set to discuss the sanctions issue next week, according to the Associated Press.  The discussions will be guided by the resolutions that established the conditions for the lifting of the sanctions, including the finding of disarmament, said Mexican U.N. Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the current Security Council president.

The meeting will consider “what will be the next step to be taken by the inspectors and by the Security Council,” Zinser said (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 17).

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix is scheduled to brief the Security Council Tuesday on the possibility of U.N. inspectors returning to Iraq, according to a U.N. source.

“Mr. Blix is going to report on Tuesday to the Security Council about the potential of the future return of UNMOVIC [U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission] inspectors to Iraq,” the source said (Agence France-Presse/Dawn, April 17).

Some U.S. officials are hesitant, however, to send U.N. inspectors back to Iraq, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We see no immediate role for UNMOVIC,” a U.S. official said.  “We have other issues to deal with before we start bringing Blix back in.  Nor are we convinced that Blix is the right person to lead any effort in Iraq,” the official said (John Fialka, Wall Street Journal, April 17).

In any case, Blix has announced he plans to retire at the end of June (see GSN, March 28; Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, April 17).

Suspicious Finds

Meanwhile, units from the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division yesterday located large caches of conventional weapons at the al-Taji Army Airfield, about 15 miles from Baghdad.  Troops have begun searching the site for indications of Scud ballistic missiles and chemical and biological weapons that were believed to have been stored there prior to the war (Fialka, Wall Street Journal).

In addition, documents recovered yesterday from the Baghdad home of Rihab Taha, dubbed “Dr. Germ” for her involvement in Iraq’s biological weapons program, could help answer many of the remaining questions about Iraq’s biological efforts, said former U.N. inspector Richard Spertzel.

“What’s in the documents?  Who can say?  But the Iraqis are notorious record keepers,” Spertzel said.  “One of the ironies of the Iraqis claiming they never had any records is that I have never known anyone so preoccupied with documents and records,” he said (Leinwand/Parker, USA Today, April 17).

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Iran:  United States Refraining From Threatening Tehran With Force

Analysts have said the Bush administration has so far refrained from threatening Iran with military action over its suspected weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism, the Chicago Tribune reported today (see GSN, April 10).

Currently, the United States appears to trying to keep some pressure on Iran by maintaining troops on its borders with Iraq and Afghanistan, which could have the effect of increasing the power of reformist elements, analysts said.  The White House plans to maintain its support for Iranian opposition groups and to keep broadcasting antigovernment propaganda into the country, Bush administration officials said.  The White House also plans to increase its rhetorical confrontations with the ruling clerical elements in Tehran, they said. 

Outright military action, however, could lead to chaos in Iran and undermine the efforts of moderate elements, Bush administration officials said.

If U.S. President George W. Bush were to next target Iran or Syria with military action, “we would last in office for about 15 minutes,” said former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.  “In fact, if President Bush were to try that now, even I would think that he ought to be impeached,” Eagleburger said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday that “there is no plan to attack Syria, Iran or anyone else.”

Even so, Iran is still concerned over possible U.S. actions, said David Long, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who served in the Middle East.  “The Iranians are concerned that the cowboy from Texas will expand the roundup to Syria and Iran,” he said.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called on the United States yesterday to avoid increasing tensions with his country.

“We have big problems with America,” Khatami said.  “But they don’t welcome tensions either.  If we feel they are changing their behavior, then a new situation may emerge” in U.S.-Iranian relations, he said (Neikirk/Kemper, Chicago Tribune, April 17).

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U.S. Response:  Bush Signs Supplemental Funding Bill

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday signed a $79 billion supplemental funding bill that includes funding to cover the costs of the war on Iraq and for domestic homeland security measures (see GSN, April 15).  The bill was signed with no ceremony and with no lawmakers present (Associated Press/New York Times, April 17).

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Iraq:  Civilian Experts Blame Bureaucratic Squabbling for WMD Hunt Delays

Civilian weapons experts who have been recruited by the United States to aid in the hunt for suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have said that bureaucratic squabbling may result in the search being compromised, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, April 15).

The experts are members of the Iraq Survey Group, which is set to follow the initial U.S. military WMD search with a more extensive effort.  The experts have said, however, that the military’s efforts appear to be only superficial and misguided.

“They’re going to blow it,” one expert said.  “That’s the concern of a number of us,” the expert added.

Some of the experts blamed their delayed training and departure to Iraq, as well as reduced morale, on bureaucratic squabbling among U.S. military and security agencies.

“It’s been known for some time that this has to go and it’s not moving,” one expert said of the civilian team.

U.S. Defense Department officials said that while there have been some mistakes, the overall military WMD hunt has been sound.  No date has been set yet to dispatch the civilian experts to Iraq, they said, citing safety concerns for the delay.

“We don’t want to risk them before we know it’s safe to go in,” a Pentagon official said (William Broad, New York Times, April 16).

As part of the U.S. military’s efforts, a 600-man brigade has been split up into teams to search suspect WMD sites with mobile testing units, according to Sky News (Sky News, April 15).  The Pentagon is also offering rewards of up to $200,000 for WMD-related information, according to USA Today.  U.S. field officers can offer a reward of up to $2,500, plus food and other incentives, for information.

Latest Suspicious Finds

U.S. troops in Iraq have recently found a number of suspicious discoveries that require further evaluation, according to reports.

Acting on a tip, a U.S. team searched a house in Baghdad yesterday where they discovered weapons and a laboratory, according to USA Today.  Among the seized items were instructions for producing chemical and biological agents, troops said (Eisler/Soriano, USA Today, April 16).

In Karbala yesterday, U.S. troops discovered seven canisters containing cesium at a maintenance warehouse.  While analysts have not yet determined the isotope’s purpose, they said it was probably used to calibrate machinery in one of the site’s new buildings that were under construction.  U.S. troops also discovered a number of buried laboratories at the Karbala site, which were later cleared (Judith Miller, New York Times, April 16).

In Kirkuk, U.S. troops have discovered three suspicious sites, according to Knight Ridder News Service.  One site appeared to be laboratory, with several 55-gallon drums and spent atropine auto-injectors.  The second site has been described by troops as a WMD training “school.”  The third site, which is expected to be searched today, is a damaged command-and-control facility that was found to contain what appeared to be a decontamination chamber.  More time will be needed to complete a final assessment of the sites, officers said (Ken Dilanian, Knight Ridder News Service, April 16).

U.S. Special Forces today raided the Baghdad home of Rahib Taha, who has been dubbed “Dr. Germ” for her work in Iraq’s biological weapons program, according to the Associated Press.  Troops recovered boxes of documents and three men were taken from the house, but Taha’s whereabouts are still unknown (David Crary, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, April 16).

Blix to Brief U.N. Security Council

Meanwhile, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix is expected to brief the U.N. Security Council next week at the urging of council members who want to return international inspectors to Iraq, according to Reuters (see GSN, April 11).  While the United States opposes such a move, many council members believe the inspectors are needed in order to satisfy past conditions that would allow the lifting of sanctions against Iraq (Reuters/Boston Globe, April 16).

The International Atomic Energy Agency has so far received no reply from the United States on its request to be allowed to resume nuclear inspections in Iraq, according to Reuters.  Twice in the past two months, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has said that only agency inspectors have the mandate to search for evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program (see GSN, April 9).

“We have not been contacted and we have not been informed,” a nuclear expert close to the IAEA said today (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters/Yahoo.com, April 16).

Experts Call for Long-Term Monitoring

Some experts have called for the installation of a long-term monitoring system in Iraq to ensure that a new government there does not later try to renew WMD efforts. 

While the United States is now searching for suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Security Council should take the lead in establishing this long-term monitoring system, according to David Albright and Corey Hinderstein of the Institute for Science and International Security.  Specifically, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the IAEA should begin implementation of their ongoing monitoring and verification plans, as laid out in U.N. Resolution 715, while the United States conducts its search, they said in a paper released today.

In addition, the IAEA’s long-term nuclear monitoring activities could be subsumed by a special additional protocol to Iraq’s safeguard agreement with the agency, Albright and Hinderstein said.  Similar arrangements could be made with the equivalent, chemical-, biological- and ballistic missile-related international organizations, they said.

“Several years from now, Iraq, whether democratic or not, may seek WMD in response to perceived threats from its neighbors, particularly Iran and Syria.  The hunt for WMD and subsequent ongoing monitoring must be accomplished effectively with an internationally legitimized, intrusive inspection system that can outlast any U.S. occupation of Iraq,” Albright and Hinderstein said.  “The United States would do a great disservice if it does not put in place an international inspection system that can ensure that any future Iraqi government will be deterred from launching a secret WMD program for fear of prompt detection and swift international reaction,” they said (Mike Nartker, Global Security Newswire, April 16).

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European Response:  EU Orders WMD Assessment

The European Union has directed its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to develop a threat assessment and a strategy to deal with weapons of mass destruction, The Scotsman reported yesterday (see GSN, April 14).

“Recently it seems that almost every new piece of intelligence about weapons of mass destruction shows that the risks of proliferation are worse than we had thought,” Solana said.

The report will be delivered at a European Union meeting in June or a U.S.-E.U. summit in May.

“We will want to discuss WMD proliferation with the Americans at some stage, and the May meeting would be an ideal opportunity if the report is ready by then,” according to a European official (John Innes, The Scotsman, April 15).

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Iraq I:  United States Focuses WMD Search on Three-Dozen Sites

U.S. officials have said that U.S. troops in Iraq will focus their search for suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction to about three-dozen priority sites, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today (see GSN, April 14).

The priority sites are scattered throughout Iraq and were chosen from a list of more than 1000 suspect sites, the Herald reported.  The U.S. Army’s 75th Intelligence Exploration Unit, which consists of intelligence officers and scientific experts, is conducting the search, which is expected to take a least a month even with the reduced list of sites (Sydney Morning Herald, April 15).

“To do the first 40 sites, you’re probably talking at least a month and maybe longer, maybe six weeks,” said former U.N nuclear weapons inspector David Kay (George Edmonson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 15).

If ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been able to maintain WMD stockpiles, U.S. troops should be able to find evidence of them within several weeks, according to weapons experts.

“That’s a time frame that’s reasonable,” said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  “By then they should be able to go to the remaining sites they are interested in and should have gotten some serious information from former Iraqi officials and scientists,” he said.

One way the search could be accelerated would be through the use of international inspectors, who would also lend the search more credibility, experts said.  The United States, however, has balked at that idea.

“The Pentagon doesn’t want anyone else involved.  They are mad at (chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans) Blix and (International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed) ElBaradei,” said former U.N. inspector David Albright.  “It’s one thing to be mad at them, but it’s another to delay us knowing that we have weapons of mass destruction under control in Iraq,” he said (Guynn/Pugh, Knight Ridder News Service, April 15).

However, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command today did not rule out the future involvement of international inspectors.

“Right now our searches are done under military control, and it’s not appropriate to add anyone to that equation,” said Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.  “But when things are found, I think we certainly would intend to keep that as open as possible.  And that’s the way we intend to approach it,” he said (Federal News Service transcript, April 12).

Suspicious Laboratory Equipment Cleared

Meanwhile, U.S. troops yesterday discovered 11 buried containers of laboratory equipment and materials that they thought could be mobile chemical or biological weapons facilities, but additional examination today showed that the materials were for propellants and conventional munitions, CNN reported today (CNN, April 15).

The laboratories were discovered inside 20-by-20-foot containers that could have been attached to trucks or railroad cars, according to the New York Post.  The laboratories could have been used for civilian purposes, or possibly to develop biological and chemical weapons, said Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley (Lathem/Geller, New York Post, April 15).

Australian Aid

Australia plans to send a team of 12 weapons experts to Iraq by next week to aid the WMD hunt, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said today.

“The prime minister mentioned last week that the Australian government is prepared to provide a component to a coalition-sponsored group of specialists that will continue that task for some time,” Hill said.  The team will head to Iraq to “make a contribution on Australia’s behalf to ensuring that full benefit is taken in terms of avoiding a threat from weapons of mass destruction in the future,” he said (Sydney Morning Herald II, April 15).

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he believed Iraq hid its WMD stockpiles outside of Baghdad.

“I think it’s likely that a lot of this material has, over the last few months, been buried, and has been buried out of Baghdad,” Downer said.  “And to find where this material has been buried … we will have to get people to tell us.  It won’t be possible just to, you know, send the army around and try to find these particular sites,” he added (Radio Australia/BBC Worldwide Monitoring, April 15).

Iraqi Scientists

According to experts, the two senior Iraqi scientists who have recently surrendered — Jaffar Jaffar and Lt. Gen. Amir Saadi — are highly knowledgeable.

Jaffar, an Iraqi nuclear scientist, and Saadi, a chemical scientist, “know between the two of them, everything about the country’s nuclear, biological, chemical and missile programs,” Albright said, adding that Jaffar “is the best scientist Iraq ever produced.”

U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed Albright’s assessment of Jaffar, but have said he has not provided much useful information during questioning.  If Jaffar were to cooperate, however, “he could tell us the whereabouts” of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, along with the identities of the countries and groups that provided Iraq with related materials and information, an officials aid.

The two scientists amount to “a very good catch,” said Khidhir Hamza, head of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program until he defected in 1994 (Dana Priest, Washington Post, April 15).

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