Iraq:  U.S. Troops Find Heavy Looting at Baghdad Nuclear Site

A U.S. Defense Department team Saturday found that the Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility, a site associated with Iraq’s former nuclear weapons efforts, had been heavily looted, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, May 2).

The team, consisting of eight nuclear experts from the Pentagon’s Direct Support Team, said it was impossible to determine if nuclear materials were missing from the site, which stored radioactive industrial and medical wastes, as well as spent nuclear fuel.  While the materials stored at the site could not be used to produce nuclear weapons, many could be used to create “dirty bombs,” the Post reported.  One team member said the quantities of materials discovered at the site during a survey would not suffice to build such a weapon, but other team members said they were unsure if the survey was even complete.

Iraqis claiming to be employees of the site had been entering the facility for more than two weeks before the Pentagon team conducted its survey, according to the Post.  A security detachment from the U.S. Army’s 3rd Division, which had been stationed to the guard the site, did not have an Arabic speaker present and could not confirm the Iraqis’ stories.  In addition, looters had been at work inside the site since U.S. troops took control, with up to 400 looters per day at its peak, the Post reported.  Last week, U.S. forces captured more than 60 looters, but many more were able to escape.

“Looters, they see us in Bradleys or on foot,” said Capt. Blaine Kusterle.  “They can outrun us easily because they have a 300-meter start,” he said.

Security also remains a concern at the nearby Tuwaitha complex, the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program, according to the Post (see GSN, April 25).  The site had been previously found to be looted, but the United States does not know exactly what is missing at this site because of a dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Bush administration officials said Saturday that they expect to involve the IAEA at some point, because the radioactive materials stored at the Tuwaitha site are under the agency’s seals, which the United States is obligated to respect.  The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon are still working to create guidelines for a U.S. team to conduct a preliminary survey of the site.

“It’s very distressing,” said a nuclear expert with close ties to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.  The agency “expects measures to be taken so that the looting that took place a month ago will not continue to take place this month.  This material really should not be moved,” the expert said (Barton Gellman, Washington Post, May 3).

Iraqi Scientists

Meanwhile, several former senior Iraqi WMD scientists have recently called former U.N. inspectors within the United States to request guidance on whether they should surrender to U.S. forces and how they should do so, inspectors said.

The scientists, who include two former senior nuclear weapons scientists, have said they can provide documents and other information to assist in the investigation into Iraq’s efforts to obtain WMD-related equipment and materials from Germany and other countries, according to the Los Angeles Times.

U.S.-operated radio in Iraq has urged scientists to come forward, pledging that “anyone who provides information regarding weapons programs will be treated with respect and dignity.”  Some leading Iraqi scientists, however, remain unconvinced that they will be treated well by U.S. forces, according to former U.N. inspectors.

“They want some kind of assurance that they won’t be detained,” said David Albright, a former inspector who said he has received calls from several Iraqi nuclear scientists.

Albright said that all of the scientists he has talked to have said that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ended his nuclear weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War and that no one knew if Iraq had maintained other WMD programs.  It is unclear if the scientists were telling the truth or just looking to make some kind of deal with the United States, Albright said, adding that he had told the scientists to come forward.

“They come from a society where if you’re going to be detained, that means something different than it does to us,” Albright added.  “It really does scare them,” he said (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, May 5).

U.S. Officials Confident Banned Weapons Will be Found

U.S. President George W. Bush has expressed confidence that the United States will find evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts, saying it was only a “matter of time” before U.S. forces do so.

“Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Bush said.  “It’s well known,” he said (BBC News, May 4).

Other senior White House officials yesterday expressed a similar confidence, according to Agence France-Presse. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. forces would be able to find evidence of Iraqi WMD with the aid of Iraqi prisoners, especially lower-level officials.

“We’re going to have to find people not at the very senior level, who are vulnerable, obviously, if they’re in custody, but it will be people down below who had been involved in one way or another,” Rumsfeld said.

U.S. Secretary of Sate Colin Powell said that while U.S. troops will probably not find an actual Iraqi nuclear weapon, they would find evidence of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

“We haven’t found any evidence of nuclear weapons in Iraq as a result of what we have been able to see thus far.  But a program is more than just a weapon,” Powell said.  “We didn’t think he had a weapon.  But he kept in place the infrastructure, and he never lost the infrastructure or the brain power assembled in a way to use that infrastructure, if he was ever given a chance to do so,” he said (Agence France-Presse, May 5).

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Iraq:  Bush Declares Victory

U.S. President George W. Bush last night declared victory in the U.S.-led war on Iraq (see GSN, May 1).

“The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on,” Bush said during an address on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

During his speech, Bush did not address U.S. forces’ failure so far to find any evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, according to the Washington Post.  Instead, he said that U.S. troops have “begun the search” and that “no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.”

Bush also issued a warning to other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, against supporting terrorism or trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

“Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes,” Bush said.  “Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the … world — and will be confronted,” he said (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, May 2).

More Iraqi Officials Captured

Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Iraq have taken into custody three former senior Iraqi officials, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, April 30).

U.S. troops have captured Abd al Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, former director of the Office of Military Industrialization, and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, the U.S. Central Command announced today.  In addition, U.S. forces yesterday captured Mizban Khadr Hadi, a member of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council and a top Baath Party leader, according to an announcement at the U.S Army’s V Corps headquarters

The V Corps’ announcement also said that former Iraqi Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih was arrested yesterday.  The U.S. military in Washington, however, had previously announced al-Salih’s arrest April 23.  The Central Command has not reconciled the apparent discrepancy and did not comment on Hadi’s reported arrest, AP reported (Jim Heintz, Associated Press/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2).

Sanctions

A draft U.N. Security Council resolution on the lifting of sanctions against Iraq could be circulated within the council as soon as next week, diplomats said yesterday.

While the United States and the United Kingdom have just begun to discuss their proposals with other council members, “a draft could be circulated as early as next week,” a U.S. official said.  The two countries are “still trying to package all this,” the official added.

Russia, citing past U.N. resolutions, has said sanctions against Iraq cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors verify that the country is disarmed of weapons of mass destruction.  The United States has argued that the council can change its own rules on the sanctions, however, because Hussein, who was their main target, is no longer in control of Iraq.

“The whole focus of work in the Security Council now should be directed toward the future and with the Iraqi people, and not to fight out some of the old battles of the past,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a speech in Madrid.  “And I’m very pleased that almost — I might say all — of my colleagues in the U.N. now are seeing it in that light, and they are talking about let’s be pragmatic, let’s not be dogmatic or theological about this,” he said (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, May 2).

Some diplomats have said that it is unlikely that the sanctions will be fully lifted by early next month, when the Iraqi oil-for-food program must be renewed.  Instead, a suspension or a phase-out of the sanctions is more likely to be approved by June 3, diplomats said.  They added that the June 3 date could also be moved back (Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, May 2).

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Iraq:  Bush Set to Declare End of Major Combat Operations

U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to announce tonight the end of major military action in Iraq, about six weeks after the announcement of the start of the war, according to the Chicago Tribune (see GSN, April 30).

For his address, Bush will be flown out to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.  While most of Bush’s speech is expected to focus on the progress made in Iraq and in the overall war on terrorism, he is also expected to acknowledge that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have not yet been found, White House aides said.

“This is a significant moment in our history in which the president, in a unique way, will be able to thank the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way,” White House communications director Dan Bartlett said.

In his speech, Bush will not formally declare that the war in Iraq is over because such an announcement would require the release of Iraqi prisoners of war under international law, according to the Tribune.  Such an announcement would also complicate the search for former senior Iraqi officials because the search would then be seen as a continuation of hostilities, officials said.

“The president knows that while major combat operations have ended and while the next phase has begun with the reconstruction of Iraq, there continue to be threats to the security and the safety of the American people, and he will describe that,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said (Bob Kemper, Chicago Tribune, May 1).

Blair Confident in WMD Case

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday expressed confidence that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction would be found, saying that anyone who doubted otherwise would be left “eating their words.”

“I am absolutely convinced and confident about the case on weapons of mass destruction,” Blair said (Boston Globe, May 1).

Possible Hussein Letter

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al Quds al Arabi yesterday published a letter said to be signed by Hussein, according to the New York Times.

The letter, dated April 28, Hussein’s 66th birthday, calls on Iraqis to rise up against the “infidel, criminal, murderous and cowardly occupier” and predicted that “the day of liberation and victory will come.”

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the newspaper, said the letter proved that Hussein was still alive and able to resist the United States.

“This confirms to me that he is definitely saying, ‘I'm still alive, I’m kicking, I’m not finished,’” Atwan said.

Atwan, who believes the letter is genuine, also noted a different tone in the letter than in previous statements by Hussein.

“He is not defiant, as he used to be, not arrogant — he is more modest, trying to be humble,” Atwan said.  “He's not saying:  ‘I am the God; you have to worship me.  I am different, but I am not finished,” Atwan added (Warren Hodge, New York Times, May 1).

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Iraq:  United States to Introduce U.N. Resolution to End Sanctions

The United States plans to introduce next week a U.N. Security Council resolution to lift sanctions against Iraq, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, April 24).

The decision to introduce the resolution, made during a meeting of top Bush administration national security advisers earlier this week, adopted for the most part a Defense Department proposal to eliminate all U.N. control over Iraq, rather than a step-by-step approach advocated by the State Department, according to the Post.

Many Security Council members have said, however, that the U.N. resolutions that established the sanctions regime in the early 1990s call for verifying Iraq’s disarmament of weapons of mass destruction prior to sanctions being lifted.  The Bush administration opposes the return of U.N. inspectors to Iraq, saying they would only interfere with the U.S. WMD search efforts (DeYoung/Lynch, Washington Post, April 25).

The Security Council yesterday temporarily extended limited U.N. control over the Iraqi oil-for-food program until June 3.  The extension leaves the council with more than a month to determine the future of the sanctions regime, the Financial Times reported (Mark Turner, Financial Times, April 24).

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov yesterday called for a partial lifting of the sanctions against Iraq.

Russia supports a temporary lifting of sanctions “on goods that may be used for humanitarian problems in Iraq,” Ivanov said.  “An overwhelming majority of countries share this approach, therefore it is necessary now to make appropriate decisions,” he said.

Russia has also maintained a position that only the Security Council can fully lift the sanctions.  Prior to doing so, however, Russia wants U.N. inspectors to verify Iraq’s disarmament.

“As for the full lifting of the sanctions, this issue must be resolved on the basis of U.N. Security Council resolutions that were adopted earlier,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said (CNN.com, April 24).

WMD Hunt

Meanwhile, yesterday’s surrender of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz to U.S. forces could be invaluable to U.S. efforts to find evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts, according to U.S. officials and Iraqi specialists.

Aziz could also help U.S. forces to learn the fate of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other members of his regime, they said.

“It’s almost as good as getting Saddam,” said Judith Yaphe, a senior research professor at the National Defense University.  “He’s the first real insider we’ve got.  This takes us someplace,” she said.

Even though Aziz might not know the precise whereabouts of banned weapons, “he may know a lot about de facto WMD programs,” a U.S. official said.  After the 1991 Gulf War, Aziz was involved in a committee formed to deceive U.N. inspectors and to find ways to covertly continue to develop weapons of mass destruction, according to Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA and National Security Council official (Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, April 25).

A number of U.S. military expert teams are preparing to travel to Iraq next week to assist efforts to disable and destroy any weapons of mass destruction that might be discovered, defense officials said.

The teams will have up to 100 members, with various teams focusing on different types of banned weapons, according to the New York Times.  Currently the teams consist of one nuclear team, one missile team and four chemical and biological teams.  The teams will also destroy any dual-use facilities, technologies and materials that could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, officials said.

One of the teams’ first tasks will be to establish a central base where discovered weapons could be stored for later destruction, the Times reported.  Such a base will probably be set up at the Muthanna State Enterprise, a former suspected Iraqi chemical weapons plant 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, officials said.

Although some experts doubt the United States will find any WMD evidence in Iraq, defense officials said they had to be prepared for the possibility that such weapons and materials are found.

“One of the challenges we have in planning is we don’t know the scope of the mission,” said Stephen Younger, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which leads the effort.  “If nothing is found, we’ll have nothing to eliminate.  But I’m reasonably confident that things will be found,” he said (William Broad, New York Times, April 25).

Almost three weeks after capturing the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center — the main facility in Iraq’s former nuclear program — the Bush administration still has not conducted an extensive inventory of the radiological materials housed at the site to make sure none have been stolen, according to U.S. military officials (see GSN, April 14).

Before the war, the Tuwaitha site contained almost 3,900 pounds of partially enriched uranium, more than 94 tons of natural uranium and small quantities of cesium, cobalt and strontium, according to reports compiled during the 1990s by the International Atomic Energy Agency.  The United States does not know if these materials remain secure, however, because it has not sent investigators to examine the site, defense officials said.  It is known, though, that the Tuwaitha complex was unguarded for days and that some looters were able to get inside, according to Pentagon and U.S. Central Command officials.

Interagency disputes are partially responsible for the delay in investigating the Tuwaitha complex, officials said.  Civilian Pentagon policy officials had originally proposed to conduct a complete inspection without the involvement of the IAEA, which would have required U.S. experts to break the agency’s seals placed on safeguarded nuclear materials, according to the Washington Post.  Other Pentagon and U.S. State Department offices responsible for treaty compliance, international organization and nonproliferation, however, objected to that proposal.

U.S. forces at the site have not broken any IAEA seals, said Lt. Col. Michael Slifka, a senior leader at the Central Command’s Sensitive Site Exploitation Planning Team.  He also said he did not know if others had broken the seals, however, because he has not been authorized to send an expert team to the site.

“For force protection reasons, because of the folks we’ve got there, we aren’t in a position to go inside,” Slifka said (Barton Gellman, Washington Post, April 25).

Bush Confident WMD Will Be Found

U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday that Iraqi officials and scientists have provided information that Hussein might have destroyed or hidden biological and chemical weapons stockpiles prior to the war. 

“We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some,” Bush said in an interview with NBC News.

Even so, Bush said he was confident U.S. troops would find evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts.  While the United States has only examined about 90 out of hundreds of suspect sites, those sites that have been examined have been designated as the most likely to conceal weapons, Bush said.

“And so we will find them,” Bush said.  “But it’s going to take time to find them.  And the best way to find them is to continue to collect information from the humans, Iraqis who were involved in hiding them,” he said.

Bush acknowledged, however, that U.S. credibility would be questioned until proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was discovered.

“I think there’s going to be skepticism until people find out there was, in fact, a weapons of mass destruction program,” Bush said (Stevenson/Sanger, New York Times, April 25).

Even if no such Iraqi weapons were found, it would not mean the war against Iraq was not justified, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today.

“People are now trying to suggest that somehow the decision to take military action was entirely conditional on subsequently finding chemical and biological weapons material,” Straw said.  “That wasn’t the case,” he said.

The international community “accepted that Saddam had these weapons and they posed a threat,” Straw said.    “Did we overstate the threat?  I don’t think we overstated the threat,” he added (Associated Press/MSNBC.com, April 25).

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NATO Response:  WMD Response Team to Be Ready by Year’s End

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is on schedule to deploy its new WMD response team by the end of this year, according to E.C. Whiteside, head of NATO’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Center’s Political Affairs Division (see GSN, Nov. 21, 2002).

A prototype response team is already in place and has been conducting exercises throughout Europe and North America, according to documents provided by Whiteside.  The team is scheduled to become active after Exercise Allied Action, hosted by Turkey in November.

The response team, which would be NATO’s first, is part of a larger effort by the alliance to confront new threats and develop an overall capability to respond to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Whiteside said.

That effort includes developing a disease surveillance system to alert NATO commanders of unusual infectious epidemics, a deployable analytical laboratory to investigate potentially contaminated sites, a stockpile of medicines, and defense material and improved training.

Whiteside described the effort at an international security conference hosted by the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, NATO officials assessed what the organization could offer to the war on terrorism, he said.  Until this effort, the organization has relied on WMD teams from member countries to address WMD defense needs, Whiteside added.

NATO’s Senior Defense Group on Proliferation developed the initiatives and alliance defense ministers endorsed the effort last June.

“They were designed to serve as a first step in addressing the most critical deficiencies in NATO’s NBC defenses.  These initiatives will be developed … and will emphasize multinational participation and the rapid fielding of enhanced capabilities,” according to a NATO release.

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U.S. Response:  Pentagon Restructures Management for WMD Defense Program

U.S. officials have approved a plan for a new management structure for the U.S. Chemical and Biological Defense Program, the Defense Department said yesterday.

Various items such as protective equipment, chemical and biological agent detectors, decontamination equipment and medical countermeasures are acquired through the program, which would see the streamlining of a number of management positions and the strengthening of accountability for different program elements under the new plan, according to a Pentagon release.  The naming of a new joint program executive officer is also planned.

Dale Klein, assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, and Anna Johnson-Winegar, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense, will oversee the program.  The science and technology areas of the program and its financial management will be handled by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Department said (Defense Department release, April 24).

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