USA Today February 06, 2003
Powell shares intel on Iraq
By Bill Nichols
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday forcefully laid out newly declassified evidence of Iraq's efforts to develop and conceal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as well as new signs that an al-Qaeda terrorist cell was set up in Baghdad last year.
Using previously undisclosed photographs from spy satellites and recordings of intercepted radio conversations, Powell sought to persuade the United Nations Security Council that Iraq has failed to disarm as mandated by a resolution the council approved unanimously Nov. 8.
Powell described what he said were "active and systematic" Iraqi efforts to thwart the weapons inspectors. He said the Iraqis have regularly cleaned up suspected weapons sites shortly before inspectors arrived. He played recordings that he said revealed the Iraqis discussing how they would deceive the inspectors.
And he argued that evidence shows Iraq is working hard to build nuclear bombs and harboring al-Qaeda terrorists.
Powell's dramatic presentation, the most comprehensive U.S. indictment yet of Saddam Hussein's regime, was also designed to convince the world that Iraq must be disarmed by force soon unless it disarms through the U.N. weapons inspection program.
For Powell, the internationally televised event was perhaps the most pressure-packed appearance of his celebrated career.
"Saddam Hussein will stop at nothing until something stops him," Powell said. To underscore the seriousness of the new information, CIA Director George Tenet sat behind Powell during his 75-minute presentation.
The briefing appeared to have little immediate effect on China, France and Russia - three of the five permanent members of the council that can veto its actions. They want inspections to continue for the foreseeable future. "The use of force can only be a final recourse," French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin said after Powell's speech.
A senior State Department official was optimistic, however, that Powell had changed some minds. The official noted that the statements read by council members after Powell's presentation had been written before seeing the new evidence.
U.S. officials and council diplomats believe Powell helped fuel a growing sense here that if Iraq does not show dramatic signs of cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors this weekend, the council will seriously consider a resolution, spearheaded by Britain, to authorize the use of force against Iraq as soon as mid-March. Chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are scheduled to return to Baghdad this weekend.
Even nations that oppose war demanded that Iraq respond to Powell's accusations with facts. "Baghdad must give the inspectors answers to the questions we have heard," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. "Baghdad should clearly realize how crucial this is."
Powell's brisk multimedia presentation to the Security Council hit every cue. He provided a guided tour through just-declassified material projected on two large screens flanking the horseshoe-shaped council table.
The new evidence included a recording of an unidentified commander in Iraq's elite Republican Guard military unit talking by radio to a subordinate named Capt. Ibrahim. "Write this down," the commander instructs. "Remove the expression 'nerve agents' wherever it comes up in the wireless instructions."
"Why so forceful?" Powell asked the Security Council. "He was concerned that somebody might be listening. Well, somebody was."
Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said Powell's presentation was "utterly unrelated to the truth." He charged that the conversations played for the council were "not genuine," and said the presentation was based on "incorrect allegations, unnamed sources, unknown sources."
U.S. intelligence officials had been reluctant to divulge evidence behind their claims that Iraq was engaged in an active campaign to deceive U.N. weapons inspectors. They feared it would compromise spy sources and methods. But the United States decided to provide some of the information in the hope that it would persuade skeptical countries on the Security Council - notably China, Russia and France - of the futility of more inspections.
Important votes not swayed
Despite the apparent power of Powell's presentation, he didn't appear to have swayed those three important votes. Foreign ministers from the three countries - any of which could veto a new resolution to authorize an invasion of Iraq - all called for more time for inspections and did not seem to have been converted to the timetable the Bush administration is pushing. They said instead that Powell's evidence should be helpful to inspectors as they continue their work.
Among Powell's disclosures:
Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist who fought in the war in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, was in Baghdad last year for medical treatment and established an al-Qaeda cell there that remains in place with as many as two dozen members. Powell said Zarqawi, who had been in Baghdad with Saddam's permission, was linked to the assassination in Jordan of Lawrence Foley, a U.S. State Department official. Powell also linked Zarqawi to a terrorist camp near Khurmal in northeast Iraq, where the poison ricin is being produced.
A conversation between two senior Iraqi Republican Guard officers showed concern about an impending visit by weapons inspectors Nov. 26. One said his unit had a "modified vehicle" and wanted to know how to explain it to the inspectors if asked. The vehicle came from al-Kindi, a company Powell said is known for working on prohibited weapons. "I'm worried you all have something left," the other officer said.
In a Jan. 30 conversation that was intercepted, a Republican Guard headquarters officer instructed a field operative to search "abandoned" and "scrap" areas for forbidden ammunition. He concluded: "Destroy this message. I don't want anyone to see this message."
A satellite photo showed a munitions facility at Taji, 18 miles north of Baghdad, where the presence of special security units and a decontamination vehicle suggested the presence of chemical weapons. A later photo of the same site, taken Dec. 22 as inspectors were due, showed the location had been "sanitized," Powell said. Similar cleanups took place at almost 30 sites, Powell said, with the activity peaking in November - just after the U.N. decided to deploy inspectors.
Four Iraqi defectors questioned by U.S. intelligence were cited as describing a series of mobile laboratories, in trucks and on rail cars, that can make biological weapons. Diagrams drawn from the witness accounts showed fermenting tanks, pumps, compressors and drying machines. Powell said at least seven of the labs are in existence but are nearly impossible for inspectors to find because they can move so easily. One witness told of an accident at one of these labs in 1998 that killed 12 Iraqi technicians.
A satellite photo showed construction of a building-size rocket engine test stand, apparently intended for developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 700 miles, far longer than the 93-mile limit imposed by U.N. sanctions. The missiles would be capable of reaching Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Powell was also playing to a worldwide audience that opinion polls show is overwhelmingly opposed to a U.S.-led war in Iraq, which makes it difficult for leaders of other nations to support the United States.
The opposition to war is especially strong among key European allies. For example, a Jan. 23 poll in France showed 73% opposed to a war, and a poll in Germany last week found 69% there want their U.N. ambassador to vote against a new U.N. resolution mandating war. Even in Britain, where the government has strongly backed the U.S. position, a Jan. 26 poll showed 68% of people say Prime Minister Tony Blair has failed to make the case for war.
But Powell's most immediate goal is to push the Security Council toward backing military action against Iraq, and he portrayed the decision as a test of the United Nations' credibility. "This council placed the burden on Iraq to comply and disarm, and not on the inspectors," he said. "They are not detectives."
U.N. 'in danger of irrelevance'
Later, he added: "This body places itself in danger of irrelevance if it continues to allow Iraq to defy its will."
Powell's performance recalled a similar scene at the United Nations four decades earlier, when U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson unveiled surveillance photos confirming that the Soviet Union had moved ballistic missiles into Cuba. Stevenson warned the Soviet ambassador, Valerian Zorin, that his country was on trial "in the courtroom of world opinion." Powell was trying to recreate that courtroom on Wednesday by presenting evidence of Iraqi deception.
"The information and intelligence we gathered point to an active and systematic effort ... to keep key materials and information from the inspectors," Powell told fellow diplomats.
Early assessments of Powell's performance were positive. Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans, called it "the most comprehensive case yet made against Saddam Hussein." Brinkley said Powell gave a coherent analysis that was an improvement over the "scattershot one-liners" that he said had previously come from the Bush administration.
Powell's performance was "an Adlai Stevenson moment," said John Pike of the Washington think tank Globalsecurity.org. "He knocked it out of the park. It would convince anyone who could be convinced, and not everyone can be convinced."
Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that Powell confirmed for the first time that Iraq can produce biological weapons in a dry, rather than wet, form. Dry agents are much more dangerous because they are more easily stored and can be more deadly in battle.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who called Powell's report "devastating" to Iraq, said the council must make amends for 12 years of allowing Iraq to avoid the responsibilities put upon it after the 1991 Gulf War. "We owe it to our history, as well as to our future, not to make the same mistake again," Straw said.
Contributing: Jim Drinkard, John Diamond, Martha T. Moore and Barbara Slavin
Copyright © 2003, Gannett Company, Inc.
