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DoD News Briefing

Q: What about the report on the Army confirming that VX nerve gas was on missile parts found in March?

A: I think most of the details on this should come out of UNSCOM because, as you know, we do provide support to UNSCOM at their request, as do other countries as well -- France, Russia, a number of other countries provide support to UNSCOM which is a UN agency, the UN Special Commission. Mr. Butler's going to make a presentation to the Security Council tomorrow in which he'll lay out the findings. But based on what we know so far, it does appear to be a case where the Iraqis were not telling the truth about their capability. VX is an extremely dangerous substance, and they have maintained for a long while that they were unable to produce VX in large or stable quantities, and therefore had been unable to weaponize it. UNSCOM has been working very hard to get to the ground truth about the state of the Iraqi weapons program. This is one of the discoveries they've made in the course of their work.

The important thing here is that it shows the need for the UNSCOM inspection regime; it illustrates why the U.S. has strongly supported the UN inspections in Iraq; and it also illustrates why UNSCOM, particularly recently, but since it was founded in 1991, has been so aggressive at trying to get in and inspect and use scientific methods to test what it finds.

Q: ...based on what we know so far, I assume you're confirming that the Army tests confirmed that there were VX...

A: This is basically UNSCOM's report, and UNSCOM will deliver the report to the UN Security Council tomorrow. UNSCOM has told the Iraqis that it has reason to believe that Iraq had weaponized VX, that is put it into missile warheads.

Q: Could you just confirm that the Army has done this, without going into major detail on it? That, in fact, the Army at Aberdeen confirmed...

A: The Army was asked by UNSCOM to examine some fragments and it did so.

Q: And did it confirm that the fragments contained traces of VX?

A: It reported to UNSCOM that there were VX on the fragments, yes.

Q: What if these warheads had landed -- had been fired at U.S. troops and landed? Do you know what area -- the size of the are that would have been contaminated? And what defenses do U.S. troops now have against an attack with VX?

A: First of all it's important to lay out one fact, which is that although we know Iraq had chemical, and we believe biological, weapons at the time of its invasion of Kuwait and its subsequent fight against the allies, it did not use these weapons. We believe that one of the reasons it may not have used these weapons was because the U.S. -- President Bush -- made it very clear that they would suffer devastating and swift consequences if they used weapons of mass destruction against allied troops.

I can't answer the question of what the impact would be. VX is quite viscous. It's oily, the consistency of oil. It's used basically to... It's highly deadly, but it would be used to stop an attack by coating tanks or armor or people with this deadly compound. So, if somebody were to touch a tank that was coated with VX, the person could die from the contact.

Obviously, the best defense against VX or any chemical weapon is deterrence, and that's what worked back in 1991 and that continues to be part of our arsenal in convincing people not to use weapons of mass destruction. Beyond that, we have protective suits and we're in the process of deploying new, better protective suits to our forces. We have better detection devices that we're putting out into the field. So we have done a lot since 1991 to improve our ability first, to detect the use of deadly chemicals or biological agents; and two, to protect our people against them should they be used.

Q: Do you know if that Army unit was the only institution asked to check the items? Or when you mentioned other nations, they're also asked to support whether there was...

A: This is an issue between the UN Special Commission and Iraq and I think it's better for them to talk about what they've done. I have reason to believe they are relying on other laboratories to test the results, but they really should answer those questions.

Q: Are there other countries in the neighborhood of Iraq that are also doing this? I mean Iran, for example? Anybody else in the neighborhood that...

A: We know that there are other countries working on chemical weapons. We believe Iran is working on a chemical weapons program. I don't know specifically if they're working on VX.

Q: Is it a concern that some of Iraq's neighbors may be doing this as well?

A: Well, Iran is a neighbor of Iraq.

Q: You seem to be focusing primarily on Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction with the U.S. efforts and the UN. Understandably we fought a war with them and that makes them a special case. But the level of concern about some of the neighbors is also high?

A: Well, you all read our report, "Proliferation, Threat and Response." I should probably keep a copy up here so I could hold it up every time it comes up which is in almost every briefing.

We believe there are tens or twenty, maybe several dozen countries working -- who have the ability to produce chemical weapons. Of course there is now a Chemical Weapons Convention that's designed to stop the production and the use of chemical weapons, but we believe there are countries that are developing this capability.

It's worrisome, and I think this Administration, and particularly Secretary Cohen, have been very clear in discussing what the risks are and discussing the needs for better defenses and we're working on those better defenses.

Q: Do you have any evidence to suggest how many warheads Iraq might have filled with VX gas before the 1991...

A: I think this is the type of information that UNSCOM will be working up and presenting first to the UN and then, I'm sure, to the public. Ambassador Butler is going to make a presentation to the Security Council tomorrow, and then the Security Council will review the sanctions that have been placed on Iraq on Thursday, I believe.

I think as long as there is new evidence coming out that Iraq has not been honest or truthful about the extent of its weapons of mass destruction program, it's going to be impossible for the UN to lift sanctions.

Q: Obviously one of the implications of this is it bears on Iraq's voracity, but is there also concern here that by demonstrating that they could stabilize this gas and store it that they may be able to hide this stuff forever?

A: I think this is exactly the type of analysis that UNSCOM is making now that it has this new information, and when Ambassador Butler makes his presentation to the UN tomorrow, I would expect he would deal with some of these questions. But I think it's probably premature for me to discuss them until he's made his presentation to the UN.

Q: As a result of these findings, are American forces in the area taking any extra precautions?

A: We have addressed the possibility of chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East, and the most obvious way we've addressed it is by vaccinating our troops against anthrax. We've also deployed better detection capability and better protective clothing, masks, etc.

I think one of the things we've learned is that we have to keep monitoring what's going on and do our best to respond to it, and we've done that.

Q: Do you have any evidence that Iraq used any of these VX-tipped missiles during the war?

A: We don't have any evidence that they used deadly chemical or biological weapons during the war. I don't think we've ever had any evidence that they used them.

Q: I'm still confused about what precisely is new here? Your own reports in the past have said that they have achieved VX production, and you've given estimates, and there's tons of inventory of VX that you've thought they had. So is there an actual new finding here or does this simply confirm what the intelligence community...

A: The UN Special Commission has long suspected that they had the ability to produce VX and that they had produced VX. If this report turns out to be correct, this new information, it will confirm that they not only produced it but they actually put it into weapons. Iraq has denied that it was ever able to produce VX in significant quantities or in a stable state. So if this finding is born out, it will mean that the UN Special Commission has found evidence that they were not telling the truth and it confirms the long suspicions that the UN Special Commission has had. That's why it's significant.

Q: Can I go back for a moment to the question of the UN support for UNSCOM? A couple of Republican members of Congress including the Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House have written a letter accusing the United States of failing to fully support the UN Special Commission. And particularly, they say the United States has acquiesced in the suspension of challenge inspections and that the U.S. is no longer urging UNSCOM to present strong evidence of Iraqi violations to the Security Council. Can I just get your reaction to that?

A: I don't think that's a very fair statement at all. First of all, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, said that the only reason he was able to reach his agreement with Iraq, earlier this year, was because diplomacy was backed by the credible threat of force, and that force was largely American; it was largely because of the buildup that we had put into the Gulf in response to Iraq's refusal to allow unfettered access by UN inspectors.

Since that time, the UN has said that it's had much broader access than it has had before. But remember, the whole history of the inspections has been dealing with deceit, deception, obstructionism from Iraq. Iraq said that it had not had any biological weapons program, but when the sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein defected to Jordan, they revealed that it did have a biological weapons program. Then Iraq said, ah ha, yes, you're right, we did have a biological weapons program.

This whole inspection regime proves its worth every single month by forcing Iraq to come up with more disclosures, and it's done that since 1991. It's worked in fits and starts, but it has worked, I think, overall, very effectively because they've been aggressive, because they've been diligent, and because they've been strongly supported by the United States and other countries. I think that our support for the UN Special Commission has been clear from 1991. It's clear today. I'm sure it will be clear tomorrow, and it will be clear in 1999, and it will be clear until Iraq finally realizes that it must comply with the UN Security Council mandates if it wants to get the sanctions lifted.

Press: Thank you.