DoD News Briefing
Thursday, September 17, 1998 - 1:55 p.m.
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA)
.............
Q: There have been some reports that Swiss and French laboratories failed to confirm what a U.S. Army laboratory found on some Iraqi warhead parts. Does the U.S. stand behind its findings of VX on these Iraqi warhead parts, and are you doing anything to look further at this?
A: The answer is yes. The U.S. does stand behind its findings and yes, we are working hard, UNSCOM is working hard, to try to assemble more information on the dimensions of the Iraqi chemical warfare program.
I think you're referring to what happened earlier this year. In June, UNSCOM announced, I believe it was UNSCOM that announced that a U.S. lab had found traces of VX which is a very deadly and persistent nerve gas, on fragments of warheads from an Iraqi destruction range. From that, UNSCOM reached the conclusion that Iraq had attempted, had weaponized, in other words placed VX into warheads on SCUD missiles.
Forty-four fragments were brought to the U.S. from the Al Hussein destruction site, a site where Al Hussein missiles were destroyed in Iraq, and they were analyzed using two scientific techniques. On about a quarter of those fragments, a quarter of those 44 fragments, the analysts found traces of decomposed VX.
The results were then tested or reviewed by a special UNSCOM team. This is a team of 13 people from seven different countries appointed by UNSCOM to review the findings of the U.S. lab. That team included representatives from Switzerland, from France, from Russia, and from China. The 13 people on that team unanimously concluded that the U.S. findings were valid and that there were, in fact traces, of decomposed VX on some of these fragments. So they agreed that the U.S. findings were valid.
Based on that, the question became not whether Iraq had attempted to weaponize VX but how many warheads it had weaponized with VX. What we're dealing with here is something like an archaeological site. It's a large area with thousands and thousands of little fragments that have been collected and taken to a warehouse. These are fragments of missiles that the Iraqis have destroyed themselves.
So the question came, could we tell... Since the Iraqis have refused to tell us, the Iraqis, in fact, have insisted that they have not weaponized any VX into warheads, they have not placed VX into warheads. We, UNSCOM has concluded that Iraq did put VX into warheads. Now UNSCOM is trying to find out how many warheads may have been weaponized with VX.
So it went back in and got 80 more fragments, collected 80 more fragments. Swabs of these fragments were taken. Half of them were sent to a Swiss lab and half of them were sent to a French lab.
The issue now is whether they have found VX on those fragments. Whether or not they do, will not invalidate the U.S. findings which have already been reaffirmed by an UNSCOM team because their fragments came from a different part of the destruction area.
So it's like if you were trying to analyze different types of grass in a large field, you might find bluegrass in one corner of the field and zoysia grass in another corner of the field. Just because you find zoysia grass in the northwest corner of the field doesn't mean that Kentucky bluegrass or fescue wasn't growing in the southeast corner of the field. So that's where the situation stands.
I don't believe that the Swiss and the French labs have yet reported their results officially to UNSCOM, but when they do, if those results are that they found no trace of VX, it will not invalidate the U.S. findings of VX on fragments taken from another part of the destruction field.
Q: Iraq is making noise that it will completely stop cooperating with inspectors unless the U.N. changes its decision on the sanctions review. Have we picked up anything from intelligence of protected troop movements or anything like that?
A: No. We have not picked up anything that we would conclude were movements of that sort.
..........Press: Thank you.
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