DATE=9/3/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUNDER
TITLE=IRAQ WEAPONS
NUMBER=5-44193
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S officials say Washington is growing more
worried about Iraq's programs to produce chemical and
germ weapons along with the missiles needed to deliver
them. A new report to Congress says Baghdad has been
operating out of sight of U-N weapons inspectors for
nearly a year and could have made progress toward
workable weapons of mass destruction. V-O-A's Jim
Randle reports, officials want to resume intrusive
inspections by U-N weapons experts.
TEXT: The report is based on intelligence information
and says U-S spies, satellites, and electronic
eavesdropping facilities are doing everything they can
to peer into places where Iraqi weapons are thought to
be made or stored. But the authors complain that such
means give only a partial picture of what Iraqi
scientists and engineers are doing.
The report says it is only prudent to assume that
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is still intent on
developing chemical and biological weapons, and calls
for resumption of intrusive inspections of Iraqi
facilities.
Weapons expert John Pike studies Iraq for the American
Federation of Scientists, a non-government group. He
says there is good reason for worry.
/// PIKE ACT ///
I think the concern all along was that Iraq retained a
chemical and biological weapons capability that the U-
N was simply never able to find. It looks like they
may be building on that pre-existing capability to
expand it. So I think we have to assume that Iraq
currently has useable amounts of chemical and
biological weapons. And that the amount of those
weapons may be growing.
/// END ACT ///
The report says Iraq probably still does not have the
materials needed for nuclear weapons but still has
much of the expertise and some of the equipment needed
for such work.
State Department officials say the U-N Security
Council should support a resolution proposed by
Britain and the Netherlands to set up a new weapons-
inspection system in Iraq. Iraq calls the proposal
unacceptable because it does not end economic
sanctions.
France and Russia have made rival proposals for
dealing with Iraq, and diplomats from U-N Security
Council members are set to gather in Washington next
week to discuss policy toward Baghdad.
U-N weapons inspectors left Baghdad just before U-S
and British warplanes carried out major bombing raids
on Iraq last December. Washington said it launched
those attacks when Baghdad refused to comply with an
agreement to allow inspectors access to buildings
suspected of hiding weapons materials.
Mr. Pike says it is not clear what Washington's next
step will be.
/// PIKE ACT ///
It is very difficult for the United States just
to walk away from the Iraq problem because Iraq
threatens its neighbors. The sanctions are not
working to stop Saddam Hussein's military
buildup. And the real question is whether we
are going to have a much larger air attack on
Saddam Hussein's infrastructure that might
topple his regime.
/// END ACT ///
Last December's U-S and British attacks were massive
air raids involving hundreds of planes. Since then,
there have been smaller scale, but nearly continuous
conflicts between allied planes and Iraqi air
defenses.
//REST OPT//
U-S and British planes are blocking flights by Iraqi
planes and movement by military vehicles over much of
the country, in an effort to protect dissident groups
from Iraqi troops and planes.
U-S officials say Iraqi air defenses frequently
challenge such flights, and allied planes respond with
bombs and missiles. The pace of such raids has
intensified in recent days, with Baghdad claiming that
dozens of Iraqi civilians have died in unjustified
attacks. U-S officials insist they strike military
targets that threaten allied planes, but refuse to
release any assessment of the allied bomb damage.
(Signed).
NEB/JR/LTD
03-Sep-1999 13:24 PM EDT (03-Sep-1999 1724 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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