• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

TracKing Inspections: 4 DECEMBER 2002

A reported 24 inspectors visited two sites on 4 December. A team of 17 UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) inspectors visited the Al-Muthanna State Enterprise, located 120 kilometers north of Baghdad. Inspectors questioned a representative of the site's liaison office, who the ministry describes as also being affiliated with Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate (NMD), on activities at the site since 1998, most specifically, "the drilling work" and the current location of equipment tagged by UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors before their 1998 departure. According to the ministry, the representative "pointed out that the tagged equipment is still in the warehouses. As for the drilling work, it was done to remove the equipment destroyed and buried by the defunct UN Special Commission to protect it from tampering or theft, especially since it was buried at a remote area that is difficult to guard. Once removed, the equipment was kept in warehouses." The ministry further stated that the removal of equipment was videotaped. In addition, sensors at the site "were disassembled and stored to protect them." Inspectors checked the destroyed equipment, as well as tagged equipment, the ministry stated. The ministry added: "Al-Muthanna...is the site that witnessed the largest and longest destruction operation by the defunct UNSCOM. A group of inspectors settled at the company for over two years between 1992 and 1994 to destroy the equipment, buildings, and machinery." UNMOVIC expounded in its daily briefing that Al-Muthanna was the site of Iraq's chemical weapons warfare program, adding that inspectors verified that shells containing mustard gas that were left out at the site [presumably when UNSCOM departed] were still stored there.

A team of seven International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors visited the Iraqi Atomic Energy Organization at Al-Tuwaythah. Inspectors checked all buildings of the Physics Department, "which includes the sections of ceramic and electronic physics, radio physics...and the laser and plasma sections," the ministry stated. Samples were taken from one of the induction furnaces to verify "it has not been used for any banned activity" and equipment was photographed. Inspectors also visited the Chemistry Department and medical laboratories where it observed activity in the medical equipment and raw materials sections. The radioactive waste treatment station was photographed and equipment seals there were checked, the ministry added. All IAEA-inspected sites were tested for radiation. The Foreign Ministry statement added that Al-Tuwaythah was "accused of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction by the U.S. and Britain in September, 2002. The site was bombed by the Israelis in 1981, and by coalition forces in 1991. UNMOVIC noted that inspectors checked the rehabilitation and construction of new buildings at the site, the movement of equipment, as well as "changes in areas of responsibility for site personnel," adding, "Most of the observed changes had been recorded in the backlog of semi-annual declarations that were submitted to the IAEA on 1 October."

Copyright (c) 2003. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org