Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=12/09/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / INSPECTORS (SHORT)

NUMBER=2-297259

BYLINE= GREG LAMOTTE

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

INTRO: On the 10th day of hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq U-N weapons inspectors re-visited two facilities near Baghdad Monday including a complex responsible for Iraq's former nuclear research program. V-O-A's Greg LaMotte has the details from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.

TEXT: Although U-N weapons inspectors spent five hours last Wednesday investigating the al-Tuwaitha nuclear complex south of Baghdad, they went back to the facility Monday for a second inspection.

The inspectors want to make sure Iraq has not returned to research and development that would lead to creation of nuclear weapons.

In the 1980s Iraqi scientists at al-Tuwaitha worked to produce the components necessary to produce a nuclear bomb.

Many of the buildings at the facility, totaling more than one hundred, were destroyed in bombing raids during the Gulf war in 1991.

Satellite photographs have reportedly detected new construction at the facility.

Sunday an aide to Saddam Hussein (Amir al-Saadi) said Iraq may have been close to making an atomic bomb but had not reached the stage of final assembly nor had tested a bomb. He insisted Iraq has quit any efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction.

U-S and British officials say they have proof Iraq is lying about its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons but those officials have not revealed what information they have.

A second weapons inspection team re-visited a plant west of Baghdad Monday that had been used to produce chemical and biological weapons. (Signed)

NEB/GL/KBK