Tracking Inspections: 28 DECEMBER 2002

A reported 63 inspectors visited 10 sites on 28 December. A team of five International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors visited the private sector Al-Najah Company, which specializes in "importing materials," according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. Inspectors reviewed and photocopied contracts, offers, and deliveries to the state's Military Industrialization Organization (MIO), toured the company, and asked about its employees, the ministry stated. In addition, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) stated that IAEA inspectors also went to the "last known address" of another privately held trade company, but discovered the entire building abandoned.

A group of 13 UNMOVIC biological inspectors visited the Yaffa Juice Plant, belonging to the National Company for Food Production, a.k.a. National Food Industries Company (public/private sector) in Al-Zaafaraniya (Baghdad), according to the ministry. Inspectors inquired as to the plant's operations, including production capacity, types of laboratory experiments, and workers before checking tagged equipment. UNMOVIC noted that the site contains dual-use equipment and is a previously declared and monitored site.

A group of six biological inspectors returned to the Al-Kindi Company for the Production of Veterinary Vaccines, located in Abu Gharib (public/private), where inspectors took photos of UNSCOM-installed monitoring cameras in the building that houses the central control unit of the monitoring cameras. The ministry noted that there are six cameras monitoring the site. UNMOVIC noted that it was a follow-up visit. A team of nine missile inspectors returned to the Al-Qa'qa State Company to tour the workshop "where warheads are filled with explosives for missiles with a range less than 150 kilometers," the ministry stated. Inspectors observed the filling operation, "inquired about the amount of filling," and took photos. UNMOVIC identified the site as the "Al-Qaib Warhead-Filling Factory," which fills warheads for the Al-Fatah and Al-Sumud missiles.

A team of 25 chemical inspectors visited the Ibn Younis Complex located 10 kilometers south of Baghdad, which houses several companies, according to the ministry. Inspectors entered the Ibn Rashid Company (MIO-owned), the General Motor Company, the Ibn Younis Center of the Al-Saad General Company, the Al-Raya Center, and the headquarters of the Al-Hussein Military Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, the ministry reported. UNMOVIC identified the Ibn Rashid Company as a firm that does maintenance on firefighting equipment, water analyses, and quality control of construction materials; the Ibn Younis Center as a mechanical-design center; Al-Raya Center as a mechanical-repair facility founded in 1999.

A joint team of eight inspectors visited a field where military air supplies are examined. It is located 320 kilometers north of Baghdad, according to the ministry. Inspectors met with the field commander there and inquired about the nature of work at the field, toured facilities, and "took samples from the remains of old weapons," the ministry reported. UNMOVIC identified the site as the "Hadre Air Force Munitions Test Site."

In addition to inspections on 28 December, and per the 12 December request of UNMOVIC Chairman Hans Blix, the National Monitoring Directorate submitted a list of names of Iraqi scientists who previously worked on chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile programs in Iraq to UNMOVIC/IAEA inspectors. UNMOVIC confirmed that the list contains the names of over 500 individuals.

UNMOVIC announced that as of 28 December there are 99 UNMOVIC inspectors and six IAEA inspectors on the ground in Iraq. UNMOVIC also announced that three additional helicopters had arrived in Baghdad on 24 December and were assembled and flown to Al-Rashid airbase on 27 December.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Tracking Inspections: 28 DECEMBER 2002