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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Washington File

30 May 2003

New WMD Survey Group to Begin Operation in Iraq Soon

(U.S. defense official says group's work will be "very thorough")
(620)
By David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A senior Defense Intelligence Agency official who will
head a new U.S. operation to seek out weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq says the effort represents "a significant expansion" of the
ongoing work in that area.
Major General Keith Dayton, operations director at the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA), briefed media at the Pentagon May 30 on his
new task as head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG). He said that the new
organization will begin transitioning with the existing group, the
75th Exploitation Task Force, on June 7 in Iraq.
Not only will the ISG be able to apply more people to the task of
finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Dayton said, it also will
consolidate various intelligence-gathering operations currently under
way in Iraq under one national-level headquarters.
"Moreover, the ISG will have a powerful intelligence analytical
element forward-deployed in the region, with virtual connectivity to
an interagency intelligence community 'fusion center' here in the
[Washington] D.C. area," he said. The goal, Dayton said, is to "put
all the pieces together in what is appearing to be a very complex
jigsaw puzzle."
The ISG will have more to do than searching for and eliminating WMD,
Dayton said. It will collect documents and other media related to
terrorism and exploit their contents; it will do the same for
information on war crimes, POW and MIA issues, and other things
related to Saddam Hussein's regime, he said.
"It will interrogate and debrief individuals, both hostile and
friendly, and it will exploit captured materiel," Dayton said.
The ISG will have between 1,300 and 1,400 personnel, Dayton said,
drawn from several U.S. government agencies, and from the governments
of Britain and Australia. Some former UNSCOM (U.N. Special Commission
-- the U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq until 1998) inspectors will be
on the team, he said. Headquarters will be located in Baghdad, with
some operations located in Qatar because of the military's existing
communications capability there. The overall operation, he said, will
include:
-- A joint interrogation/debriefing center;
-- A joint materiel exploitation center;
-- Chemical and biological intelligence support teams; and
-- The ISG operation center.
"The ISG represents a major change in the search for WMD in Iraq,"
Dayton said. "It builds on the work already done ... but with its
robust analytical capability [deployed] forward, and consolidation of
the various intelligence disciplines operating now under one
national-level headquarters [deployed] forward in Iraq, the ISG is
well-positioned to achieve some real synergy here as we continue the
hunt for weapons of mass destruction and delve into other areas of
national interest."
Dayton pointed out that the current WMD searchers, the 75th
Exploitation Task Force, have been operating off of a list of 900
sites that was drawn up in January and February. The ISG will have a
decreased emphasis on the sites on the list, relying more on the
intelligence information that its own component develops, he said.
Asked what his expectations were, Dayton answered, "My personal
opinion ... going into this is that there is a lot of information out
there that simply hasn't been gathered yet, partly because the Iraqis
are reluctant to come forward in some areas, partly because we are
still in the process of putting together the necessary pieces and the
necessary targeting of individuals so that we can find out....
"[T]his is going to be a deliberate process [and] a long-term process
as well. This is not necessarily going to be quick and easy, but it
will be very thorough," Dayton said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)



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