Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Operations
Deployments
US Policy
United Nations
Reconstruction Issues
Foreign Reactions
News Reports

Current Operations

• Transcript: Testimony on U.S. Military Presence in Iraq: Implications for Global Defense Posture 18 Jun 2003 -- As Prepared for Delivery for the House Armed Services Committee by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Washington, DC, Wednesday, June 18, 2003.
• Transcript: Maj. Gen. Odierno Videoteleconference from Baghdad 18 Jun 2003 -- Okay, in our continuing series of briefings by military commanders of Operation Iraqi Freedom today, we'd like to introduce you to Major General Ray Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, who joins us live from Iraq.

• Soldiers attacked while on Operation Peninsula Strike US Army Europe News 18 Jun 2003-- Four soldiers from the 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade were injured late Sunday night when the vehicle they were traveling in drove through an ambush during the first hours of operation peninsula strike.
• 4th Infantry Division Seizes Cash in Raids AFPS 18 Jun 2003 -- The 4th Infantry Division confiscated $8.5 million U.S. dollars and between 300 and 400 million Iraqi dinar from two separate farmhouses during a raid today, said Army Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, 4th Infantry Division commander.
• U.S. General Says Iraqi Attacks Militarily Insignificant Washington File 18 Jun 2003 -- The commander of the U.S. Army's hi-tech Fourth Infantry Division says he is seeing Iraqi military activity throughout his division's area of responsibility, but that the activity is "militarily insignificant."
• PENTAGON / IRAQ VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- The U-S military says it has captured Abid Hamid Mahmud, the number four man on the most wanted list of Iraqis.
• PENTAGON / IRAQ VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- A U-S official says the number four man on the most wanted list of Iraqis, Abid Hamid Mahmud, has been taken into custody.
• GENERAL ABID HAMID MAHMUD AL-TIKRITI NOW IN COALITION CUSTODY CENTCOM 18 Jun 2003 -- General Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti is now in custody of Coalition Forces.
• Iraq: Top Hussein Aide Captured By U.S. Forces RFE/L 18 Jun 2003 -- The United States military says U.S. forces have captured the number four on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis -- Abid Hamid Mahmood al-Tikriti, who was presidential secretary to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
• Top Saddam Aide in Custody VOA News 18 Jun 2003 -- The U.S. military says Abid Hamid Mahmud, the number four man on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis, has been taken into custody.
• PENTAGON / IRAQ VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- A U-S official says the number four man on the most wanted list of Iraqis, Abid Hamid Mahmud, has been taken into custody.
• Iraq: Two Protesters Killed In Baghdad RFE/L 18 Jun 2003 -- U.S. troops today shot and killed two Iraqi demonstrators outside the presidential compound in Baghdad, the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration.
• US Soldier, 2 Iraqis Killed in Baghdad Shootings VOA News 18 Jun 2003 -- A U.S. military spokesman says one American soldier has been killed and another wounded in a shooting attack in Baghdad.
• US Soldiers Come Under Fire in Baghdad VOA News 18 Jun 2003 -- One American soldier has been killed and another wounded in a shooting attack in central Baghdad. In another incident, U.S. troops fired on stone-throwing Iraqi demonstrators in front of the coalition forces headquarters in the city, killing two demonstrators.
• IRAQ/U-S MILITARY VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- One American soldier has been killed and another wounded in a shooting attack in central Baghdad. In another incident, U-S troops fired on stone-throwing Iraqi demonstrators in front of the coalition forces headquarters in the city, killing two demonstrators.
• VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION LEADS TO TWO DEATHS CENTCOM 18 Jun 2003 -- U.S. forces from the 204th Military Police Company responded in self-defense to a demonstration outside of the Office of Coalition Provisional Authority compound this morning when it became violent.
• ONE KILLED, ONE WOUNDED IN ATTACK CENTCOM 18 Jun 2003 -- A 1st Armored Division soldier was killed and one wounded in an shooting attack this morning at a petroleum gas distribution plant in Baghdad.

Deployments

US Policy

• Transcript: Secretary Rumsfeld Media Availability with Jay Garner 18 Jun 2003 -- Also participating is Jay Garner, Former Director, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance
• WOLFOWITZ / IRAQ VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- A senior U-S official says American forces will remain in Iraq for as long as necessary to eliminate remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime. Deputy Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, appeared before a congressional panel and faced questions about resistance to the coalition occupation, and the controversial issue of weapons of mass destruction.
• Rumsfeld: Garner 'Did Absolutely Superb Job' in Iraq AFPS 18 Jun 2003 -- Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner did a great job organizing the fledging free Iraqi government and coordinating reconstruction and humanitarian relief efforts in post-war Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today.
• U.S.: Bush Says 'Revisionist Historians' Questioning Threat Posed By Iraq RFE/L 18 Jun 2003 -- The White House says U.S. President George W. Bush remains confident that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction before and during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Spokesman Ari Fleischer says that despite persistent questions about the reliability of prewar intelligence reports, Bush believes he received accurate information on Iraqi weapons programs from U.S. intelligence agencies and that weapons of mass destruction will eventually be found in Iraq.

United Nations

• UN envoy in Iraq briefs area coordinators, to visit Kurdish area UN News Centre 18 Jun 2003 -- United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello today briefed a meeting of UN Humanitarian Area Coordinators from throughout Iraq on his discussions with different segments of Iraqi society over the past two weeks.
• U-N / IRAQ VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- The U-N refugee agency says conditions are not right for the return of hundreds-of-thousands of refugees to Iraq. The refugee agency is urging countries that are hosting Iraqi refugees to be patient and not send these people back prematurely to a country where their safety cannot yet be guaranteed.
• IRAQ: UNICEF reopens Basra Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre IRIN 18 Jun 2003 -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that the first of 20 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) currently being refurbished in southern Iraq, and established to tackle malnourishment in children, had now reopened.

Reconstruction Issues

• IRAQ SHIITES VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- In Iraq, as U.S. troops are stepping up their efforts to rid the country of forces loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein and American officials wrestle with the details of reconstruction, Shiite Muslim clerics are taking a more active political role at the grassroots level.
• IRAQ: Focus on Marsh Arabs IRIN 18 Jun 2003 -- The 50 or so men packed into the meeting room all seem intent on speaking at the same time, but when their leader raises his hand they obligingly fall silent. "Life has been difficult for us, but now there is a new Iraq and we must make choices," said Hashim Shanawah, swatting at the flies buzzing around him. "Let us make sure it is the right choice.".

Foreign Reactions

• America and the World VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- According to a recent study, America's image in the world improved slightly after the war in Iraq. Yet improvement was not noted in Arab and Muslim societies. And in other countries, opinion of the U-S is less than it was a year ago. In this edition of Dateline Jaroslaw (YAR-oh-SLAV) Anders reports on a public debate about the roots of these anti-American feelings.
• Iraq: WMD In Dispute, 'Teflon Tony' Takes The Heat While Bush Unscathed RFE/L 18 Jun 2003 -- Since the end of the war in Iraq, everyone, it seems, has noticed one glaring absence -- evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the main justification for the war. It's raised questions on both sides of the Atlantic. Why have none been found and did governments exaggerate the threat? But while Britain's prime minister has come in for a real grilling over the issue, there's been comparatively little pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush.
• BRITAIN / BLAIR VOA 18 Jun 2003 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has again rejected allegations that intelligence information on weapons of mass destruction was doctored to justify Britain's entry into the war in Iraq.
• Blair: Government Did Not Manipulate Intelligence on Iraq's WMD VOA News 18 Jun 2003 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has again rejected allegations that intelligence information on weapons of mass destruction was doctored to justify Britain's entry into the war in Iraq.

News Reports