05 February 2003
Evidence Shows Iraqi Deception, Says Powell
(Secretary urges U.N. not to shrink from its duty) (1530) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Using audio tapes, reconnaissance photos, and details from informers, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell February 5 gave evidence to the U.N. Security Council of Saddam Hussein's "web of lies" and uninterrupted, relentless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. In a one-and-a-half-hour presentation before a crowded council chamber and television cameras broadcasting worldwide, Powell carefully detailed Iraq's efforts to develop chemical and biological weapons, extend the range of ballistic missiles, produce a nuclear weapon, continue and increase longstanding cooperation with terrorists, and trample the human rights of its citizens. "Today, Iraq still poses a threat, and Iraq still remains in material breach," Powell told the council. "Indeed, by its failure to seize on its one last opportunity to come clean and disarm, Iraq has put itself in deeper material breach and closer to the day when it will face serious consequences for its continued defiance of this council." Powell urged the United Nations not to shrink from disarming Iraq. "We have an obligation to our citizens, we have an obligation to this body, to see that our resolutions are complied with," he said. "Should we take the risk that (Saddam Hussein) will not someday use these weapons at a time and place and in a manner of his choosing, at a time when the world is in a much weaker position to respond," the secretary asked. "The United States," he said, "will not and cannot run that risk to the American people. "Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world." When it passed resolution 1441 giving Iraq one last chance to disarm, the Security Council was "not dealing with an innocent party but a regime this council has repeatedly convicted over the years," Powell said. "No council member present in voting on that day had any allusions about the nature and intent of the resolution or what serious consequences meant if Iraq did not comply," he said. Every statement in his presentation, Powell said "is backed up by sources, solid sources ... facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence." "I cannot tell you everything that we know," he said. "But what I can share with you, when combined with what all of us have learned over the years, is deeply troubling." A number of sources have told the United States that Saddam Hussein directly participated in the effort to prevent U.N. inspectors from interviewing scientists, Powell said. "In early December Saddam Hussein had all Iraqi scientists warned of the serious consequences that they and their families would face if they revealed any sensitive information to the inspectors," he said. "They were forced to sign documents acknowledging that divulging information is punishable by death. ... Anyone who agreed to be interviewed outside Iraq would be treated as a spy." Scientists have been ordered to stay home and, in one case, a false death certificate was issued for a scientist who was sent into hiding, he said. Two of the tapes played for the council were intercepts of conversations between Iraqi military officers discussing efforts to hide material from U.N. weapons inspectors who were returning to Iraq after four years. In one they were making sure that "modified vehicles" were "evacuated from a site that the inspectors might visit." In another taped January 30, 2003, instructions were given to a field officer to "clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas" to "make sure there is nothing there" before a U.N. inspection. Through informants the United States knows that Iraqi government officials, members of the ruling Ba'ath party, and scientists have hidden prohibited items in their homes," Powell said. "Other key files from military and scientific establishments have been placed in cars that are being driven around the countryside by Iraqi intelligence agents to avoid detection. ... In some cases, the hard drives of computers at Iraqi weapons facilities were replaced." "Iraq's behavior demonstrates that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort -- no effort -- to disarm as required by the international community. Indeed, the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction," he said. Starting with Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs, the secretary said that a "conservative estimate" is that Iraq has stockpiled between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agents. One source told the United States that Iraq conducted biological and chemical weapons tests on 1,600 death row prisoners and performed autopsies to check the results, Powell said. One satellite photograph shown was of the Taji weapons munitions facility that has housed chemical munitions. The secretary pointed out that four of the facility's 15 bunkers were active; they included the presence of special guards, a decontamination vehicle, and special equipment to monitor any leakage. Another photograph, taken in December 2002 as U.N. inspectors were arriving, showed two of the bunkers changed dramatically, sanitized. The secretary described the inside of mobile biological weapons factories from eyewitness accounts and said that Iraq may have 18 such trucks from which it can produce enough biological agent, such as anthrax or botulinum toxin, in a single month to kill "thousands upon thousands of people." "Just imagine trying to find 18 trucks among the thousands and thousands of trucks that travel the roads of Iraq every single day," he said. "It took the inspectors four years to find out that Iraq was making biological agents. How long do you think it will take the inspectors to find even one of these 18 trucks without Iraq coming forward?" The secretary detailed the "potentially much more sinister" connection between Iraq and terrorists, especially leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network, "a nexus," he said, "that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder." Iraq is harboring the network of Abu Mussab al-Zakawi, an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants, Powell said. Al-Zakawi was given safe haven in Baghdad in May 2002 when he went there for medical treatment, and during his stay he established a base of operations with nearly two dozen other extremists "These al-Qaida affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network and they've now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months," Powell said. "From his terrorist network in Iraq, Zakawi an direct his network in the Middle East and beyond." Showing a photograph of the camp, Powell said that the al-Zakawi network is running a poison and explosive training center in northeastern Iraq. Discussing Iraq's nuclear program, Powell reminded council members that in 1991 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "searched Iraq's primary nuclear weapons facilities for the first time and they found nothing to conclude that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program." But defector information, he said, led inspectors to undercover a clandestine program that focuses on techniques to enrich uranium, including electromagnetic isotope separation, gas centrifuge, and gas diffusion. "Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb," Powell said. "He is so determined that he has made repeated covert attempts to acquire high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries, even after inspections resumed." Iraq has claimed that the tubes are to be used in conventional missiles that are not prohibited by U.N. resolutions. But the tubes are controlled by the Nuclear Suppliers Group because they can be used as centrifuges for enriching uranium, the secretary pointed out. He said that U.S.-seized batches of the tubes are of increasingly higher specifications, with the latest batch having an anodized coating on extremely smooth outer and inner surfaces and of higher tolerance that far exceeds U.S. military standards for comparable rockets. "Why would they continue refining the specifications, go to all that trouble for something that, if it was for a rocket that would soon be blown into shrapnel when it went off," the secretary asked. "People will continue to debate this issue, but there is no doubt in my mind these illicit procurement efforts show that Saddam Hussein is very much focused on putting in place the key missing piece from his nuclear weapons program, the ability to produce fissile material," the secretary said. Iraq's ballistic missiles, the Al-Samoud 2 and the Al-Fatah, violate the 150- kilometer limited set by the council, and UNMOVIC has reported that Iraq has illegally imported 380 SA-2 rocket engines, Powell pointed out. Iraqi programs are working to produce missiles that can fly more than 1,200 kilometers, putting Russia and Saudi Arabia in range of its missiles, Powell said, while showing a photograph of a missile site with a new launch pad to accommodate the longer-range missiles. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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