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Powell points out Iraqi tricks
From the Guardian: Frustrated Powell voices fears of endless, fruitless weapon checks That isn't frustration, that's education. He's trying to teach you. The US secretary of state Colin Powell accused Iraq last night of playing tricks on the UN and said the security council could not allow the weapons inspection process to be "endlessly strung out". The French don't want it strung out forever, just til Sammy has a nuke or weaponized smallpox. Urging reluctant members of the security council to threaten Iraq with force, he said the international community should not be fooled by "tricks that are being played on us" by the Iraqi regime. "The threat of force must remain," he said. "We cannot wait for one of these terrible weapons to turn up in our cities." Against calls from other members of the security council to continue and strengthen inspections, Mr Powell reiterated the disputed warning that Iraq was strengthening its links with terrorist groups. "More inspections - I am sorry - are not the answer," he said, and he warned the security council that it would have to make a decision "in the very near future". "You guys make a decision, 'cause we've already made one. See you in Baghdad." While commending inspectors on their work, Mr Powell sought to remind delegates and the world that resolution 1441 was dependent on Iraqi compliance. "Resolution 1441 was not about inspections. Let me say that again. Resolution 1441 was not about inspections. Resolution 1441 was about the disarmament of Iraq," he said. It says something that he has to keep pounding this point home. Looking far less assured than during the his presentation of evidence at the UN last week, Mr Powell repeated that resolution 1441 demanded a declaration from Iraq on its weapons programmes within 30 days of being passed on November 8. "Some 29 days later, we got 12,000 pages. Nobody in this council can say that that was a full, complete or accurate declaration," he said. Mr Powell repeated that the US was not seeking war but it had not yet seen the level of cooperation required to avert military action. "No one worked harder than the United States," he said. "No one worked harder, if I may proudly and humbly say, than I did, to try to put forward a resolution that would show the determination of the international community to the leadership in Iraq so that they would meet their obligations and come clean and comply. And they did not. The threat of force must remain. Force should always be a last resort. I have preached this for most of my professional life as a soldier and as a diplomat. But it must be a resort." Unless you're always anti-war, in which case it's never a resort. Of course, then you're wearing a burka. During his presentation, the chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix had cast doubt on the significance of some intelligence information offered by Mr Powell last week. Two satellite images which Mr Powell showed to the council in a presentation on February 5 did not prove that Iraq was clearing the site of forbidden munitions, he said. "The reported movement of munitions at the site could just as easily have been a routine activity as a movement of proscribed munitions in anticipation of an imminent inspection," Mr Blix reported to the council. "It could have been ze bakery trucks delivering bread to the starving children at zat nursery. So zere!" Mr Powell did not answer these concerns, but said he would submit more evidence of alleged links between the Iraqi government and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida movement. Hate to say it, Colin, but proof isn't what is required here. It's time to roll. Posted by: Steve White 2003-02-15 |
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