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| Middle East |
| U.S.: Iraq in ’Material Breach’ |
| 2002-12-19 |
| UNITED NATIONS — Iraq is in "material breach" of the U.N.'s order that it destroy its weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday. Ambassador John Negroponte told the U.N. Security Council that serious gaps in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration left it in "material breach," diplomats attending the meeting said, according to Reuters. The term "material breach" can be used as justification to go to war, although U.S. officials said that using the term at this stage does not signify that an attack is imminent. Nevertheless, the use of the term signifies that America is preparing to go to war if Saddam Hussein does not immediately prove that Iraq has complied with the demands laid out in the U.N.'s Nov. 8 resolution. Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix emerged from the morning meeting saying there were "inconsistencies" in Iraq's declaration. "There is a good bit of information about non-arms related activities, [but] "not much information about the weapons," he said earlier, as he prepared to deliver a preliminary report on Iraq's declaration to the 15-members of the U.N. Security Council. "The absence of supporting evidence is what we are talking about mainly. That continues," he said. But Saddam Hussein's science adviser, speaking in Baghdad, said Iraq had nothing to fear from the presentations at the U.N. "We're not worried," Amir al-Saadi said at a Baghdad news conference. "It's the other party that's worried, because there's nothing to pin on us." Al-Saadi said it was natural that the inspectors would see little new in the declaration, because it covered ground on which the Iraqis already had extensively reported to U.N. agencies. "The new part, which is written in Arabic, requires translation, not just translation, but technical translation" that will take time, al-Saadi said. At the closed Security Council meeting Thursday, Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, were to give their initial views on the declaration. Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined the council at the meeting, which began shortly after 10:30 a.m. Syria's U.N. Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said he would attend the meeting but not take part in the discussion, to protest against the 10 non-permanent council members being given a shorter, sanitized version of the Iraqi declaration. Inspectors removed all information that could lead to the spread of weapons of mass destruction. "As a member of the Arab group, if anything happens to Iraq, we'll be influenced -- all the area including Syria as the closest country," Wehbe said. "I will not share in this judgment. Since we did not receive the whole text, so how do we judge the report, if it is not complete?" U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to speak in the afternoon, at which time he was expected to deliver a harsh criticism of the Iraqi weapons declaration, although he was not expected to declare Iraq in "material breach" of the U.N. demand to disarm. Blix said he planned to tell the council that U.N. inspectors who returned to Baghdad last month after nearly four years have been given "prompt access to sites all over and there has been a good deal of help on the logistical side." ElBaradei was telling the Security Council that Iraq's weapons dossier contains "no substantive differences" from past declarations, according to a copy of his remarks. The text, made available as ElBaradei was briefing the council, lays out a case for continued inspections as the only way to verify Iraq's weapons arsenal. ElBaradei's message was likely to be that "there's nothing new" on Iraqi weapons programs in the nuclear declaration and further inspections are needed, an IAEA official told AP in Vienna, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iraq denies having weapons of mass destruction, but the United States and Britain contend Iraq does have banned arms and have called the Iraqi declaration incomplete. The White House said Saddam Hussein missed his "last chance" to come clean with the world and President Bush was debating whether to formally declare Iraq in violation of a U.N. resolution that threatens war unless Saddam disarms. Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf and U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte met Blix on Tuesday to discuss gaps in the declaration, and Negroponte had another meeting with the chief inspector on Wednesday, U.N. diplomats said. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday called Baghdad's dossier an "obvious falsehood." But he said Thursday that gaps in Iraq's weapons declaration are not in themselves grounds for war. ElBaradei was likely to resist U.S. pressure to declare that Iraq has violated Resolution 1441, which required it to make a full and complete disclosure of its weapons programs, the official said. U.N. diplomats said Blix was expected to take a similar position. Several U.N. diplomats said Blix was expected to report that he didn't find all the answers he was seeking about Iraq's chemical, biological and long-range missile programs in the declaration. The IAEA official said Thursday: "There is new information, but it is related to Iraq's peaceful research into and use of nuclear radioisotopes for medicine, agriculture and industry, something they are permitted to engage in." He said the IAEA had not concluded that Baghdad was withholding key information on its weapons programs. In preparing its declaration, Iraq had a list of outstanding questions prepared by the former U.N. inspection agency and by an international panel of experts. Inspectors left Baghdad in December 1998 and Iraq barred them from returning until last month. The unanswered questions included: How much anthrax did Iraq actually produce, and was it all destroyed as Baghdad claims? Where are 550 artillery shells that it filled with mustard gas? Why were no remnants found of warheads for 50 long-range missiles that Iraq said it destroyed? What happened to all the deadly VX nerve agent that Iraq produced. The report by former chief inspector Richard Butler listed biological agents Iraq produced including deadly botulinum toxin, anthrax and ricin; gangrene gas, which rots flesh; and aflatoxin, which causes liver cancer. Baghdad also said it did research on rotavirus, which causes diarrhea; and hemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus, which affects the eyes. Butler's report cited Iraq's failures to account for all stocks of biological agents and the material used to grow the agents. Inspectors said, for example, that they believe Iraq produced three times the amount of anthrax and 16 times more gangrene gas than Baghdad declared. Straw's statement Wednesday said Iraq's declaration failed to account for "large quantities of nerve agent, chemical precursors and munitions." U.N. diplomats said the declaration does not give an accounting for mustard gas, artillery shells, and material used to grow biological agents. The Associated Press contributed to this report. D'oh! |
| Posted by:Frank Martin |
| #6 The Johnston Island facility has completed work and has shut down - only cleanup operations are ongoing. A site is operational in Utah, and three others (Alabama, Maryland, and Oregon) will start work within the next year. Remember that Americans are paranoid about safety, and these sites are overengineered to absurd lengths - hence their size. Somehow, I can't see Saddam putting all that money into something he can just blow up in the desert. No nonbarking dog here. Not that anyone believes that he actually got rid of the stuff... |
| Posted by: ereynol 2002-12-19 21:43:20 |
| #5 Blix and the boys will be home for Christmas. Do not be surprised if they don't return in the new year. The UNMOVIC charade has served its purpose. They might create a premature crisis by actually discovering something. |
| Posted by: john 2002-12-19 19:19:32 |
| #4 I think they mean phosgene gas. Kinda reminds me of the "blessed are the cheesemakers" sketch from monty python. Very good point about the johnson island thing. I hadnt consdered that before, sort of the "dog that didnt bark" situation. |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2002-12-19 15:10:12 |
| #3 You know, the thought occurs to me... We have two (at least) operations currently destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons, one in CONUS and one on Johnson Island in the Pacific. Big places, hard to miss. If Iraq has been making any attempt to destroy WMD, where? And what the hell is gangrene gas? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-19 14:56:23 |
| #2 The IAEA also cleared North Korea during their inspections there, despite only having access to one of three reactors. Blix first gave one-day warnings of inspections, then did not insist on opening locked doors (it was Islam sabbath, owners were away - nut the inspection calls for such doors to be opened by master keys or broken down) until a day later. And Syria "to protest against the 10 non-permanent council members being given a shorter, sanitized version" - tough, we ain't bonna tell you how to build atomic weapons and where to buy parts. See non-proliferation treaties. Especially the copy you signed. |
| Posted by: John Anderson 2002-12-19 14:55:15 |
| #1 "BADGES? We don' need no steenking badges!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-12-19 13:02:07 |