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| Axis of Evil |
| Baghdad shows the first signs of defiance |
| 2002-12-26 |
| Iraqi officials on Thursday showed the first signs that they were unwilling to co-operate with United Nations weapons inspectors, saying they did not believe that scientists and engineers who worked on the country's nuclear, chemical and biological arms programmes should be taken out of the country to be questioned by UN officials. UN disarmament resolution 1441 requires Iraq to allow such interviews, and the US has put a high premium on what they might disclose. The US insists that inspections alone are an impractical way of discovering the true status of the weapons programme in a country as large as Iraq. Any sign Iraq is not complying fully with the UN resolution could move the US closer to war, since 1441 requires the UN to find that Iraq is both lying and not co-operating for it to be in full breach. The US believes that interviews conducted outside Iraq, and possibly taking scientists' families from the country too, are necessary to obtain truthful information without the threat of reprisals. You'd have to take every family member or risk getting them skinned alive General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi official in charge of relations with the UN team, told a Baghdad news conference: "We are concerned with moving scientists abroad. We don't think it's necessary." Iraq would not "support or oppose" scientists who did not want to be taken out of the country. Of course it's the ones who did want to go that they'd oppose Gen Amin said Iraq would provide the UN with a list of scientists and engineers who were involved with the programme by the weekend. But the first such interview, with a former engineer in Iraq's nuclear programme, took place earlier this week with a government representative present. Gen Amin said the engineer, Sabah Abdel-Nour, had wanted the Iraqi representative to be present. "He wanted someone else to be present during the interview for his own protection," said Gen Amin. "A tape recorder is not legally supported because it can be manufactured or changed. I think that is what the Iraqi scientist believed." No, he believed if he talked to the U.N. in private, he'd be killed just as a example to others UN inspectors have the power to insist on interviews without the presence of government representatives. But our good friend Hans won't do it |
| Posted by:Steve |