PS Can folks watching the SECY give us updates as to what is being said.
Presentation by US Secretary Powell
(Some notes I took during watching the C-SPAN transmission. The stream quality deteriorated more and more to the end, from 128 to 12 kbps.)
Summary of previous developments
o Iraq found guilty breaching 16 resolutions over 12 years
o UNSC resolution 1441 one last chance to come into compliance
o Burden on Iraq to comply and disarm
o Supports core assessments by Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei
o Dr. Blix confirmed: not to have come to a genuine acceptance
o Iraq declaration did not provide necessary information (Blix comment: "rich in volume, poor in information)
Material to be presented:
o Sources of USA and other countries
o Kind of evidence: telephone, satellite photos, human intelligence
Details
1) Tape of November 26, 2002, day before inspection resumes
Republican guard conversation how to hide modified vehicle by "al-Kindi Company"
2) Tape of January 30, 2003: Republican guard headquarters conversation how to hide/evacuate ammunitions
3) Iraqi structure/committee to work against UN inspectors
... (stream broke down) ... PC hard disk drives were replaced
Biological weapons hid in palm trees and moved to West Iraq
Some satellite photos:
Chemical munitions stored at Taji (15 bunkers)
Decontamination vehicle if anything goes wrong
Bunkers cleaned before UN inspectors arrived
UK paper on Iraqi concealment
Ballistic missile site. Cargo truck preparing ballistic components
November 25: Amiriyah serum and vaccine institute with trucks
Ibn al Haytham: cargo trucks appear before inspections
House cleaning observed at 30 sites
Iraq refuses UN reconnaissance flights
Pressuring of Iraqi scientists (charge of treason, force to sign documents, violation punished by death)
Iraqi issued false death certificate for expert
Deliberate campaign to perform any meaningful inspection work
UNSC 1441, 4.: "False statements shall constitute a material breach"
Iraq in further material breach
This body places itself in the danger of irrelevance if it allows Iraq to continue to defy without responding effectively and immediately
The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat imposed by Iraq.
Danger of weapons:
1) Biological weapons. Vast quantities.
a) Describing Anthrax impact in 2001 (one teaspoon). UNSCOM estimates Iraq has 25,000 litres of Anthrax.
Mobile production facilities on wheels and on rails. In 1998 12 technicians died during an accident. Production always started on Thursday night expecting that inspectors would not visit on Fridays (Islam holiday).
Computer-simulated images of mobile factories (special trucks)
About 18 trucks, hard to find in Iraqi traffic
b) Botulinus toxin, afflatoxin, Ricin. Dozens of other agents explored.
Modify aerial fuel tanks of F1 Mirage aircraft. 2000 l of simulated Anthrax sprayed by plane (video). Mirage converted to UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).
2) 30,000 empty munitions. More on chemical weapons in UNSCOM 1999 report.
3) VX: 4 tons. Dual-use infrastructure at civilian sites.
Ingenious/evil genius of Iraqi scientists
From production to delivery evidence:
Chemical weapons leaving Al-Musayyib. Trucks accompanied by decontamination vehicles. Confirmed by human intelligence.
Bulldozed and freshly graded earth at Al-Musayyib chemical complex.
Top soil removed from large portions of the site to conceal chemical weapons evidence.
International procurement efforts. Centrifuges, filters, sodium sulfate (mustard agent precursor).
Chemical weapons: 105 tons for 16,000 battlefield rockets
1600 death row prisoners killed for experiments with chemical weapons
4) Nuclear weapons effort:
From 1995: dirty nuclear bomb preparation
Since 1998: sufficient nuclear missile material sought
Uranium enrichment tools sought
Acquisition of aluminum tubes from 11 countries
Tubes refined to high level of specification
Few dozen Scuds (range up to 900 km)
Violates 150 km range permitted by UN
380 rocket engines imported
Efforts to produce long range rocket for 1200 km (April 2002)
(Satellite image of facility)
UAV which went for 500 km (race track shown)
Iraq and terrorism
Iraq harbors network of Al-Zarqawi
Training camp for chemical agents in North East Iraq, e.g. for Ricin
Safe haven for al Qaeda members
Al-Zarqawi for 2 months in Baghdad
Coordination of people, money and supplies from Baghdad
116 operatives have been arrested
Acting in Georgia, Chechnya
Saddam Hussein impressed after bin Laden's successes (USS Cole, Kenya embassy)
Several high-level contacts
Senior detained al Qaeda terrorist about relation to Iraq:
After recognizing that Afghanistan's resources are insufficient - where did they go? Iraq. Chemical and biological weapons training.
Cooperation with Iraqi officials described as "successful"
Saddam:
Contempt for truth.
Contempt for human life.
Many human rights violations.
End at 11:53.
CNN has a "running transcript":
cnn.com
Wednesday, February 5, 2003 Posted: 11:57 AM EST (1657 GMT)
Transcript of Powell's U.N. presentation
Following is a transcript of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security Council on the U.S. case against Iraq.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished colleagues, I would like to begin by expressing my thanks for the special effort that each of you made to be here today.
This is important day for us all as we review the situation with respect to Iraq and its disarmament obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441.
Last November 8, this council passed Resolution 1441 by a unanimous vote. The purpose of that resolution was to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. Iraq had already been found guilty of material breach of its obligations, stretching back over 16 previous resolutions and 12 years.
Resolution 1441 was not dealing with an innocent party, but a regime this council has repeatedly convicted over the years. Resolution 1441 gave Iraq one last chance, one last chance to come into compliance or to face serious consequences. No council member present in voting on that day had any illusions about the nature and intent of the resolution or what serious consequences meant if Iraq did not comply.
And to assist in its disarmament, we called on Iraq to cooperate with returning inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA.
We laid down tough standards for Iraq to meet to allow the inspectors to do their job.
This council placed the burden on Iraq to comply and disarm and not on the inspectors to find that which Iraq has gone out of its way to conceal for so long. Inspectors are inspectors; they are not detectives.
I asked for this session today for two purposes: First, to support the core assessments made by Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei. As Dr. Blix reported to this council on January 27th, "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it."
And as Dr. ElBaradei reported, Iraq's declaration of December 7, "did not provide any new information relevant to certain questions that have been outstanding since 1998."
My second purpose today is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as well as Iraq's involvement in terrorism, which is also the subject of Resolution 1441 and other earlier resolutions.
I might add at this point that we are providing all relevant information we can to the inspection teams for them to do their work.
The material I will present to you comes from a variety of sources. Some are U.S. sources. And some are those of other countries. Some of the sources are technical, such as intercepted telephone conversations and photos taken by satellites. Other sources are people who have risked their lives to let the world know what Saddam Hussein is really up to.
I cannot tell you everything that we know. But what I can share with you, when combined with what all of us have learned over the years, is deeply troubling.
What you will see is an accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behavior. The facts on Iraq's behavior demonstrate 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.
Let me begin by playing a tape for you. What you're about to hear is a conversation that my government monitored. It takes place on November 26 of last year, on the day before United Nations teams resumed inspections in Iraq.
The conversation involves two senior officers, a colonel and a brigadier general, from Iraq's elite military unit, the Republican Guard.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
(Speaking in Arabic.)
(END AUDIO TAPE)
Let me pause and review some of the key elements of this conversation that you just heard between these two officers.
First, they acknowledge that our colleague, Mohamed ElBaradei, is coming, and they know what he's coming for, and they know he's coming the next day. He's coming to look for things that are prohibited. He is expecting these gentlemen to cooperate with him and not hide things.
But they're worried. "We have this modified vehicle. What do we say if one of them sees it?"
What is their concern? Their concern is that it's something they should not have, something that should not be seen.
The general is incredulous: "You didn't get a modified. You
don't have one of those, do you?"
"I have one."
"Which, from where?"
"From the workshop, from the Al Kendi (ph) Company?"
"What?"
"From Al Kendi (ph)."
"I'll come to see you in the morning. I'm worried. You all have
something left."
"We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left."
Note what he says: "We evacuated everything."
We didn't destroy it. We didn't line it up for inspection. We didn't turn it into the inspectors. We evacuated it to make sure it was not around when the inspectors showed up.
"I will come to you tomorrow."
The Al Kendi (ph) Company: This is a company that is well known to have been involved in prohibited weapons systems activity.
Let me play another tape for you. As you will recall, the inspectors found 12 empty chemical warheads on January 16. On January 20, four days later, Iraq promised the inspectors it would search for more. You will now hear an officer from Republican Guard headquarters issuing an instruction to an officer in the field. Their conversation took place just last week on January 30.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
(Speaking in Arabic.)
(END AUDIO TAPE)
Let me pause again and review the elements of this message.
"They're inspecting the ammunition you have, yes."
"Yes."
"For the possibility there are forbidden ammo."
"For the possibility there is by chance forbidden ammo?"
"Yes."
"And we sent you a message yesterday to clean out all of the areas, the scrap areas, the abandoned areas. Make sure there is nothing there."
(More to come)
The Wall Street Journal February 5, 2003 12:03 p.m. EST
Powell Lays Out Evidence Of Alleged Iraq Deception
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, making his case that Iraq had defied all demands that it disarm, presented tape recordings, satellite photos and statements from informants Wednesday that he said was "irrefutable and undeniable" evidence that Saddam Hussein is concealing weapons of mass destruction.
"Iraq has now placed itself in danger of serious consequences," Mr. Powell told the U.N. Security Council.
Three months after Iraq pledged that it would disarm, Mr. Powell presented his evidence in an appearance that was televised live around the world. The Council members -- joined by Iraq's U.N. ambassador -- sat around a large circular council table with Mr. Powell and listened attentively.
Of the 15 Council members, only the U.S. and Britain have voiced support for forcibly disarming Mr. Hussein.
In a more than hour-long presentation, Mr. Powell also detailed the U.S. claims that Baghdad and al Qaeda operatives are working together and that some followers of a senior lieutenant of Osama bin Laden are currently in the Iraqi capital, with the approval of Mr. Hussein.
After a brief preface, Mr. Powell played tapes of Iraqi officers' conversations to convince the Security Council that Iraq is not disarming. He said the conversation was about hiding prohibited vehicles from weapons inspectors.
Mr. Powell also presented declassified satellite pictures as he sought to persuade a mostly skeptical Council that Iraq continues to defy disarmament demands. He said photographs were of 15 munitions bunkers and that four of them had active chemical munitions inside.
"Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction," he said.
Mr. Powell, showing satellite photos, said that two days before the inspections began, trucks arrived at close to 30 missile sites and removed material. He said, "We don't know precisely what Iraq was moving."
Mr. Powell referred specifically to two photographs, one taken Nov. 10 of a ballistic missile site and another taken Nov. 25 showing a truck caravan at what he said was a biological weapons facility.
Those trucks were "something we almost never see at this facility and we monitor it carefully and regularly," he asserted.
He told the Security Council that the tape he played was an intercepted conversation between a general and a colonel in Mr. Hussein's Republican Guard. The voices on the tape were discussing a modified vehicle one of them had in his possession that was made by an Iraqi company that Mr. Powell said was a weapons manufacturer.
"We have this modified vehicle," one of them said as the two discussed a pending visit by a U.N. weapons inspector.
"I'm worried you all have something left," the second voice says.
"We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left," the other replies.
Mr. Powell played another audio recording, intercepted two weeks ago, purportedly between two commanders in Iraq's elite Republican Guard. On the recording, one commander orders the other to stop referring to "nerve agents" in wireless communications.
"This is proof that Iraq was worried about someone listening in on these instructions," Mr. Powell said. "Well, somebody was."
Mr. Powell also asserted that Iraq ''bulldozed and graded to conceal chemical weapons evidence'' at the Al Musayyib chemical complex in 2002, and had a series of cargo vehicles and a decontamination vehicle moving around at the site. Mr. Powell said that was corroborated by a human source.
Mr. Powell recalled the death of U.S. postal workers from as little as a teaspoon of anthrax in 2001. Iraq has declared it has 8,500 liters of anthrax, but U.N. inspectors had already documented 25,000 liters. "Saddam Hussein has not accounted for even one teasponful of this deadly material," Mr. Powell said.
"We have first-hand descriptions of mobile biological-weapons factories on wheels and on rails," Mr. Powell said. He said Iraqi officials who have defected have told the U.S. the factories -- built into cargo trucks and inside boxcars -- were designed to escape U.N. detection. One defector told the U.S. that Iraqi scientists ramped up production of biological agents on Thursday nights, working over the Muslim holy days when it was believed inspections would not be as aggressive.
As he opened his presentation, Mr. Powell reminded the Council that it had voted unanimously last Nov. 8 for a resolution that "gave Iraq one last chance to come into compliance or to face serious consequences."
"No Council member present...had any illusion...what serious consequences meant," he said.
Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization called a special meeting to discuss the Iraq crisis, as pressure grew Wednesday on France and Germany to drop their veto on the alliance's starting military planning for a support role in a possible war.
NATO's policy-making North Atlantic Council will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss Mr. Powell's address to the U.N. Diplomats at NATO headquarters said his address could persuade France, Germany and Belgium to end their three-week refusal to authorize preparations for supporting an Iraq war, notably by helping protect NATO-member Turkey from any Iraqi counterstrike.
Also Wednesday, the European Union warned Iraq on Wednesday that time was running out and told Baghdad its failure to disarm would make it responsible should the U.S. and Britain lead an attack. Declaring itself "deeply concerned about the Iraqi crisis," the EU said the U.N. had given "Iraq a final opportunity to disarm peacefully."
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer presided over the U.N. session.
Iraq's ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, was invited by Mr. Fischer to take a seat at the large circular Security Council table to listen to Mr. Powell's presentation and to make remarks afterward. As he headed into the chamber, he was asked what message he would be delivering. "It's a message for peace," Mr. Al-Douri said.
URL for this article:
online.wsj.com
Updated February 5, 2003 12:03 p.m. EST |
