Journalists find little at site named by Powell (More of Powells "evidence" evaporates with the light of day)
By BORZOU DARAGAHI
Associated Press
2/9/2003
buffalonews.com
Associated Press
In a northern Iraqi camp, families and Islamic militants live side by side. The United States believes the site is a terrorist training center specializing in poisons and explosives.
SARGAT, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called the camp in northern Iraq a terrorist poison and explosives training center, a deadly link in a "sinister nexus" binding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
But journalists who visited the site depicted in Powell's satellite photo found a half-built cinderblock compound filled with heavily armed Kurdish men, video equipment and children - but no obvious sign of chemical weapons manufacturing.
"You can search as you like," said Mohammad Hassan, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, which controls the camp and the surrounding village. "There are no chemical weapons here."
Ansar al-Islam, believed to have ties to al-Qaida, said the camp serves as its administrative office for Sargat village, living quarters and a propaganda video studio.
A half-dozen children and some teenagers watched with curiosity as Western journalists arrived in a convoy of white SUVs. A couple of dozen bearded men in black turbans, armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades, watched closely.
During his appearance before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Powell displayed a satellite photo of this camp, which was identified as "Terrorist Poison and Explosive Factory, Khurmal."
Powell said the camp was run by al-Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan who were under the protection of Ansar al-Islam here in the autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq in a region beyond Saddam's control.
But Powell maintained that a senior member of Ansar al-Islam was an Iraqi agent, implying a tenuous link between Baghdad and the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Western journalists were brought to this camp, with its distinctive polygon-shaped fencing and nearby hills, by the Islamic Group of Kurdistan, a moderate Muslim organization that maintains good relations with Ansar al-Islam. The compound, accessible by a long dirt road, is in a village of several hundred people at the base of the Zagros mountains separating Iraq from Iran.
Security appeared lax at the compound, whose jagged barbed-wire perimeter matched a satellite photograph Powell displayed in his Security Council presentation.
As evidence that the camp serves as a housing area, child-size plastic slippers could be seen in the doorways. A refrigerator had been turned into a closet and filled with women's clothes.
The most sophisticated equipment seen at the site was the video gear and makeshift television studio Ansar al-Islam says it uses to make its propaganda films.
Ansar al-Islam officials speculated that Powell was misled in his accusations of a poison factory by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two parties governing the autonomous northern Kurdish section of Iraq. Ansar al-Islam has been at war for two years with the Patriotic Union.
The Patriotic Union said Powell's allegations about the poison laboratory were correct. It said the lab was in the Sargat compound in an area accessible only to those who had come from Afghanistan and had "ties to al-Qaida."
A Patriotic Union spokeswoman said Saturday that Ansar al-Islam could have moved the facility before the journalists got there.
Though Ansar al-Islam officials allowed the journalists access to the site, they did not permit reporters to talk to anyone except two designated Ansar officials.
The name on the photo Powell showed to the world was Khurmal, a nearby town that is under the control of the Islamic Group of Kurdistan. The Islamic Group denies there is such a camp at Khurmal and believes Powell's satellite photo evidence misidentified the site's location.
To:Karen Lawrence who wrote (73232)
From: stockman_scott Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003 1:07 AM
View Replies (1) | Respond to of 73327
Duck and Cover
Lead Editorial
The New York Times
February 12, 2003
The nation has been so focused on the Bush administration's plans for war with Iraq that the war against Al Qaeda seemed to slip into the background. But the fear of terrorism was front and center again yesterday, as the F.B.I. director warned Congress about Qaeda cells inside this country and a new audio tape surfaced purporting to be a recording of Osama bin Laden urging Iraqis to undertake suicide missions against the United States. All this occurred at a time when the national terrorism alert level was at the nervous-making Code Orange level and the government was issuing guidelines on how to gird the family home against chemical or biological warfare.
The White House argued that the tape, if it really was Osama bin Laden, simply demonstrated that Iraq and terrorism were indeed somehow linked. But we couldn't help wondering if the expression of solidarity with Iraq might have been a canny way of luring the United States into an attack on Baghdad that would rally the Muslim world against the West, producing new converts to Al Qaeda.
The fact that a gulf war may make Osama bin Laden happy is not a reason, in itself, to oppose an invasion of Iraq. But the American people want their government to concentrate on fighting domestic terrorism above all else, and there have been a number of moments recently when Washington seemed to be missing the main point. The Department of Homeland Security's new home preparedness guidelines were another. There is certainly nothing wrong with dispensing tips on how to put together a household disaster supply kit. But the timing seemed ironic, given the fact that states and local governments have yet to get the federal aid they were promised to buy needed antiterrorism equipment. Washington is urging people to prepare for chemical attack by purchasing duct tape, while it fails to provide fire departments with funds for protective suits or bioterror detectors.
The preparedness guidelines sounded a bit like those TV weathermen who mark every cold snap by earnestly instructing their viewers to wear more layers of clothing. Anyone who has been hit with chemical weapons probably does not need to be told to "decontaminate hands using soap and water," and in the event of biological warfare, people who "notice symptoms of the disease caused by an agent exposure" will probably consult a doctor even if they fail to visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site. Still, the preparedness tips are something people can actually do for themselves, and every family can respond to the guidelines as its own level of risk tolerance dictates. If a disaster supply kit increases one's sense of security, there's no reason not to get a copy of the FEMA list and go shopping.
But given a choice between a well-equipped basement and a well-equipped fire department, we know which way we'd go.
nytimes.com
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