U.N. Sharpens Search for Iraqi Weapons
More Inspectors Arrive, Form Teams and Fan Out
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37254-2002Dec10.html
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 11, 2002; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 10 -- U.N. arms specialists ramped up their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq today, augmenting their ranks to 70 inspectors and splitting into teams to conduct five simultaneous searches, including one of a remote uranium mine near the Syrian border.
The inspectors have become more assertive in their field visits over the past few days, breaking into small groups, moving in several directions and questioning Iraqi officials with a seemingly greater intensity, according to witnesses and Iraqis in charge of facilities that have been searched. A helicopter that will give the inspectors more mobility and greater ability to conduct surprise searches has arrived in Baghdad and should be operating this week, U.N. officials said.
As the high-stakes inspections entered their third week, 28 specialists from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, arrived here this afternoon aboard a U.N. cargo plane, joining seven of their colleagues and 20 experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency who landed on Sunday. The IAEA and UNMOVIC, which are sharing inspection duties, provided 15 inspectors and two team leaders, who have since left, for the first two weeks of field visits.
"We are deploying inspectors as fast as we can," said Hiro Ueki, a spokesman for the inspection operation.
U.S. officials last week criticized the pace of inspections and urged UNMOVIC and the IAEA to quickly increase the staff here. The Bush administration also questioned the strategy of starting inspections at well-known sites that had been visited by previous inspectors. Behind the U.S. complaints lay a vow by President Bush to disarm Iraq by force if President Saddam Hussein's government fails to do so voluntarily and, more broadly, an administration goal of "regime change," or destruction of Hussein's rule.
U.N. officials said the increase over the past two days is not the result of the U.S. pressure, but of the fact that weapons experts from around the world -- summoned by UNMOVIC after a Security Council resolution on Nov. 8 -- have now reported for work. The presence of 70 inspectors and reports that more are on the way appear to put the United Nations on track to meet its goal of having 80 to 100 inspectors in Iraq by Christmas.
The experts visited 11 sites today, bringing the total number visited since inspections resumed Nov. 27 to more than 30. Several sites visited over the past few days, including today's visit to the Saddam Center for Biotechnology in Baghdad, have not been visited by previous inspectors.
Some of the sites, particularly the sprawling Tuwaitha nuclear installation, have required multiple visits. A team from the IAEA searched the heavily bombed facility, which stretches for several square miles and has scores of buildings, for the fourth time. They pursued a physical inventory of materials from Iraq's past nuclear program. Ueki said it likely would take two more days to complete the inventory.
Although the inspectors are working their way down a prearranged list of sites prepared by U.N. officials, Ueki said the contents of a voluminous arms declaration Iraq submitted over the weekend could shift the strategy. "After going through the declaration, they may make some adjustments to their inspection plans," he said.
Aside from an unannounced search of one of Hussein's palaces last week, the initial rounds of inspections have not prompted significant complaints here. In an interview published today in the weekly newspaper Rafidain, the chief Iraqi liaison to the inspections, Lt. Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, said Iraq is "satisfied with [the inspection process] so far because it is calm and professional."
Ueki said the inspectors still have not received a list of Iraqi scientists who have been involved in the country's nuclear, biological and chemical programs since the last inspectors left Iraq in 1998. The Security Council resolution requires Iraq to hand over such a list but does not specify a deadline.
The list is regarded by U.S. and U.N. officials as crucial in determining which scientists and weapons experts to interview. Bush administration officials have been pushing UNMOVIC to start conducting interviews soon, preferably by taking scientists and their families out of the country so they can speak freely.
The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he has not formally asked Iraq to hand over such a list. Diplomats at the United Nations said Blix is waiting to receive more intelligence from the United States and Britain before making a formal request.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry condemned a decision by the Security Council's rotating president to give one of the two copies of Iraq's nearly 12,000-page declaration to the United States. In a statement, the ministry accused the U.S. government of "practicing an unprecedented blackmail operation" and suggested that it would try to alter Iraq's submission.
"This American behavior aims at manipulating the documents of the United Nations in order to find a cover for aggression against Iraq," the statement said.
Hussein was shown on TV meeting with his war cabinet, which included top military commanders and his sons, Qusay and Uday. Qusay, wearing a light gray suit and sitting at his father's right, and Uday, in a blue Nehru jacket, were the only participants not wearing olive-green uniforms. "Your heads will remain high with honor, God willing," Hussein told the officers, "and your enemy will be defeated."
Among the 11 sites visited by the inspectors today was the Qaim phosphate complex, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad. The facility produced a type of refined uranium ore called "yellow cake" from 1984 to 1990 that played an important role in Iraq's nuclear program, which Iraqi officials say ended after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The facility was bombed during the war. Iraqi officials insist it no longer produces uranium. Ueki said a team of IAEA inspectors, which plans to continue the inspection at the plant on Wednesday, was verifying the status of destroyed equipment and trying to determine whether uranium extraction has resumed.
Other nuclear experts visited the Qaqaa explosives plant and the Furat chemical plant south of Baghdad. The Furat site was previously associated with Iraq's efforts to design and test gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
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