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To: 4figureau who wrote (2965)	1/27/2003 9:20:04 AM
From: 4figureau	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5423

Britain Says Iraq Hiding Weapons Ahead of Report Mon January 27, 2003 08:53 AM ET By Peter Graff LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said Monday Iraq was hiding banned weapons, spying on U.N. arms inspectors and hindering their movements, stressing that non-cooperation amounted to a breach of a U.N. resolution on disarmament. Just hours before arms inspectors report to the United Nations Security Council, Britain said they did not have to come up with proof of weapons of mass destruction. "We don't have to find a 'smoking gun'," Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman told a news briefing. "Non-cooperation is designed to be at the very core of (U.N. Resolution) 1441 ... we know we are not getting the cooperation that 1441 says we have to get from Iraq," he said, while adding that it was for the inspectors to decide if Iraq was in breach. Earlier, British officials briefed journalists on intelligence they said proved their case, though they gave no indication as to the source of their information. They made clear Britain is prepared to make the case that Iraq is in breach of Security Council resolutions. Officials said they had shared intelligence with the inspectors which showed Iraq was hiding chemical warfare munitions, missile engines and secret documents about weapons programs. In one case, missile parts were squirreled out of a production site in November before inspectors arrived. Blair's spokesman listed banned weapons, including chemical warfare agent and nerve gas, that he said the U.N. knew President Saddam Hussein was harboring at the end of the 1990s. "These aren't things you just lose like a pair of house keys around a house," the spokesman said. "Our information is that he has implemented that strategy of dispersal." "SPYING, BUGGING ROOMS" Britain has also told the inspectors that Iraq was spying on them, bugging hotel rooms and even staging fake car accidents and other diversions to keep them from reaching certain sites, the officials said. The briefings give a foretaste of the arguments Britain and the United States will make after chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei report to the U.N. later Monday. Blair's spokesman declined, however, to comment on whether Britain would back another deadline for Iraq to come clean on suspected weapons, as some allies have proposed. Blix, whose remit covers missiles, chemical and biological weapons, is expected to say Iraq has not been fully cooperative with inspections. ElBaradei, who covers nuclear weapons as head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, will say his inspections need more time to be conclusive. In the absence of a "smoking gun," London and Washington may face a difficult task in persuading skeptical Security Council members and their own increasingly wary publics that war is justified. The British officials said their intelligence also showed Iraqi scientists had been threatened with harm if they cooperated with inspectors or showed them documents. No Iraqi scientist has agreed to be interviewed alone with the inspectors. The officials said the Iraqi leadership had already begun looking for "an escape route" and funneling assets abroad. Iraq denies it has an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, or that its leaders would seek asylum abroad. asia.reuters.com