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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bela_ghoulashi who wrote (71050)	2/2/2003 7:54:50 PM
From: KonKilo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Does the WH have irrefutable evidence of Iraq's possession of WMD or does it not? Since the SOU, we seem to be seeing a lowering of expectations for Wednesday's Powell presentation. Powell to present 'proof of Iraq's deception' sundayherald.com From James Cusick in Washington COLIN Powell, the US Secretary of State, will unveil to the United Nations on Wednesday material gathered by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) claiming to show the work of Iraqi 'deception' teams intent on concealing sites developing or involved in weapons of mass destruction. Since UN inspectors first entered Iraq two months ago, the NSA has been recording the conversations of Iraqi officials monitoring the inspectors. The NSA tapes are said to show deception on a mass scale, with the Iraqis clearly not co-operating with the UN inspectors as demanded of them in Resolution 1441. While the declassified intercepts are not a 'smoking gun', the US believes they clearly show Iraqi non-compliance. Powell is understood to have been given intelligence 'evidence' that the Iraqis installed surveillance equipment in hotels and offices used by UN personnel in Iraq. If correct, it means that the US has been listening to the Iraqis while the Iraqis listened to the UN. Alastair Campbell, Downing Street's director of communications, said on the flight with the Prime Minister returning to London from Washington that Powell would deliver 'sober and detailed' evidence to the UN on Iraq's 'concealment' tactics. However, the decision by George W Bush's administration to use the NSA material is high-risk. If the US boast of high-grade and incriminating evidence turns out be a damp squib, it will be highly damaging to US and UK hopes of gathering unanimous support for a second UN resolution on Iraq. Dr Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, denied that his team had been 'penetrated' by Iraqi agents, and denied that sensitive UN information had been leaked to Baghdad. He has accepted an invitation by Iraq to return to Baghdad on February 8 for two days, before reporting to the UN on February 14 . Meanwhile, a Gallup poll of 1000 people in France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Russia has found a majority opposes war against Iraq in any circumstance . Also in Germany, thousands of people opposing war in Iraq staged protests across the country yesterday. Greenpeace activists also moored the Rainbow Warrior across the bows of a British freighter loading military supplies for the Gulf at Marchwood military port in southern England.