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To: dennis michael patterson who wrote (43737)	3/10/2003 9:26:41 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 52237

Warning shows Chirac is a man on a mission By Robin Gedye (Filed: 11/03/2003) The declaration by Jacques Chirac that France would veto a second resolution on Iraq "whatever the circumstances" is a milestone on his mission to put his country back on the map of world players. President Chirac has already added "the missing page in history" by reinvigorating French pride and standing up to America, the French daily Le Figaro wrote in a recent editorial - before cautioning that it might be time to step back while there is still time. But while France argues it is acting out of principle in an attempt to stop the world going to war unnecessarily, critics suggest its motivation is less high-minded and stems from France's long ties with Iraq. It was M Chirac, in his former role as prime minister, who brokered a deal to help build Iraq's first nuclear reactor in the 1970s - destroyed by Israel in a bombing raid in June 1981. France - and M Chirac in particular - has been at pains to build the closest commercial ties to Baghdad of any western country and second only to Russia outside the Middle East. Just four months ago, with war looming, France had 81 companies in its pavilion at Baghdad's annual trade fair. America had none and Britain had just one. France was by far the largest non-regional exhibitor at the fair attended by 1,200 representatives from 49 countries. Officials in Iran, which fought a 10-year war with Iraq, sometimes refer to M Chirac as "Shah-Iraq", while Israelis pronounce the name of the Osirak nuclear reactor they bombed "O-Chirac". Even in France he was referred to in newspapers during his period as prime minister as "Chiraq". M Chirac's domestic success in opposing war with Iraq has brilliantly exploited the pacifism of the Left and the commercial interests of the Right. It is no coincidence that France, Russia and China, the three Security Council countries defying America on Iraq, have by far the largest potential oil pacts in Iraq. France is Iraq's largest western trading partner with annual exports worth an estimated £415 million. There is no question that a Security Council veto by France would deliver a further surge in domestic popularity for Mr Chirac - a rare gift to a politician usually only handed out when a nation goes to war rather than opposes it. telegraph.co.uk

To: dennis michael patterson who wrote (43737)	3/10/2003 9:33:41 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 52237

Blix 'hid devastating facts on weapons' By Marcus Warren at the United Nations and David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 11/03/2003) The White House yesterday demanded that Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspector, explain why he buried potentially devastating revelations about newly-discovered Iraqi weapons systems in his last written report. United States officials told reporters that the UN had discovered a new variety of rocket warhead seemingly configured to scatter "bomblets" filled with biological or chemical agents. Yet, to the apparent dismay of the Bush administration, Mr Blix chose not to raise the discoveries in his oral report. The Bush administration has also seized on the discovery that Iraq has developed an unmanned aerial drone capable of dispensing chemical and biological weapons, and which may exceed the 93-mile range allowed under UN resolutions. Colin Powell, the secretary of state, said the revelation "should be of concern to everybody". In what appeared to be a deliberate rebuke for Mr Blix, Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, twice said the omission raised questions that the Swedish chief arms inspector needed to answer. Asked if America feared that Dr Blix deliberately buried the incriminating data, Mr Fleischer said: "There are outstanding questions, and all members of the Security Council, I think it is safe to say, look forward to hearing the answers." A Western diplomat at the UN even implied that the inspector's omission was not accidental. "This was an attempt, for whatever reason, to bury absolutely key information about Iraq's arsenal," he said. "We want answers from Iraq, but also from Mr Blix." British and American officials were furious that Mr Blix had failed to mention Iraq's "Project 101" when he addressed the Security Council last Friday. Details of the scheme suggested Iraq had sought to produce cluster munitions filled with biological and chemical agents to be scattered across battlefields. The project was referred to in the detail of the inspector's written report. The hollow metal balls, and fuses Iraq is known to possess, were ideally suited for dispersing agents across large areas, a US official told the New York Times. "When these things come out from the main frame and they explode inward, chemical agents come out," he said. "These can be used for biological weapons too." The UN report, entitled Unresolved Disarmament Issues: Iraq's Proscribed Weapons Programmes, concluded that "Iraq's interest in cluster munitions and the developments it did make may have progressed well beyond what it declared". A munition component was discovered at the Al Noaman factory, well known as a centre of production of such weapons, last month, the report said. It also suggested that gas gangrene was the preferred agent to be used in the device because the substance was most effective when in contact with open wounds. Iraq produced 340 litres of the concentrate in 1990. The revelation was part of the huge amount of evidence that the United States and Britain now intend to deploy in the campaign to secure support from the Security Council for a new resolution effectively authorising war. Mr Blix's written report does an eloquent job in indicating the difficulties in pursuing successful inspections, given the huge quantity of information still concealed from the UN by Iraq. "Unmovic has credible information that the total quantity of BW [biological warfare] agents in bombs, warheads and in bulk at the time of the Gulf war was 7,000 litres more than declared," the report said. It dismisses Iraq's claims to have destroyed its stocks of the agent 10 years ago. telegraph.co.uk