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To: marc chatman who wrote (27630)	8/13/1998 9:50:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

Thursday August 13 8:20 AM EDT Iraq Weapons Inspectors Criticized MARIAM SAMI Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq renewed its allegations today that it is not being treated fairly by U.N. weapons inspectors as a U.N. envoy arrived in Baghdad with a message from Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announced last week that Iraq would no longer cooperate with the U.N. Special Commission, which is charged with ensuring that Iraq eliminates its biological and chemical weapons and long-range missiles. Envoy Prakash Shah came to Iraq for talks aimed at defusing the latest crisis over weaponry. He told reporters shortly after arrival that he had brought a message from Annan to the Iraqi leadership, which he would deliver later today. He did not disclose the contents. But U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said reporters earlier this week that Annan would ask Saddam to reverse Iraq's decision not to cooperate with U.N. inspectors. The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Richard Butler, said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Iraqi restrictions were making it impossible for inspectors to ensure that Iraq was not reviving its weapons programs. But the state-run Al-Qadissiya newspaper today repeated Iraq's allegation that Butler was working on behalf of the United States to prolong the sanctions. ''Butler showed he is no longer up to his job, which requires a minimum of impartiality and fairness,'' the paper said. The weapons must be destroyed before the Security Council will lift trade sanctions that ban air travel to and from the country and limit sales of oil, Iraq's economic mainstay. The sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which set off the 1991 Gulf War. Annan in February brokered an agreement with Saddam that ended a crisis over Iraq's refusal to allow U.N. inspectors into presidential compounds. Eight of Saddam's palaces were inspected after the Feb. 23 deal. Iraq has now banned new site inspections but has said long-term monitoring activities - most conducted by surveillance cameras and air-testing equipment - could continue. The New York Times reported today, however, that Iraq also was impeding the long-term monitoring by not allowing inspectors to act on violations that their equipment detect. Iraq also has suspended its participation in talks aimed at uncovering the full history of Iraq's weapons development, the Times said. Butler's letter followed a similar letter from Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for overseeing destruction of Iraq's nuclear weapons capability.