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To: JessiDani who wrote (28300)	8/25/1998 2:39:00 PM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

U.S.: Sudan Plant Worked With Iraq JOHN DIAMOND Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - While a Sudanese pharmaceuticals plant hit by U.S. missiles publicly provided medicine to Iraq under a U.N.-approved program, plant scientists secretly worked with Iraqi counterparts on chemical weapons projects, according to U.S. intelligence. U.S. intelligence intercepts of phone conversations between scientists at the plant in Khartoum, Sudan, and some of the top officials in Iraq's chemical weapons program influenced President Clinton's decision to order a cruise missile strike on the plant, an action that drew loud protests. A key factor in the strike was a soil sample from the plant site that showed traces of a manmade chemical that is a key ingredient in the deadly nerve agent VX, a U.S. intelligence official said Monday. The Shifa Pharmaceuticals plant was destroyed last Thursday in a U.S. cruise missile attack at the same time Navy-launched cruise missiles struck at a suspected terrorist base in eastern Afghanistan. In an echo of the controversy over the bombing of what Iraq claimed was a baby milk factory during the Persian Gulf War, Sudanese officials have protested to the United Nations that the plant made medicine, not weapons. Under pressure to back up its claim, the Clinton administration let U.S. intelligence officials Monday discuss some of the evidence that led to the decision to strike. A U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the physical evidence being cited repeatedly by Clinton administration officials is a soil sample ''obtained by clandestine means'' from the Sudan plant property. The sample showed traces of a manmade chemical called EMPTA, or O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid - a material with no commercial uses that is a key ingredient of VX. ''Once you have it, you're a long way toward the production of VX,'' said the intelligence official. The material apparently got into the soil immediately outside the plant but on the plant property ''either through airborne emissions or spillage from the manufacturing process.'' The official did not describe how the soil sample was obtained. ''This is something we went out of our way to get.'' While defending its actions, the administration nevertheless conceded that the facility probably also manufactured medicines. ''That facility very well may have been producing pharmaceuticals,'' State Department spokesman James Foley said. Among other things, the plant had been approved to produce medicine for shipment to Iraq under the humanitarian exception to the U.N.-imposed trade sanctions on that country. ''But that in no way alters the fact that the factory also was producing precursor elements'' of nerve gas, Foley said. Last week, senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters following the attack said they knew of no commercial products made at the Shifa plant. Eyewitness accounts by Western journalists who toured the wreckage, however, included descriptions of pills and medicine bottles strewn all over the site. The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have been monitoring the Shifa plant for more than a year, and developing information on its operations and leadership. The scrutiny intensified after the plant won a contract to supply medicine to Iraq. U.S. electronic intercepts of telephone calls during this effort showed ties between senior executives of the plant and known terrorist groups, including the one headed by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi multimillionaire believed to be responsible for the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the U.S. intelligence official said. The intercepts also linked these executives with people involved in Iraq's weapons development, including Emad Al Ani, known as the father of Iraq's chemical weapons program. Information from various sources also established a link between the privately owned plant and the Sudanese Military Industrial Complex, a government organization involved in armaments development, the intelligence official said. Prior to 1996, when bin Laden was living in Sudan, he was known by U.S. intelligence to be working with the Sudanese to develop less expensive ways to store and dispense chemical weapons. A source in New York City, meanwhile, said Monday that a federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted bin Laden several weeks ago for soliciting murder. It was not clear what specific incident led to the indictment, which was returned prior to the embassy bombings. The grand jury was convened more than a year ago to examine terrorist activities with a focus on bin Laden, said the source, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. The source is familiar with the grand jury investigation. Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, said he could not comment. The production of EMPTA took up a small space within the sprawling Shifa plant, according to U.S. intelligence, and evidence of the production effort may be difficult for international inspectors to find, the intelligence official said. At the United Nations, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Peter Burleigh said Monday it was unnecessary to send a technical team to investigate U.S. claims that the bombed Sudanese factory produced chemical agents for terrorist groups because Washington already has evidence.