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| US 'doubted Iraq's arsenal' |
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| siddiqui |
| 06/06/03 at 15:49:54 |
| US 'doubted Iraq's arsenal' A leaked US intelligence report has cast fresh doubt on the coalition claims that Iraq had banned weapons which served as justification for going to war. The secret September 2002 Pentagon intelligence report concluded that there was "no reliable information" that Iraq had biological or chemical weapons. It is believed the report was widely circulated among the Bush administration at a time when senior officials were putting the case for military action. The latest twist in the weapons row came as United Nations nuclear experts arrived in Iraq to investigate post-war looting of material from the country's main nuclear facility. The BBC's Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says the 80-page report from the Defence Intelligence Agency will only fuel the controversy over alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). WERE WE MISLED OVER WMD? You don't think that Saddam was knitting for the last few years after he kicked out the inspectors? Have some patience. Sandy Clark, US It contradicted Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's claim at the time that Iraq had amassed large stockpiles of nerve agent and mustard gas. US forces have not yet found any WMD in Iraq. Two suspect mobile laboratories have been located but have not provided any proof of banned weapons programmes. Senior Pentagon officials confirmed that the report said there was no reliable information on whether Iraq was stockpiling and producing chemical weapons. But the officials stress that there was no US or international presence on the ground in Iraq at the time and that therefore there could be no definitive evidence. They also say the report suggests that there was no doubt Iraq had the capability and expertise to produce such weapons and was probably doing so. Intelligence criticised US administration officials still insist that their claims about Iraqi WMD will be proved to be accurate. The CIA has launched an investigation to see if intelligence reports were distorted to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. The UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has criticised the quality of intelligence given to him by the US and Britain about Iraq's alleged WMD. Mr Blix told the BBC that his teams followed up US and British leads at suspected sites across Iraq, but found nothing when they got there. Contamination The team of seven experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will spend two weeks at the Tuwaitha complex, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad. They will try to determine what is missing, deal with what is left and make it safe. The UN experts at Tuwaitha are being blocked from investigating the reports of contamination and sickness. The US argues that as the occupying power it is responsible for the health of the Iraqi people. The number of inspectors has been limited by the Pentagon to seven, and their assessment has to be completed in two weeks. Local people have been using barrels that held highly radioactive material to store food or wash clothes and some have complained of subsequent health problems, such as nose bleeds and vomiting. The inspectors were allowed in after the IAEA director, Mohamed ElBaradei, said a radiological emergency could be brewing at the plant after looters left behind piles of uranium and spilled radioactive materials. Local people say looters were not after the uranium itself. They tipped it onto the ground so they could take away the containers to store food and water, the BBC's Caroline Hawley reports from Baghdad. Workers living on the site, worried about being contaminated themselves, buried the spilled uranium in cement and appealed for international help. Limited access Before the war, the site held two tons of low-grade enriched uranium and several tons of natural uranium. A storage facility near the site held several hundred other radiological sources. The IAEA will check stocks of enriched uranium and "yellow cake", or processed mined uranium, against its detailed inventory lists. US defence officials quoted by the Reuters news agency insist that US troops accompany the UN inspectors at the site, and that the visit sets no precedent for a future IAEA role in Iraq. The Americans will deal with the search for WMD themselves - a US-backed team of 1,400 inspectors is due in Iraq in the coming days. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/2970064.stm Published: 2003/06/06 17:08:03 GMT © BBC MMIII |
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