IAEA head says Iraq not in material breach

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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But will the US-UK war mongers listen to what the top UN inspectors are saying?

IAEA’s Elbaradei Says Iraq Not in Material Breach

***The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Thursday that, in his view, Iraq was not as yet in material breach of a U.N. resolution on disarmament, contrary to what Britain and the United States have argued. ***

Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on BBC Radio that Iraq had showed “modest or reasonable cooperation” in the nuclear field but urged the Iraqi regime to do more to cooperate with inspectors. The United States and Britain have accused Iraq of spying on United Nations weapons inspectors and obstructing their work and have argued such behavior amounts to a “material breach” of U.N. Security Council resolution 1441 and so to a legal green light for war. Asked whether such non-cooperation constituted a material breach, ElBaradei said: “If they decide that this is a material breach, then that is their prerogative.” *** “We are not going to say that this is a material breach unless we see a gross violation of the resolution. But even then it is for the Security Council to pronounce itself on this issue.”*** The U.S. and Britain are stepping up diplomatic efforts to get key allies on their side ahead of a possible war on Iraq but ElBaradei said weapons inspectors still needed more time.

He said he wanted another four to five months to carry out searches for suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. “I believe in the next few months, probably four or five months, we should be able to come to a conclusion that Iraq is clean from nuclear weapons,” he said. ElBaradei and chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, whose teams are looking for chemical, biological and ballistic weaponry, reported to the Security Council Monday on their findings. Blix said Iraq was not cooperating with the inspections and had failed to account for stocks of lethal weapons. They will report again on February 14. ElBaradei said his inspectors had found no evidence of banned nuclear weapons. But he told BBC radio IAEA inspectors were still investigating aluminum tubes found in Iraq for signs that they were being readied as part of banned weapons. He said the agency’s preliminary conclusion was that they were being used for conventional arms: “We are investigating that,” he said.

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Why has this not received sufficient media coverage?

The head of the IAEA openly stating that while Iraq should cooperate more, it has thus far illustrated "modest or reasonable cooperation", and that, from his perspective, there is NO "material breach" thus far. "I believe in the next few months, probably four or five months, we should be able to come to a conclusion that Iraq is clean from nuclear weapons" - heck, isn't this officially what the US and UK want from Iraq - disarmament of its weapons?

In light of the above, where is the rationale to go to war? Every time that Bush tries to come up with some justification, it is thrown back in his face, just like his attempts to link both anthrax and al Qaeda with Iraq. Now even the head of the IAEA rejects that Iraq has not cooperated. Surely this, if nothing else, should give pause to the pro-war stalwarts.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Why has this not received sufficient media coverage?

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Maybe because the US media particularly is so loyally toeing the Bush line it does not want people to know the FULL story of what the US inspectors are saying?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Malik73: *

Maybe because the US media particularly is so loyally toeing the Bush line it does not want people to know the FULL story of what the US inspectors are saying?
[/QUOTE]

They also do not cover all the Peace rallies going on across the country. Its is sad that our press is controlled by the government. This whole debacle is sad. My prayers are for it all to stop, and for the USA to stop flexing our muscles and start working for a more sustainable solution. We can not achieve peace by starting a war.

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**
Malik and The Priest :k: Well-stated words.

>>The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Thursday that, in his view, Iraq was not as yet in material breach of a U.N. resolution on disarmament, contrary to what Britain and the United States have argued.<<
Extremely sad to know how weak has been the media coverage surrounding such an important statement, especially as it is coming from the head of the IAEA himself.

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I dont know of a TV station that didn`t show his address to the UN,everybody who wanted to see it could see it.
What you are missing is that Blix also gave an address and i think it is understood that the urgency is not so much with nuclear weapons,at least not right now,as with the chem.and bio. side of things.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ThePriest: *

They also do not cover all the Peace rallies going on across the country. Its is sad that our press is controlled by the government. This whole debacle is sad. My prayers are for it all to stop, and for the USA to stop flexing our muscles and start working for a more sustainable solution. We can not achieve peace by starting a war.
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Very true, especially the American media. What the IAEA head inspector said was at least 50% of the whole story, yet at most it was given a couple of lines at the end of some news items, instead of its due coverage.

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Whats apparent is that cartoon style news networks in the US will allocate most of their live coverage to sensationalizing fictitious news stories such as Sadams alleged links with the taliban and other garbage .. Its sad that some of the US media has stooped so low in order to justify war against Iraq.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Dil he Pakistani: *
Whats apparent is that cartoon style news networks in the US will allocate most of their live coverage to sensationalizing fictitious news stories such as Sadams alleged links with the taliban and other garbage .. Its sad that some of the US media has stooped so low in order to justify war against Iraq.
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If anyone really dares step out of line with the Bush regime, their reputations will either be smeared or they will arrested under that "Patriot act".

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Sadly, I think some of the media is also looking at the commercial advantages of supporting war.. with millions glued to the networks and reading the tabloids it means increased revenues from Ads.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Dil he Pakistani: *
Sadly, I think some of the media is also looking at the commercial advantages of supporting war.. with millions glued to the networks and reading the tabloids it means increased revenues from Ads.
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Yes, we must not forget that CNN built itself really its reports on the first Gulf war, and all the sensationalism of it.

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Former top Iraqi scientist says Iraq has no nukes](Clarifying the Complex | Homepage | Thomson Reuters) Reuters 03 Feb 03 (Excerpt)

By Jeffrey Hodgson

TORONTO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A former high-level Iraqi nuclear scientist, now living in Canada, said on Monday there is no way Iraq could possess nuclear weapons and the United States is exaggerating the potential threat for its own purposes.

**Dr. Imad Khadduri, who joined the Iraqi nuclear program in 1968 and was part of a team trying to develop a nuclear bomb in the 1980s, said Iraq’s weapons program fell into shambles after the Gulf War and could not possibly have been resurrected. “All we had after the war from that nuclear power program were ruins, memoirs, and reports of what we had done…on the nuclear weapon side I am more than definitely sure nothing has been done,” he told Reuters in an interview.“For (U.S. President George W.) Bush to continue brandishing this image of a superhuman Iraqi nuclear power program is a great fallacious misinformation.” **

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged on Monday to deliver “compelling” proof to the U.N. Security Council this week that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction from U.N. inspectors who have been combing the country for banned biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

But Khadduri, who left the country in 1998, said while he cannot speak on possible biological or chemical programs, he believes the scientific expertise and resources needed to produce nuclear weapons have been out of Iraq’s reach for more than a decade.

The former nuclear scientist, who has spoken in the past to U.N. weapons inspectors, said he decided to speak out publicly after the chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix sharply criticized Iraq last month for not doing enough to comply with inspections. Khadduri said the combined effect of the Gulf War, economic sanctions and the work of earlier U.N. inspection teams decimated the nuclear program by scattering staff and destroying its infrastructure.

“To re-initiate such a program, it is not a simple project, it’s a huge project. There is no management to lead this rejuvenation. The highly qualified management team has simply hibernated,” he said.“Can we hide something as huge an enterprise as a nuclear power program? Look at the establishments deployed in North Korea…it’s an impossibility.”

**The soft-spoken scientist, who now teaches computer science at a Toronto college, said he was not speaking out under any pressure from his home country. Rather, he felt compelled to correct what he says is “misinformation” being put forward about Iraq’s nuclear program as the United States amasses and troops and armor in the region.

Khadduri said he was particularly upset by a speech from Bush last year which touched on the nuclear issue. “He seems to be exaggerating the role of the Iraqi nuclear weapon program for war purposes. I could see that since August clearly and I couldn’t contain myself,” he said.**

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IAEA might gave Iraq clean bill of health (for nuclear) but Hans blix team might not for Chemical and biological

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Whats the betting this Iraqi scientist will not be given due coverage in the western media, like the UAEA inspector?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Malik73: *
Whats the betting this Iraqi scientist will not be given due coverage in the western media, like the UAEA inspector?
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Your right malik, this guys important information has been some what ignored by the tabloids. Just proves the biased reporting that exists.