U.N. weapons experts: Iraq has tons of chemical weapons

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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I suppose those countires who are protecting Saddam and busy making contracts with the mad man will write off this U.N. information as well.

September 2, 2002
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Nearly four years after U.N. inspectors left Iraq, weapons experts say there is mounting evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has amassed large stocks of chemical and biological weapons he is hiding from a possible U.S. military attack.

Washington’s concern is that Iraq may supply those weapons to terrorist groups.

“If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

U.N. weapons experts say Iraq’s inventory is significant.

“Iraq continues to possess several tons of chemical weapons agents, enough to kill thousands and thousands of civilians or soldiers,” said Jon Wolfsthal, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

U.N. weapons experts have said Iraq may have stockpiled more than 600 metric tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX and sarin. Some 25,000 rockets and 15,000 artillery shells with chemical agents are also unaccounted for, the experts said.

The Iraqis also have biological weapons, according to U.S. officials. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said recently that Iraq has mobile biological weapons laboratories, which would be nearly impossible for U.S. forces to target.

“The concern is they either have on hand – or could quickly re-create the capability to produce – vast amounts of anthrax, tons of material, compared with the several grams of material that literally shut down the U.S. postal system last year,” Wolfsthal said.

“This is something that could kill thousands upon thousands of people, depending on the means of distribution.”

But Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said over the weekend the Bush administration is wrong.

“They are telling wrongly the American public opinion and the world that Iraq is reproducing weapons of mass destruction,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“That’s not true. We are ready to prove it. We are ready to prove it by technical and viable means.”

Iraq told the United Nations in 1995 it had produced 30,000 liters of biological agents, including anthrax and other toxins it could put on missiles.

U.N. officials say the real amount may be three or four times greater.

As President Bush mulls how to go about accomplishing his stated goal of a regime change in Iraq, Wolfsthal said the Iraqis are doing everything they can to hide his assets from a possible attack.

“We know Iraq has already begun moving troops around; we know they’ve begun to hide valuable assets underground,” he said.

“They can read the writing on the wall. They know that President Bush and his administration are out to get him and he is trying to protect as much as he can as quickly as he can.”

So far, U.S. officials say, there is no evidence Hussein has transferred weapons to terrorist groups.

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Where in this article does it quote the name of a UN weapons expert who declares that Iraq has "tons of chemical weapons"? The only names given in the article are, not surprisingly: Joseph Biden, Jon Wolfstahl, and Donald Rumsfeld. No big surprise there, they have been declaring Iraq possesses tons of horrendous weapons ever since the Gulf War.

3

Duh!

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that information in conjunction with this information makes a rather interesting picture dunn it? and atleast the people quoted here have names :smiley:

Source: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq arms teams were 'manipulated'

Iraq arms teams were ‘manipulated’

The former United Nations chief arms inspector in Iraq, has for the first time publicly accused the US and other countries of manipulating the missions for their own political ends.
Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, speaking on Swedish Radio, said the US had sought information about how the Iraqi security services were organised.

They were also trying to dig up intelligence on the whereabouts of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, Mr Ekeus said.

Arms inspectors left Iraq in 1998

Allegations of manipulation have been made in the past, notably by the Baghdad government itself.

Mr Ekeus ran Unscom - the UN weapons inspection mission in Iraq - from 1991 to 1997.

He said that initially the US and other countries were solely interested in ensuring that Iraq was not producing weapons of mass destruction, but as time went on that changed.

Tracking Saddam

He said there was no doubt the US wanted to influence the inspections to further what he called “certain fundamental US interests”.

He said the Americans were interested in areas that were clearly outside the Unscom mandate.

He added that they were keen on tracking Saddam Hussein’s movements, which he pointed out “could be of interest if one were to target him personally”.

Mr Ekeus also said attempts were made to provoke crises which could then, as he put it, “form the basis for direct military action”.

Searches halted

Similarly, he said there had been situations when the inspection teams might have conducted tough searches, but they were blocked.

“They were put under pressure from the US to halt them as, all of a sudden, a confrontation was no longer wanted, owing to wider political interests in the game.”

He said other members of the UN Security Council - including the Russians - also tried to manipulate Unscom’s work.

But Mr Ekeus added that external attempts to pressure him were not successful.

‘No evidence of threat’

Mr Ekeus’ revelations will strengthen claims by the Iraqi Government that it has not been treated fairly and that the UN is not an impartial player.

The UN inspectors left Iraq at the end of 1998, and the Iraqis have refused to allow them back.

Talks between Iraq and the United Nations to set up a new weapons inspection regime have so far come to nothing.

Amid growing speculation that the US is planning to attack Iraq another former UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein poses a threat to the rest of the world.

Mr Ritter said military forces were already being deployed for a conflict which could engulf the entire Middle East.

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Give Us A Solution: Iraq

If “anybody can have a magic solution so that all the issues are being dealt with together equitably, reasonably… we are ready to co-operate with the United Nations and explain our position in a reasonable manner,” Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said today.

He was speaking after meeting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for 30 minutes on the sidelines of the UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

Annan’s spokeswoman said in a statement later that the UN chief had sought to find a way to defuse tensions with Washington, which has accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The two men “touched base on the present situation regarding Iraq’s relations with the Security Council, in particular on the issue of the return of (weapons) inspectors” as part of a “comprehensive solution including the lifting of sanctions” imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the statement said Aziz later told the US network ABC News: “If the American allegations about Iraq’s having weapons of mass destruction, if that is a genuine concern, we are ready to work with the United States, with the (UN) Security Council to reach the truth, but if it is a pretext, a hoax pretext to attack Iraq, what can we do?”

He said Baghdad was bracing for a US strike amid warlike talk from the US administration of President George W. Bush.

World leaders have increasingly called on Annan to seek to resolve the crisis by persuading Iraq to resume UN weapons inspections, which were halted in 1998 ahead of US-led bombing raids on Baghdad.

Bush said through his spokesman today that while he wanted Saddam to readmit the inspectors, it was not a “foolproof” way to ensure Baghdad no longer has weapons of mass destruction.

“The weapons inspectors are one way to try to ascertain that information. It’s not a sure-fire way. It’s not a foolproof way,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington.

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld also cast doubt on Baghdad’s intentions, saying Iraq was unlikely to allow a thorough inspection of its program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

**“I haven’t seen any indication on their part to agree to anything, except as a ploy from time to time,” ** he said, adding that ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein remains the goal of US policy.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri hinted in Cairo that Baghdad could readmit UN arms inspectors, despite denouncing Washington as an “administration of evil”.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned that a strike on Iraq would be “a fatal error”, while French President Jacques Chirac said he opposed any unilateral action against Saddam.

**“I am not in favour of unilateralism wherever it comes from,” **Chirac said in Johannesburg.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela called on Iraq to allow the UN inspectors back into the country, but said the team needed to be representative and could not just be made up of Europeans, for instance.

“The group of inspectors must be properly composed. We can’t accept any form of imperialism or colonialism,” Mandela said after meeting with Aziz

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Anyone have comments on this interesting article by Mr. Fraudia?

Rolf Ekeus adds his name to the list of other UN officials who are repeating the same things - Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck, Jutta Burghardt, Scott Ritter - combined together, that's more than 100 years' experience with the UN.

** The former United Nations chief arms inspector in Iraq, has for the first time publicly accused the US and other countries of manipulating the missions for their own political ends.

Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, speaking on Swedish Radio, said the US had sought information about how the Iraqi security services were organised. They were also trying to dig up intelligence on the whereabouts of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, Mr Ekeus said.

...]He said there was no doubt the US wanted to influence the inspections to further what he called "certain fundamental US interests".

He said the Americans were interested in areas that were clearly outside the Unscom mandate. He added that they were keen on tracking Saddam Hussein's movements, which he pointed out "could be of interest if one were to target him personally".

Mr Ekeus also said attempts were made to provoke crises which could then, as he put it, "form the basis for direct military action".

Similarly, he said there had been situations when the inspection teams might have conducted tough searches, but they were blocked. "They were put under pressure from the US to halt them as, all of a sudden, a confrontation was no longer wanted, owing to wider political interests in the game." **

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That's interesting. Clearly the U.S. administration (if these allegations are true) at the time fudged by handling things the way they did. That doesn't mean Saddam isn't a risk now. Saddam has been able to turn the tables and use this alleged botched spy attempt by keeping inspectors from searching for WMD. If such a thing did happened then the U.S. is stupid for getting caught, but that doesn't give a green light for Saddam to produce and hide WMD. Saddam broke the cease fire agreement within the 1st month of inspections perhaps the U.N. should have pulled out then and allowed the U.S. and Britain to take out Saddam. As it now stands Saddam is very close to the point of no return.

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And replace Hussein with whom? The Iraqi opposition groups don’t seem capable of managing to get their acts together; if their leader, Ahmed Chalabi, steps in Jordan he will be arrested on charges of embezzlement of funds.

Since we’re on the subject of chemical weapons, i thought this might be a timely article.. written by a non Muslim and non Arab.

When US turned a blind eye to poison gas
Dilip Hiro, 1 September 2002, The Guardian

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obviously the title of this thread is a lie and misgudied there is no UN weapons experts saying such things!

This thread should be closed as it is not true. Donald rumsfield is not a UN weapons expert he is a publicity and propganda machine.