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 Bond Announces Millions for Disaster Recovery Bond Blasts Retreat and Defeat Iraq Strategy Bond Works to Protect Military Heroes Bond Votes to Kill Amnesty Bill Bond Clarifies Phase II Report on Prewar Intelligence Bond Announces $3 Billion in Agriculture Assistance Water Resources Bill Passes Senate Bond Continues Tour of Vets Facilities Pentagon's Pre-War Intelligence Legit National Guard Empowerment Legislation |
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February 5, 2003 Iraq's 'Evasion and Deception' - What Powell Outlined to the UN Today, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a thorough and deeply troubling case that Saddam Hussein and his regime:
The United States presented material from a variety of sources -- U.S. and foreign, human and technical. This represents an unprecedented effort to declassify sensitive material. The U.S. took this step because Iraq's weapons present real and immediate dangers to the region and the world. Secretary Powell shared new, detailed information with the Security Council about:
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Denial and Deception Secretary Powell's presentation began with audiotapes of intercepted communications.
Secretary Powell described the Iraqi concealment effort, headed by Iraq's Vice President Ramadan. Secretary Powell showed satellite photos of increased activity at several weapons sites, including clear signs that chemical and biological agents were being moved, presumably to thwart inspectors. He also detailed Iraq's efforts to block interviews with Iraqi scientists, which include public accusations that the inspectors are spies and private death threats to potential witnesses and their families. Biological Weapons Dr. Blix has recently confirmed that Iraq has not accounted for large quantities of biological agents based on evidence from UNSCOM before inspections ended in 1998 (up to 25,000 liters of anthrax and 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin). We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and rails. There are at least seven such factories. Together, they can produce in a matter of months more biological agent than Iraq admitted to producing before the Gulf War. They are mobile, to evade inspectors. Chemical Weapons As with biological weapons, Iraq has never accounted for vast quantities of chemical weapons, including:
Dr. Blix also recently cited 6,500 unaccounted-for aerial chemical bombs, which would contain around 1,000 tons of chemical agents. Iraq could not, and did not need to, make its chemical weapons manufacturing mobile. Instead, it is carrying out these activities under the cover of dual-use civilian manufacturing. Satellite imagery documented transshipment activity of chemical weapons at a site called al-Musayyib. After the transshipment was over, further imagery revealed that the complex was sanitized. Secretary Powell detailed extensive reporting on covert procurement efforts for chemical and biological agent production. He also played a taped conversation between officers of the 2nd Republican Guard (which oversees the garrison at al-Musayyib). In this conversation, the junior officer is ordered to "remove the expression 'nerve agents'" from wireless instructions. Secretary Powell cited reports that Iraq has experimented on human beings with chemical or biological agents. Nuclear Weapons We know that Saddam has kept together cadres of nuclear scientists and that he has a bomb design. So far as we know, Iraq lacks fissile material, but is seeking the means to enrich uranium. Procurement efforts include high specification aluminum tubes for gas centrifuges used to enrich uranium A production plant for magnets suitable in centrifuge work, and machines suitable for balancing centrifuge rotors. Secretary Powell noted that procurement efforts for aluminum tubes have continued past the adoption of Resolution 1441. The world underestimated Saddam's nuclear program before. Prior to the Gulf War, most allied intelligence agencies estimated that Iraq was at least five years away from developing a nuclear weapon. Information obtained from Iraqi defectors after the Gulf war showed that - if not for that war - Iraq could have produced a nuclear weapon by 1993. Delivery Systems U.S. intelligence assesses that Iraq retains a force of up to a few dozen prohibited SCUD-variant missiles. UNSCOM discovered that Iraq had an active Unmanned Arial Vehicle (UAV) program with ties to its chemical and biological weapons programs. Ties to Terrorism - A Long History Secretary Powell was clear: Iraq has been involved with terrorism for decades:
Iraq and Al-Qaida: What We Know Today Iraq harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by senior al-Qaida operative Musab al-Zarqawi -- a Palestinian-Jordanian, and collaborator of Usama Bin Laden. We know Zarqawi came to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment. Zarqawi oversees the cell responsible for the assassination of USAID officer Lawrence Foley in Amman last October. Zarqawi directs a poisons/toxins laboratory in northeastern Iraq alongside the radical Islamist organization, Ansar al-Islam. Many of Zarqawi's colleagues remain in Baghdad, where they have been operating for more than 8 months. The network there coordinates the movement of people, money, and supplies into and throughout Iraq. Law enforcement and intelligence operations have disrupted Zarqawi's poison plotting in France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia. A British officer was killed in the raid of the cell which was identified with ricin. In total, at last count, 116 operatives with Zarqawi's network have been arrested. Iraq and Al-Qaida: History Secretary Powell spelled out how Iraq-al-Qaida ties were forged by secret high-level contacts in the 1990s, including at least eight senior level meetings. Their relationship is prompted by mutual hatred for the United States, Israel, the Saudi royal family, and by bin Ladin's interest in both WMD and future safe havens. As the Secretary said, there is more: A senior al-Qaida terrorist, now detained, who had been responsible for bin Ladin's training in Afghanistan, reports that al-Qaida was intent on obtaining WMD assistance from Iraq. According to this source deceased al-Qaida leader Muhammad 'Atif did not believe that al-Qaida labs in Afghanistan were capable enough to manufacture BW and CW. He turned to Iraq for assistance. Iraq agreed to provide chemical and biological weapons training for two al-Qaida associates starting in December 2000. Iraq's Deplorable Human Rights Record Saddam Hussein's regime is unsurpassed in its brutality and viciousness. What has the international community found and documented? The regime practices systemic and indiscriminate torture, detention, disappearance, expulsion, and murder. Rape is a policy of the Iraqi government, used for torture and intimidation. The regime has used chemical weapons against civilians. The Iraqi regime has more forced disappearance cases than any country in the world. For two decades, the Iraqi regime has practiced phased terror against the Kurdish people including the destruction of some 2,000 villages. Saddam's campaign of ethnic cleansing has displaced some 700,000 people throughout Iraq. Saddam's unprovoked invasion of Iran in 1980 resulted in an estimated one million Iranians dead, and his 1990 invasion of Kuwait killed at least 1,000 Kuwaitis. And we cannot forget that it is precisely the totalitarian, oppressive nature of Saddam's regime that enables his deception and continued stockpiling and pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. |
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