Re: A leaked US intelligence report:"no reliable information" on WMD

[k hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Can you imagine what would happen if Hussein insisted that Iraqi troops
accompany UN inspectors and that their numbers be only seven--and that they
be prohibited from looking for WMD as the AUTHORITY has done.
   This is surreal.


Cheers, Ken Hanoly


----- Original Message -----
From: "e. ahmet tonak" <eatonak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 3:15 PM
Subject: A leaked US intelligence report:"no reliable information" on WMD


> How about this?  Fresh from BBC web site!
>
> ******************************************************
>
>
> 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).
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2970064.stm
> --
>
>
>
>
>
>
> E. Ahmet Tonak
> Professor of Economics
>
> Simon's Rock College of Bard
> 84 Alford Road
> Great Barrington, MA 01230
>
> Tel:  413 528 7488
> Fax: 413 528 7365
> www.simons-rock.edu/~eatonak