Warheads are proof, says US as war nears

["Gary Santos" <evs@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warheads are proof, says US as war nears
By Toby Harnden in Washington and Benedict Brogan
(Filed: 18/01/2003)


The White House insisted last night that the discovery of empty chemical
warheads in Iraq was "proof" that Saddam Hussein had not disarmed and
signalled that its case for war would be outlined at the end of the month.

President George W Bush was said to have found the existence of the cache
"troubling and serious", although he stopped short of declaring it a trigger
for war. But as Tony Blair met Hans Blix, the United Nations chief weapons
inspector, at Chequers, France led European calls for the world not to rush
to judgment.

President Jacques Chirac said a second UN resolution was needed to prevent
"unilateral" action by America.

To the dismay of senior Bush administration officials, Mr Blix appeared
relaxed about Thursday's find of 12 empty chemical warheads south of
Baghdad.

He said it was "no big deal" and he was not sure if the items had been
included in Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration last month.

"This discovery is interesting and obviously the warheads have to be
destroyed," said Mr Blix. "But it's not something that's so important
because we're talking about empty warheads."

In the clearest indication yet that Mr Bush will soon act over Iraq, Colin
Powell, the US secretary of state, said in an interview with Sueddeutsche
Zeitung: "We believe that at the end of the month, it will be convincingly
proven that Iraq is not co-operating."

Mr Blix is due to report to the UN Security Council on Jan 27 and Mr Bush
will give his State of the Union address the next day.

Mr Powell's comment was a strong sign that American-led military action is
likely to take place within weeks.

Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush's spokesman, said: "The chemical warheads found by
the inspectors were not on the declared list Iraq provided to the world
indicating what weapons it said it possessed.

"If somebody wants to make the contention that the 12 chemical warheads
discovered at this facility, this late 1990s-constructed bunker, is in the
declaration, the burden's on them to show the world what page it's on and to
cite the reference."

Mr Blair called on Saddam to "engage" with the inspectors and to answer
questions about the weapons of mass destruction he denies possessing.

Downing Street described the warheads find as "clearly interesting", but
said it was not prepared to "second-guess" the conclusions of the
inspectors' report on Jan 27. A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "We have to be
patient."

The spokesman said Mr Blair had faith in the inspection process, which was
intensifying as more inspectors joined the teams in Iraq. They were now
using helicopters to cover greater areas.

Mr Blair's spokesman added: "One way or another Saddam Hussein will be
disarmed. The choice of how that happens is for him. Either way, it will
happen."

Earlier, Mr Blix's predecessor as chief weapons inspector, Rolf Ekeus, told
the BBC's World at One that the discovery of the warheads was "militarily
insignificant".


 17 January 2003: Chemical warheads found in Saddam bunker
 16 January 2003: White House promises 'smoking gun intelligence'
 13 January 2003: UN weapons inspectors in fresh clash with Americans
 10 January 2003: Blair calls for time over Iraq as 'no smoking guns'
reported
 7 January 2003: The build-up to conflict begins in earnest
 28 December 2002: US forces put on 96-hour notice