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Profile: U.N. Security Countil Prepares to Receive Iraq's Account of its Weapons Programs
All Things Considered: December 6, 2002
Iraq Arms Report
JACKI LYDEN, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Jacki Lyden.
LYNN NEARY, host:
And I'm Lynn Neary.
Tomorrow Iraq is set to hand over to UN weapons inspectors what it says will be an exhaustive account of its chemical, biological and nuclear programs. As the deadline for the report approaches, Iraq's ambassador to the UN again repeated his country's claim that it has no weapons of mass destruction. The US argues that if Iraq tries to make that case in its report this weekend, Baghdad will be violating a UN resolution. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN reporting:
The Iraqi ambassador to the US, Mohammed al-Douri, is promising a very huge and very thick report that will contain some new information. But judging from his comments today, it won't appease the US.
Ambassador MOHAMMED AL-DOURI (Iraq): We said again and again that we have no more destruction weapons at all. Everything has been destroyed and we have no intention to do that again. So Iraq is clean of any kind of mass destruction weapons.
KELEMEN: The Bush administration argues it knows Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and if Iraq denies this, US officials are already laying the groundwork to declare Baghdad in material breach of its UN obligations, a move that could pave the way to war. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says the US won't make a snap judgment about the Iraqi declaration and will give experts the time to analyze it, but he says the US won't be fooled by the size of the document.
Mr. RICHARD BOUCHER (State Department Spokesman): The point is not how heavy is it. The point is: Does it disclose their programs. Does it name the people? Does it identify the facilities? Does it identify the holdings that previous inspectors found and were not able to destroy?
KELEMEN: Boucher says the Iraqi declaration will be tested against the things the US already knows.
The Bush administration is also increasing pressure on the weapons inspectors to use the full power of the latest UN Security Council resolution. Part of that resolution gives the inspectors the right to interview Iraqi scientists outside of the country, away from government minders. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the US wants to see inspectors use this power.
Mr. ARI FLEISCHER (White House Spokesman): Because of the brutal regime that Saddam Hussein has, many of these experts who have information they want to share fear doing so because they know that if they do they risk imprisonment, torture, murder, their families will be at risk and they're vulnerable to the brutalities of Saddam Hussein's regime.
KELEMEN: Fleischer would not say whether the US would set up a sort of witness protection program for Iraqi informants and their families, but the US is talking to the UN about how to ensure security for Iraqis being interviewed. UN officials have often argued that member states would have to provide asylum in such cases.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix treaded lightly on this subject today.
Dr. HANS BLIX (Chief Weapons Inspector): We are not going to abduct anybody and we are not serving as a defection agency--I stay by that. How we'll make use of this--that's another matter. We'll see.
KELEMEN: Facing criticism from both Baghdad and Washington, Blix has constantly insisted his team is not in anyone's pocket. He says the success of his mission depends on the cooperation of all sides, and he says the inspectors must rely on information from all Security Council states, including the US.
Dr. BLIX: Any country is too big for inspectors to comb through every square centimeter. You need to have information and information comes from different sources, they come from satellites, they come from defectors, they come even from open media, and they come from governments that they have intelligence about sites.
KELEMEN: As for this weekend's declaration from Iraq, Blix says he plans to hand over the report to Security Council members only after his experts have gone through it and decided which parts are too sensitive to be made public. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
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