Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Bush's Smoking Gun-U.N.: Inspectors find empty warheads in Iraq

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 13:21:36 -0500

Hot off the press-
=======================================
U.N.: Inspectors find empty warheads in Iraq

Chief U.N. inspector says situation 'tense, dangerous'

Thursday, January 16, 2003 Posted: 1:14 PM EST (1814 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N.
weapons inspectors Thursday found
a number of empty chemical
warheads and another one that is
still being evaluated, and the
warheads are in "excellent
condition," according to a U.N.
spokesman.

Inspectors also visited private homes for
the first time Thursday, as the chief U.N.
inspector described the situation in Iraq
as "very tense and very dangerous."

A team from the U.N. Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC) made the warhead discovery
at the Ukhaider ammunition storage area,
where they went to inspect a large group
of bunkers constructed in the late 1990s.

The inspectors found 11 empty 122 mm
chemical warheads and one warhead that
requires further evaluation. The warheads
are similar to ones imported by Iraq
during the late 1980s, the spokesman
said.

The UNMOVIC team used portable X-ray
equipment to analyze one of the
warheads and collected samples for
chemical testing.

Earlier, U.N. team searched homes
owned by Iraqi scientists in the hunt for
evidence of weapons of mass
destruction, Iraqi officials said.

The homes are located in the
Al-Ghazaliyah district in Baghdad and are
not listed as declared sites by Iraq,
suggesting that inspectors may have been working on an intelligence tip.

Blix: Iraq violated import ban

After meeting with European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium, chief U.N.
inspector Hans Blix told reporters Iraq has illegally imported arms-related material
as recently as 2002, but it is not yet clear whether the material is related to weapons
of mass destruction.

"It's clear they have violated the bans of
the United Nations in terms of imports,"
Blix said. The imported items include
missile parts, CNN's Richard Roth
reported.

U.S. officials reacted positively to Blix's
comments.

"The evidence is mounting, and while
inspectors went in with a stiff upper lip it is
now more clear by the day that things are
not going nearly as well as the public has
been led to believe," one official said.

President Bush, in a speech Thursday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, repeated his
warning that time is running out for Saddam Hussein to comply with demands to
disarm.

"So far the evidence hasn't been very good that he is disarming. And time is running
out." Bush said. "At some point in time the United States' patience will run out."

"We try our best to make the inspections effective," Blix said, "so that we can have a
peaceful solution." But, he warned, "the other major option, as you know, is the one
we've seen taking shape in the form of an armed action against Iraq."

Diplomats: Iraq must be 'proactive'

Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, are due to visit Iraq next week ahead of their report to the U.N. Security
Council on January 27. Blix has said he plans to tell Iraq to submit new weapons
evidence.

After the talks in Brussels with Blix, the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana
expressed his solidarity with the chief weapons inspector.

Solana told reporters: "He (Blix) has conveyed to me his concern that the
cooperation with Saddam Hussein, the cooperation with Iraq, is not sufficient.

"We are demanding a more proactive cooperation from the regime of Saddam
Hussein so that the world, the Security Council, the inspectors, are convinced that he
has disarmed from all weapons of mass destruction."

ElBaradei, speaking after two days of talks with Russian officials, also used the term
"proactive" to describe what is required of Iraq.

"What they ought to do is come forward" provide documents or physical evidence to
support the conclusion that the country no longer has weapons of mass destruction,
he said.

"This kind of proactive approach is not there. And that's why I said they need to shift
gears," ElBaradei said. "As long as we can continue to go around the country and
come to the conclusion, 'well we are not 100 percent sure,' this is not good enough
for the Security Council."

There remains a dispute over a timetable for the inspections.

The White House wants the January 27 report from Blix and ElBaradei to be a major
threshold for deciding whether Iraq is complying with the U.N. demands. Blix has
cited previous U.N. resolutions and said he will report to the Security Council again
in March.

A senior White House official said Thursday that, "in a climate of delays, resistance
and obstruction we don't see the value" in indefinitely extending the work of the
inspectors.

In another development, sources said that during a meeting Tuesday, U.S. National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice pressed Blix and other senior U.N. officials to
demand that Iraq allow certain scientists and their families to travel outside the
country for interviews about weapons of mass destruction programs.

The move would reflect a more muscular interpretation of U.N. Security Council
resolution 1441, which said that inspectors "may at their discretion conduct
interviews inside or outside of Iraq, (and) may facilitate the travel of those interviewed

and family members outside of Iraq."

To date, U.N. weapons inspectors have only asked Iraqi scientists whether they
would be willing to be interviewed outside of the country, or interviewed without the
presence of Iraqi government representatives. None have agreed so far, U.N.
officials said.

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From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 15:09:10 -0500

Iraq- Said  They Forgot