Arms dossier says Iraq poses no threat - IAEA (1 Viewer)

[P. Littbarski]

Arms dossier says Iraq poses no threat - IAEA
Last updated: 09-12-02, 12:43

Iraq's nuclear arms dossier appears to echo Saddam Hussein's claims that his country poses no atomic threat, but only an exhaustive analysis and new inspections can judge whether the declaration is truthful, the UN nuclear agency said today.


Mr Jacques Baute, UN weapons inspector, holds the suitcase containing documents detailing Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological activities, at Vienna airport yesterday. Photograph: AP

"At first glance, it appears the declaration is consistent with Iraq's statement that it has no nuclear weapons and that it has no nuclear weapons material or associated programs," said Ms Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Vienna-based IAEA will rely on fresh inspections in Iraq - and a thorough check of Iraq's claims against the agency's vast database - to determine whether Saddam is hiding anything, she said.

"The cross-checking is extremely important, including cross-checking on the ground," she said. "Should there be elements we feel have to be checked out, we have the advantage of having a team on the ground that can go the next day."

Armed with a powerful electronic database, experts at the UN nuclear agency began combing through a 2,400-page dossier on Iraq's nuclear programme within hours of its handover to the IAEA yesterday.

Their task is to see how Saddam's insistence that his country is free of nuclear weaponry measures up against the hundreds of thousands of documents the agency has compiled in a computerised database since it began inspections in Iraq in the early 1990s.

The analysis will include "the painstaking and systematic cross-checking of the information provided by Iraq against information which the IAEA already has," as well as against information from member states and data collected in Iraq by past and present inspection teams, the agency said in a statement.

The IAEA's team of analysts includes three Arabic speakers, and about five outsiders - including experts familiar with Iraq's past nuclear weapons programme - were arriving in Vienna today.

Another 25 UN arms inspectors arrived in Baghdad yesterday to reinforce the current team. A spokesman for the inspectors said a further 20 to 30 experts would arrive tomorrow.

 

[P. Littbarski]

and on that note (from the Evil Gerald)

Hussein issues ultimatum to US

President Hussein of the Republic of Iraq has issued a strong statement outlining the Iraqi response if America fails to cooperate fully with a new UN resolution.

In the statement the Iraqi premier announced that "Continuing aggressive actions towards other states, and a terrible record of causing poverty in countries around the world, mean that the USA needs to be closely monitored. And if necessary, Iraq will take military action to prevent the US from wielding its war-machine against other nations".

The Iraqi plan is to use state-of-the-art fighter and bomber jets, and several types of guided and smart missiles to dismantle the US military complex, and reduce American cities to rubble.

President Hussein has attacked the US for refusing to allow the rest of the world, led by Iraq, to examine its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons capabilities. "This just proves that George has something to hide," said the Iraqi leader. Some maverick Iraqi citizens have questioned whether their leader should be demanding access to the weapons stockpile of another country; however they were decapitated after a summary trial.

In a terrified response to this America has begun a "dig a foxhole in your garden" information scheme. A programme teaching school children how to act in the event of an air raid or missile attack has also been initiated, showing them how to lie on the ground in a pool of blood screaming until either a burning ambulance comes or they fall unconscious.