[Peace-discuss] findings

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Iraq: Inspectors Have Found No Weapons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.N. weapons inspectors have examined every site of 
concern to U.S. and British intelligence and found no banned weapons, top 
Iraqi officials asserted Thursday, even as an inspection team was delayed 
getting into a military guest house -- the second known snag for the U.N. 
teams.

President Saddam Hussein's top science adviser said Iraq had nothing to fear 
from the inspections.

``We're not worried,'' Amir al-Saadi said. ``It's the other party that's 
worried, because there's nothing to pin on us.''

``There is nothing they don't know about Iraq programs. They know 
everything,'' al-Saadi said in response to increasing charges in Washington 
and the United Nations that Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration was flawed 
and incomplete.

Al-Saadi said Baghdad's prime concern was that the United States would 
short-circuit the U.N. process and attack without U.N. approval.

``That's worrying of course, I'd be silly to say we're not worried.''

The inspection standoff took place at a military industrial facility at Al 
Fao, one of four locations the Iraqi Information Ministry reported the 
inspectors visited Thursday.

Reporters at the scene estimated the inspectors were prevented from entering 
the site for 15 to 20 minutes, and the inspectors used cell phones during the 
delay, apparently reporting the trouble to supervisors.

On an Associated Press Television News videotape, a guard was overheard 
telling inspectors they must have permission to enter ``as this site hasn't 
been visited before.'' Under the latest U.N. resolution, which promises the 
arms experts unimpeded access to any site, the U.N. teams do not need 
permission nor are they required to notify the Iraqis before visiting a 
facility.

The delay followed an incident Dec. 13 in which the U.N. experts were unable 
to visit locked rooms at one inspection site because employees, who were off 
work for the Muslim day of prayer, had taken the keys home with them. The 
inspectors sealed the rooms and later returned to examine them, saying the 
seals had not been tampered with.

At the United Nations, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and his nuclear 
counterpart, Mohamed ElBaradei reported Thursday to the Security Council on 
Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration, which Blix said contains 
``inconsistencies'' and leaves many questions unanswered.

At his Baghdad news conference, Al-Saadi was asked if Iraq would allow U.N. 
weapons inspectors to take scientists out of the country for questioning as 
allowed under the Security Council resolution that sent the inspectors back 
to Iraq after a four-year absence.

``We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,'' he said.

Pressed on the issue, al-Saadi asserted Blix and ElBaradei were did not 
support the provision. They ``are lawyers and they know what that (taking 
scientists away) means, what that entails in human rights and international 
law and so on. ... They were not happy they were given this task, and we will 
see what happens.''