[Peace] NYTimes.com Article: Why We Know Iraq Is Lying

[scarsey at uiuc.edu]

>Why We Know Iraq Is Lying
>
>January 23, 2003
>By CONDOLEEZZA RICE 
>
>
>
>
> 
>
>WASHINGTON 
>Eleven weeks after the United Nations Security Council
>unanimously passed a resolution demanding - yet 
again -
>that Iraq disclose and disarm all its nuclear, chemical 
and
>biological weapons programs, it is appropriate to ask, 
"Has
>Saddam Hussein finally decided to voluntarily disarm?"
>Unfortunately, the answer is a clear and resounding no. 
>
>There is no mystery to voluntary disarmament. 
Countries
>that decide to disarm lead inspectors to weapons and
>production sites, answer questions before they are 
asked,
>state publicly and often the intention to disarm and urge
>their citizens to cooperate. The world knows from 
examples
>set by South Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan what it 
looks
>like when a government decides that it will cooperatively
>give up its weapons of mass destruction. The critical
>common elements of these efforts include a high-level
>political commitment to disarm, national initiatives to
>dismantle weapons programs, and full cooperation and
>transparency. 
>
>In 1989 South Africa made the strategic decision to
>dismantle its covert nuclear weapons program. It 
destroyed
>its arsenal of seven weapons and later submitted to
>rigorous verification by the International Atomic Energy
>Agency. Inspectors were given complete access to all
>nuclear facilities (operating and defunct) and the people
>who worked there. They were also presented with 
thousands
>of documents detailing, for example, the daily operation 
of
>uranium enrichment facilities as well as the 
construction
>and dismantling of specific weapons. 
>
>Ukraine and Kazakhstan demonstrated a similar pattern 
of
>cooperation when they decided to rid themselves of the
>nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles and
>heavy bombers inherited from the Soviet Union. With
>significant assistance from the United States - warmly
>accepted by both countries - disarmament was orderly, 
open
>and fast. Nuclear warheads were returned to Russia. 
Missile
>silos and heavy bombers were destroyed or dismantled 
- once
>in a ceremony attended by the American and Russian 
defense
>chiefs. In one instance, Kazakhstan revealed the 
existence
>of a ton of highly enriched uranium and asked the 
United
>States to remove it, lest it fall into the wrong hands. 
>
>Iraq's behavior could not offer a starker contrast. Instead
>of a commitment to disarm, Iraq has a high-level 
political
>commitment to maintain and conceal its weapons, led 
by
>Saddam Hussein and his son Qusay, who controls the 
Special
>Security Organization, which runs Iraq's concealment
>activities. Instead of implementing national initiatives to
>disarm, Iraq maintains institutions whose sole purpose 
is
>to thwart the work of the inspectors. And instead of full
>cooperation and transparency, Iraq has filed a false
>declaration to the United Nations that amounts to a
>12,200-page lie. 
>
>For example, the declaration fails to account for or
>explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from abroad, its
>manufacture of specific fuel for ballistic missiles it
>claims not to have, and the gaps previously identified by
>the United Nations in Iraq's accounting for more than 
two
>tons of the raw materials needed to produce thousands 
of
>gallons of anthrax and other biological weapons. 
>
>Iraq's declaration even resorted to unabashed 
plagiarism,
>with lengthy passages of United Nations reports copied
>word-for-word (or edited to remove any criticism of Iraq)
>and presented as original text. Far from informing, the
>declaration is intended to cloud and confuse the true
>picture of Iraq's arsenal. It is a reflection of the
>regime's well-earned reputation for dishonesty and
>constitutes a material breach of United Nations Security
>Council Resolution 1441, which set up the current
>inspections program. 
>
>Unlike other nations that have voluntarily disarmed - and
>in defiance of Resolution 1441 - Iraq is not allowing
>inspectors "immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted 
access" to
>facilities and people involved in its weapons program. 
As a
>recent inspection at the home of an Iraqi nuclear 
scientist
>demonstrated, and other sources confirm, material and
>documents are still being moved around in farcical shell
>games. The regime has blocked free and unrestricted 
use of
>aerial reconnaissance. 
>
>The list of people involved with weapons of mass
>destruction programs, which the United Nations 
required
>Iraq to provide, ends with those who worked in 1991 - 
even
>though the United Nations had previously established 
that
>the programs continued after that date. Interviews with
>scientists and weapons officials identified by inspectors
>have taken place only in the watchful presence of the
>regime's agents. Given the duplicitous record of the
>regime, its recent promises to do better can only be 
seen
>as an attempt to stall for time. 
>
>Last week's finding by inspectors of 12 chemical 
warheads
>not included in Iraq's declaration was particularly
>troubling. In the past, Iraq has filled this type of
>warhead with sarin - a deadly nerve agent used by 
Japanese
>terrorists in 1995 to kill 12 Tokyo subway passengers 
and
>sicken thousands of others. Richard Butler, the former
>chief United Nations arms inspector, estimates that if a
>larger type of warhead that Iraq has made and used in 
the
>past were filled with VX (an even deadlier nerve agent) 
and
>launched at a major city, it could kill up to one million
>people. Iraq has also failed to provide United Nations
>inspectors with documentation of its claim to have
>destroyed its VX stockpiles. 
>
>Many questions remain about Iraq's nuclear, chemical 
and
>biological weapons programs and arsenal - and it is 
Iraq's
>obligation to provide answers. It is failing in spectacular
>fashion. By both its actions and its inactions, Iraq is
>proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but
>that it is a nation with something to hide. Iraq is still
>treating inspections as a game. It should know that time 
is
>running out. 
>
>
>Condoleezza Rice is the national security
>adviser.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/opinion/
23RICE.html?ex=1044421087&ei=1&en=
4c75b102af4d5a6b
>
>
>
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