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Iraq slams us lies Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/842500.asp?vts=122220020720http://www.msnbc.com/news/842500.asp?vts=122220020720
U.N. hunts arms as Iraq slams ‘lies’
U.S., Britain to share intelligence data with inspection teams
Dec. 22 — U.N. arms inspectors pursued their hunt for banned weapons in Iraq on Sunday as official Iraqi media complained that U.S. and British efforts to share intelligence data with inspection teams were “savage interference” in the process.
THE INSPECTORS returned to Iraq last month to check Iraq’s assertion that it no longer operates programs to develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or long-range missiles.
The United States has threatened to go to war unless Iraq disarms after declaring all its weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqi officials said Sunday that the inspectors had searched more suspect sites, including a space research center in Baghdad.
Several teams went to the Taji industrial area north of the capital, including a missile squad that checked a military site there. Biological experts drove to al-Kindi Company in Abu Ghuraib, west of the capital. A chemical company in Nahrawan, south of Baghdad, attracted the attention of another U.N. team.
The United States, seeking a swift conclusion to the arms inspection process, said it planned to give the U.N. monitors new intelligence on sites where Iraq may be hiding any banned weapons program over the weekend.
However, there was no indication the sharing had begun as of Sunday.
Washington said it was committed to sharing information with inspectors provided that U.S. intelligence was not compromised as a result.
“It is entirely in the interests of the United States and this government to give the inspectors the tools they need to do their job, and we will do so,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
Officials told Reuters that the information would involve fewer than six sites where U.S. intelligence believed Iraq had “suspicious chemical weapons or elements of production.”
IRAQ: ‘SHAMELESS LIES’ IMPEDE PROCESS
Meantime, Iraq’s state-run media again blasted what it called “shameless lies” by the United States and Britain about its arms programs.
“They should leave the U.N. inspectors to do their job to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 with no more savage interference,” the newspaper said.
Last month’s resolution gave Iraq a final opportunity to disarm or face serious consequences. Baghdad gave the council a 12,000-page weapons dossier on Dec. 7, but President Bush called the declaration “disappointing” and Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned it as a “material breach” of the resolution. Britain has also characterized it as incomplete.
Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and his counterpart at the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, have also said Iraq had disclosed little new information, but again urged the United States and Britain to share any intelligence they have with the inspectors.
But Babel insisted that Washington should go public with the information.
“If the Americans had any real information, they would have put it on the world’s television screens and newspapers before giving it to the weapons inspectors,” Babel said.
SCIENTISTS’ NAMES
Other U.S. officials said Washington may suggest names of Iraqi scientists for the U.N. experts to interview next week.
“We’ve told [U.N. inspectors] the Iraqis are not going to slow roll us on this [and] drag it out for months and months and months,” a senior U.S. official told Reuters.
The Bush administration, believing information gleaned from the scientists could be decisive in showing that Baghdad had violated U.N. sanctions, has urged inspectors to take scientists and their families out of the country so they would feel free to talk.
The U.N. teams, however, have generally been reluctant to do so.
U.S. RATCHETS UP PRESSURE
Hoping to increase pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush has given the go-ahead to double the 50,000 U.S. troop deployment in the Persian Gulf region in early January, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to sign the deployment order in the next week or two as part of what another official called “a ramping up on various fronts.”
During a visit to Qatar, a key front-line state in any war against Iraq, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the buildup was aimed at keeping pressure on Saddam.
“We will continue to send more troops and improve infrastructure in a prudent and deliberate way,” he said.
“One of the reasons is to keep helping the diplomatic angle, to reinforce diplomacy and to ensure the Iraqi regime understands the options it has,” Myers said.
A senior White House official told the AP on condition of anonymity that the biggest international concern with Bush’s Africa trip, which had been scheduled for Jan. 10-17, was the conflict with Iraq. Bush did not want to be out of the country and away from his foreign policy team during a crucial decision-making period.
The official advised against interpreting the postponement as any signal that Bush intended to speed his timetable for the war decision.
But on Jan. 27, U.N. weapons inspectors are due to report their findings on Iraqi compliance with the U.N. resolution.
NBC News’ Linda Fasulo reported that Blix would also brief the Security Council during the first week of January following a request by the United States for more frequent updates.
Those reports are considered key in the Bush administration’s ultimate decision whether to proceed with a military campaign — with or without Security Council approval.
NBC’s Linda Fasulo at the United Nations, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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