U.N. inspectors worked Friday, December 13 for the first time on the weekly day of rest in the Muslim country

WASHINGTON, December 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. administration anticipates the process of questioning Iraqi scientists outside the country by the U.N. inspectors will spark a direct confrontation with Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration believes any failure by Iraq to produce scientists that United Nations inspectors want to interview abroad would constitute "noncooperation" by Baghdad with last month's U.N. resolution, The Washington Post reported Friday, December 13, quoting a senior U.S. official.

According to the official, the interviews must begin "soon," and should focus on filling gaps of information and "clarifying details" missing in the Iraqi government's 12,000-page declaration of its ballistic missile, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

Iraq has repeatedly denied having any weapons of mass destruction, delivered its weapons declaration to that effect to the U.N. a day earlier than the Sunday, December 8, deadline.

Several senior officials have made clear in recent days that they see the interviews – with scientists and technicians who worked in past and present (alleged) Iraqi weapons and missile programs – as the quickest way to declare Baghdad in material breach of the new resolution without going through a lengthy inspections process that may ultimately be inconclusive, the Post reported.

Under the resolution, once an Iraqi material breach, or violation of its terms, is declared, the U.N. Security Council is to convene to consider "serious consequences," including the possible use of military force, against Hussein's government.

The senior official said a breach could be declared not only on the basis of information scientists might provide but also if Hussein refuses to make available anyone the inspectors want to interrogate. "Let's say we, that UNMOVIC has a witness list that it wants to interview outside the country. It really is the obligation of the Iraqi government to produce them if they are going to come clean," the official said. UNMOVIC is the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, which is charged with carrying out the resolution.

If the Iraqis "don't produce those people, I would say that's a demonstration of noncompliance and noncooperation," the official said.

According to the U.S. official, material breaches do not necessarily have to emanate from inspections inside Iraq. He said information gleaned from interrogations could also provide evidence of violations by demonstrating lies in the declaration Baghdad was required to provide. The official, who noted that experts are reviewing the document, said the administration needs to "see how the declaration actually looks, how deficient it actually is, and try to make a call" as to how it can best be publicly discredited.

Frustrated by the thought of lengthy inspections, the administration is pushing hard for an early start to the interviews, which they would like to see conducted jointly by UNMOVIC experts and other specialists - possibly including U.S. intelligence officials - who are not part of the U.N. inspection team.

Washington sent its top liaison with UNMOVIC to New York Thursday to again press inspections chief Hans Blix to begin the interviews authorized under the resolution. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice carried the same message in a private meeting with Blix earlier this month.

The liaison, George S. Wolfe, along with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John D. Negroponte, urged Blix to take advantage of the interrogation powers given him by the resolution. Blix has repeatedly said that he is not interested in running an "asylum or defectors" program but is waiting for the Bush administration to provide a list of scientists it considers priorities and to make practical suggestions on how the United States expects the interview process to work.

In addition to having outsiders present at the interviews, the possibility of issuing what amount to "subpoenas" demanding that Iraqi scientists appear on a certain date and time at a place outside of Iraq is under active discussion in Washington. Baghdad would be held responsible for seeing that they appear.

However, sources close to Blix told the Post Thursday that he believes having outside interrogators present at the interviews would complicate his efforts and create potential problems with other members of the Security Council. Although earlier resolutions provided for interviews with key Iraqis, they were considered voluntary. All were conducted inside Iraq in the presence of an Iraqi government official.

Pentagon officials, who saw potential defectors as the prime source of information about Iraq's weapons programs, pushed for a tough provision in the new resolution. Led by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, they wrote language in a U.S. draft resolution that would empower the United States and U.N. Security Council members to specify which Iraqis would be interrogated and to provide for removal of the scientists and their families from the country.

Meanwhile, U.N. weapons experts set out for new inspections in Iraq Friday, December 13, working for the first time on the weekly day of rest in the Muslim country.

Two groups of inspectors left the U.N. compound in Baghdad's Canal Hotel at around 0530 GMT. It was not known if others would follow, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). 

U.N. inspectors returned to Iraq November 25, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which ended December 4. Since then, they have abstained from carrying out inspections on Fridays and did not do any on the two days of the Eid el-Fitr holiday which marked the end of Ramadan December 5 and 6.

The National Monitoring Directorate (NMD), Iraq's liaison body with the inspectors, praised Thursday their "respect" for Muslim traditions.

The number of inspectors grew to 98 after a new group of 28 experts arrived in Baghdad Thursday. Hiro Ueki, the spokesman for U.N. inspectors in Baghdad, said the 28 belonged to the UNMOVIC tasked with overseeing the dismantling of Iraq's alleged chemical and biological warfare capabilities and long-range missiles. 

He indicated that "the breakdown of inspectors is 71 from UNMOVIC and 27 from the IAEA," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tasked with overseeing the dismantling of Iraq's alleged nuclear capability. 

UNMOVIC replaced the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) which were withdrawn from Iraq in December 1998 ahead a U.S.-British bombing blitz, and was then disbanded amid accusations of spying for the United States and Israel.