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Iraqi
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Doubts and Uncertainties
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A chemical agent missile nose cone being inspected by an Iraqi worker
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A very tense Middle East gets tenser
as the United States continues to rally support for an imminent
attack on Iraq. Iraq’s supposed possession of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) is the center-point of the United States’
argument towards the “necessity” of toppling Saddam Hussein.
According
to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) intelligence resource
program, 34 countries possess weapons of mass destruction. Weapons
of mass destruction may be nuclear, chemical, or biological. They
are distinguished from conventional weapons by their enormous
potential lethality and by their relative lack of discrimination as
to whom they kill. When deployed to ballistic missiles, these
weapons can be fired from the home territory of one state and wreak
great destruction to the home territory of another.
Iraq
is considered by the United States to be one of those 34 countries
that possess non-conventional weapons; the actual list includes
Israel and the United States itself. Yet Iraq in particular has been
severely punished with staunch economic sanctions that have been
imposed on the poor nation for 11 successive years.
Non-humanitarian
sanctions have been imposed on Iraq to deprive it from the economic
power to develop a nuclear, chemical, or biological program. The
United States and its close ally Britain have bombarded Iraq
repeatedly as an attempt to preserve regional security, threatened,
in their view, solely by Iraqi military potential. Moreover, the
United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 (1991) stated that
“Iraq shall unconditionally accept, under international
supervision, the destruction, removal or rendering harmless of its
weapons of mass destruction.”
The
United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) was established
by the Security Council and accepted by Iraq following the second
Gulf War to verify the destruction of Iraqi WMD. There have been
many clashes between UNSCOM and the Iraqi government, the most
famous of which took place in 1998 and led to the air strikes
launched by the US and the UK against Iraq. Iraq accused the head of
UNSCOM then, Richard Butler, of being a US spy. (Recently, the
United Nations itself declared the fact that Butler might have been
spying on Iraq for the US favor, and this was one of the reasons why
Scott Ritter – another former inspector – resigned from his job
in UNSCOM). Although Iraq was supported by China and Russia in its
request for changing the head of the committee, the United States
and Britain insisted that Butler should head the UN special
committee. In fact, Richard Butler’s reports said exactly what the
United States wanted to hear. In his report to the Security Council
in September 1998, Butler accused Iraq of possessing the capacity to
produce weapons of mass destruction; this very report led to the
Anglo/American air strikes on Iraq in 1998. Butler believes that if
Iraq acquires enough highly enriched uranium, it could fabricate an
atomic bomb.
Does
Iraq possess militarily viable WMD?
On
the other hand, former UN inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter was very
clear when he said, “When you ask the question ‘does Iraq
possess militarily viable [nuclear], biological or chemical
weapons?’ the answer is a resounding ‘NO’… Iraq has been
disarmed.” In an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite channel,
Ritter stated that Iraq does not possess the WMD that can pose
threats to its neighbors. He also stated that the American strategic
goals were different from the UN goals: the United Nations aimed at
disarming Iraq 100% while the US did not ease the job of UNSCOM and
it wanted to use any lack of cooperation from the Iraqi side as a
means to keep the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq. Scott Ritter
believes that the United States abused the UN inspectors to the
point of using them to serve the Americans own interests.
The
UNSCOM Mission in Iraq
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Scott Ritter
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UNSCOM points out that it destroyed the Iraqi productive foundations
related to the different Iraqi nuclear programs. It destroyed the
Scud-type missiles and 19 mobile launchers. In addition, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) removed the plutonium, the
highly prolific uranium, and the radioactive uranium previously
possessed by Iraq. Iraq lost the capacity to convert uranium into
nuclear fuel -- building a cascade facility for enriching uranium
requires large amounts of highly specialized metals and machinery.
As
for Iraqi chemical weapons, UN inspectors destroyed hundreds of
chemically armed warheads and artillery shells. UNSCOM’s
incinerator burned tons of mustard gas and nerve agents as well as
the precursor compounds used to make them. The committee announced
that it had supervised the destruction of 76 chemical Scud missiles,
113 warheads, over 60 fixed launching bases, 40,000 munitions,
480,000 liters of chemical munitions, 1,800,000 liters of chemical
precursors, and 8 types of delivery systems including missile
warheads. Yet US analysts still argue that a vast amount of
Saddam’s chemical stockpile was never found and remains
unaccounted for. Iraqi opposition leaders contend that Hussein is
hiding a VX stockpile, but their accounts, nonetheless, could not be
confirmed.
Regarding
Iraq’s biological weapons program, the committee revealed that it
destroyed the Iraqi seeds stockpile and the biological weapons
factory in Alhakam. The UN special commission had destroyed all of
Iraq’s known biological munitions, and much of the equipment
needed to make new ones. The United States believes that Iraq still
possesses secret bioweapons. It claims that Iraq is making three
types of biological weapons using anthrax bacteria and two kinds of
biological toxins: botulinum toxin and aflatoxin. It also claims
that Baghdad is currently undergoing extensive research on at least
three other pathogens that attack humans and/or crops.
Richard
Spertzel, a retired biological warfare expert who oversaw the
dismantling of Iraq’s bioweapons program, said he observed
industrial fermenters, spray dryers and other equipment that could
be used to mass-produce viruses and bacteria -- equipment that
UNSCOM could not legally destroy because it had no proof the
machines were being used to make weapons. Iraq is also believed to
have in its possession actual biowarfare bombs. There have been
reports that the country has continued biological weapons research
using small labs built underground. However, under UNSCOM,
inspectors investigated several reports of underground weapons
facilities and found none.
In
spite of the American claims, the White House has not publicly
offered evidence of a single factory or lab known to be actively
producing WMD. It is definite that, under the current circumstances,
Baghdad has neither the economic nor the political potential to
develop a military program that might threaten the United States or
even its Middle Eastern neighbors.
Eye
on Iraq!
The
United States owns the most advanced and powerful weapons of mass
destruction in the world, and has programmed the minds of the world
that it has the ultimate right to own those weapons and to punish
Iraq for trying to acquire them. Surprisingly, the US never blames
Israel for possessing those very weapons of mass destruction. Israel
is a major nuclear power and is non-signatory to the
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). It also has comprehensive chemical
and biological weapons programs. With between 200 and 500
thermonuclear weapons and a sophisticated delivery system, Israel
has quietly supplanted Britain as the world’s fifth largest
nuclear power, and may currently rival France and China in the size
and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. There is little doubt
that the Israeli arsenal of mass destruction is the most powerful in
the Middle East. It clearly dwarfs the actual or potential arsenal
of Iraq and of all other Middle Eastern states combined. At the same
time, the US and UN worries about an Iraqi mass destructive military
program are based on doubts and uncertainties that have never been
proved.
Sara
Khorshid is staff writer for IslamOnline. She holds a BA in
Political Science from Cairo University and is currently studying
for an MA in Political Theory. You can reach her at sarakhosrhid@islam-online.net
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