"Ronald Helm" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
As predicted by many on this list, NO " weapons of mass destruction"
biological or chemical were found. How much is it costing us to keep
maintain the military deterrent in the Middle East? Boy, that was some
threat from Iraq. Ron
Reuters
BAGHDAD (April 4) - U.N. weapons experts left Baghdad Saturday after a week
during which they inspected Iraq's sensitive presidential sites and were
given the access they needed, a U.N. official said.
Charles Duelfer, a senior U.N. inspector, said they went to Habbaniya
airport northwest of Baghdad to fly to Bahrain, rear base for the U.N.
Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction.
Fifty inspectors left UNSCOM's headquarters in Baghdad in a convey of cars
heading to the airport.
The inspectors had been barred from entering the eight presidential sites
where they believed Iraq might have concealed material related to banned
weapons programs.
The crisis over access was defused when U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
struck a deal in February with Iraqi leaders, averting U.S.-led military
strikes against Iraq.
Duelfer, UNSCOM's deputy chairman, said a group of 20 diplomats who
accompanied the inspectors to the presidential sites would leave Iraq in the
afternoon.
He said he and UNSCOM's missile expert, Roger Hill, would meet Iraqi Oil
Minister Amir Muhammad Rasheed, Iraq's main contact with UNSCOM, before
leaving with the diplomats.
Duelfer said the ''baseline'' inspections of the eight presidential
compounds ''will help us focus on our future work both in terms of
inspections and the continuing monitoring activities.
''We were able to conduct all activities we wanted. The Iraqis provided the
access which we required,'' Duelfer told reporters.
He said the inspections have established ''the presence of access to all
areas of Iraq and that's something which did not exist before.''
Asked what the next step would be, Duelfer said: ''We have not quite decided
that. It depends on what information we have and what determination we make
with regards to monitoring.''
Duelfer said UNSCOM had not yet ''fully accounted for the biological
program, the chemical program and in fact even the missile program.''
UNSCOM must account for and destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
before the United Nations can lift sanctions imposed for Baghdad's 1990
invasion of Kuwait.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz Friday lauded the palace inspections
as a ''triumph for the truth over falsehood'' and called on the U.N.
Security Council to lift the sanctions.
''The group's visit has verified Iraq's credibility and exposed the
allegations of America and Britain and their elements in the U.N. Special
Commission,'' Aziz said.
The government newspaper al-Jumhouriya lashed out at the U.S. officials and
UNSCOM's chairman, Richard Butler, calling them liars.
''The leaders of America have beaten the drums of lying,'' Jumhouriya said
in a front-page editorial.
''Butler has not only gone beyond his powers but he insists on telling
lies.''
Women have their faults. Men have only two.
Everything they say. Everything they do.
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