The United States says
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, even though United Nations
inspectors have yet to find any evidence of banned biological, chemical
or nuclear arms.
White House spokesman Ari Fleisher told reporters Thursday the Bush
administration knows "for a fact" that Iraq has such weapons,
but has managed to hide them. The problem with hidden guns, Mr. Fleisher
said, is that you cannot "see their smoke."
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix earlier reported to the U.N.
Security Council that inspectors have not found any "smoking
gun" in six weeks of searches. However, Mr. Blix said there was
"no guarantee" that prohibited weapons are not being held or
produced.
Mr. Blix called Iraq's recently-submitted weapons declaration
"rich in volume, but poor in new information" about whether
Baghdad had destroyed its dangerous weapons since inspectors left Iraq
four years ago. Iraq insists its report to the Security Council is
complete.
Mr. Blix told the Council that prompt access inspection teams have
been given by Iraq is not sufficient to prove that nothing is hidden.
The chief nuclear inspector Mohammed ElBaradei (of the International
Atomic Energy Agency) told the Council that inspectors have not been
allowed to interview Iraqi military scientists in private, despite
promises of cooperation from Baghdad.
There are reports that inspection teams may ask to fly the Iraqi
scientists to Cyprus for the interviews.
Mr. ElBaradei and Mr. Blix say they need more time to carry out
inspections. Their official report to the Security Council on two months
of searches is due January 27.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday on NBC that date
is not related to any possible attack on Iraq. Mr. Powell says
Washington is now providing U.N. inspectors with "significant"
intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs.
The top U.N. weapons inspectors also say Iraq has failed to answer
outstanding questions about missing supplies of explosives and chemical
agents.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, calls
Iraq's weapons report a deliberate effort to deceive by omission.
Britain's embassador Jeremy Greenstock says Iraq is missing an
opportunity to clear up questions that were not answered in the report.
Some information for this report provided by AP,
AFP and Reuters.
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