UN inspectors uncover proof of Saddam's nuclear bomb plans
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 19/01/2003)
United Nations weapons inspectors have uncovered evidence that proves Saddam Hussein is trying to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons, The Telegraph can reveal. The discovery was made following spot checks last week on the homes of two Iraqi nuclear physicists in Baghdad.
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Acting on information provided by Western intelligence, the UN inspection teams discovered a number of documents proving that Saddam is continuing with his attempts to develop nuclear weapons, contrary to his public declarations that Iraq is no longer interested in producing weapons of mass destruction.
The revelation follows last Thursday's discovery of a number of warheads at an ammunition storage facility south of Baghdad that had been designed for carrying chemical and biological weapons.
Although UN officials say that they have no comment to make at present on the documents found at the scientists' homes, a Western diplomat closely involved with the investigation into Saddam's nuclear capability yesterday confirmed that the documents showed that Iraq was still attempting to develop its own atomic weapons.
"These are not old documents. They are new and they relate to on-going work taking place in Iraq to develop nuclear weapons," the official told The Telegraph.
"They had been hidden at the scientists' homes on Saddam's personal orders. Furthermore, no mention of this work is made in the Iraqi dossier that was submitted to the UN last December."
UN nuclear experts are this weekend continuing to examine the seized documents. Officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna have also been informed of the discovery.
The revelation that Saddam is working on nuclear weapons in defiance of the United Nations is further evidence that Iraq is failing to comply with the terms of UN Resolution 1441, which requires Baghdad to make a complete disclosure of its weapons of mass destruction programme.
A false or incomplete disclosure or a failure fully to co-operate with the inspectors would constitute a material breach of the resolution and result in military action against Baghdad.
Although Dr Hans Blix, the head of the UN inspections teams, was made aware of the discovery last week, he failed to mention it during talks with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and Jacques Chirac the French president.
British officials are particularly concerned that Mr Blix appears to be playing down the significance of last week's breakthroughs.
He indicated that he did not feel the discovery of the chemical warheads was an issue that needed to be reported to the Security Council.
The inspectors' discoveries follow a radical improvement in relations between UN officials and Western intelligence which had been reluctant to hand over sensitive information for fear that it might fall into the hands of Iraqi officials, thereby risking the lives of agents working in Iraq.
In particular intelligence officials were keen that a team of UN inspectors visit the homes of two Iraqi nuclear scientists living in the outskirts of Baghdad.
This followed information from high ranking officials at Iraq's Ministry of Military Industrialisation (MIO) that suggested Saddam had ordered that top secret nuclear documents should be hidden at the homes of scientists working on the project.
As one inspection team discovered the empty chemical warheads, nuclear weapons experts were cordoning off the street where two scientists lived in Baghdad's al-Ghazalia neighbourhood.
They searched the homes of Faleh Hassan, a specialist in laser equipment, and Dr Shaker alJibouri, a nuclear scientist. Inspectors also accompanied the scientists to sites known to have been used for nuclear research.
