Posted on 12/01/2002 6:10:21 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Vital documents needed by United Nations weapons inspectors searching military and industrial sites in Iraq have been removed and hidden, according to intelligence reports and dissident Iraqis.
An Iraqi informant in contact with opposition groups in Britain has reported that the Baghdad headquarters of the Military Industrialization Commission was emptied of incriminating material days before UN inspectors, led by Hans Blix, arrived.
The informant, believed to be a junior government official, said that up to 50 trucks pulled up outside the commission's building opposite the al-Rasheed Hotel, where visiting dignitaries often are housed. The trucks were filled with documents relating to Iraq's weapons programs and dispersed to secret locations across the city, the informant said.
"There were piles and piles of documents, huge quantities of them," the official reported. The papers are thought to include the personnel files of scientists working for the commission and other documents concerning staff and engineers. These files are crucial to the inspectors' hopes of identifying and questioning staff enlisted in Iraq's weapons programs. Senior government scientists and engineers will provide inspectors with some of the most valuable sources of information.
The official said a senior general, Amer al-Saadi, ordered the removal of the documents. Some were deposited at warehouses belonging to government ministries; others have been secreted in cellars around the city.
UN inspectors need details of the scientists and engineers engaged by Saddam Hussein's regime, to assess the extent of Iraq's weapons program and to question individuals about their work. Without information from Iraqi experts, Western officials fear the inspectors will be unable to find any of the weapons they are seeking. "The inspectors are being led on a merry dance," one said. "I'll eat my hat if they find anything."
The British government is hoping the inspectors confirm the accuracy of its intelligence services' dossier on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, published two months ago. But officials admit that the Iraqis have had ample time to make adjustments.
Given the cautious approach of UN inspectors so far, and the obvious preparedness of Iraqi officials at sites they visited last week, Western officials admit the prospect of uncovering a serious breach of the UN weapons resolution before the end of this year is negligible.
The UN resolution that led to the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq includes a clause allowing the teams to debrief Iraqi scientists outside the country, in an effort to keep them from being intimidated. The Iraqi regime fears that inspectors will find lists of leading scientists and engineers working on weapons programs.
Separate reports to Iraqi dissident groups have suggested that some nuclear scientists have already been sent abroad to neighboring Arab countries to put them beyond the inspectors' reach.
The allegations that documents have been removed from the commission follows rumors, apparently confirmed by Western intelligence, that key components of Saddam's weapons program are being secretly stored at home by scientists, civil servants and Ba'ath Party officials. Farmers are also alleged to have been ordered to hide chemicals among stocks of pesticide.
"So far, none of this talk about deception has been confirmed," said a U.S. government official. "The inspectors are saying they are getting cooperation. That's all we have to go on."
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