Powell: ISG Interim Report Justifies War Effort (In IRAQ )

Talon News ^ | October 8, 2003 | Jim Hauser

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Even though much of the media is focusing on the Iraq Survey Group's (ISG's) "failure" to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the war in Iraq was justified based on the ISG's interim report as given to Congress by chief inspector David Kay last week.

"Although Kay and his team have not yet discovered stocks of the weapons themselves, they will press on in the months ahead with their important and painstaking work," said Powell in a Washington Post Op-ed. "All indications are that they will uncover still more evidence of Hussein's dangerous designs."

The ISG report uncovered evidence that the regime of Saddam Hussein was clearly pursuing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 and that the regime made efforts to hide its WMD programs from inspectors right up to, during, and even after Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

"Although much of the deliberate destruction and sanitization of documents and records probably occurred during the height of OIF combat operations, indications of significant continuing destruction efforts have been found after the end of major combat operations," Kay told Congress. "In July 2003 a site exploitation team at the Abu Ghurayb Prison found one pile of the smoldering ashes from documents that was still warm to the touch."

"With regard to [biological warfare (BW)] activities, which has been one of our two initial areas of focus, ISG teams are uncovering significant information -- including research and development of BW-applicable organisms, the involvement of Iraqi Intelligence Service in possible BW activities, and deliberate concealment activities," said Kay. "All of this suggests Iraq after 1996 further compartmentalized its program and focused on maintaining smaller, covert capabilities that could be activated quickly to surge the production of BW agents."

"While searching for retained weapons, ISG teams have developed multiple sources that indicate that Iraq explored the possibility of [chemical weapon (CW)] production in recent years, possibly as late as 2003," Kay told Congress.

"When Saddam had asked a senior military official in either 2001 or 2002 how long it would take to produce new chemical agents and weapons, he told ISG that after he consulted with CW experts in OMI (Iraq's Military Industrial Organization) he responded it would take six months for mustard. Another senior Iraqi chemical weapons expert, in responding to a request in mid-2002 from Odai Hussein for CW for the Fedayeen Saddam, estimated that it would take two months to produce mustard and two years for Sarin," Kay added.

Although the report stated that Hussein had a keen interest in and actively pursued nuclear weapon technology, the ISG has yet to find any conclusive evidence that a re-constituted nuclear research program still existed at the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ISG did find evidence that Iraq was actively engaged in obtaining missile technology that would put them in direct violation of U.N. restrictions put in place after the 1991 Gulf War.

"Documents found by ISG describe a high-level dialogue between Iraq and North Korea that began in December 1999 and included an October 2000 meeting in Baghdad," Kay told Congress. "These documents indicate Iraqi interest in the transfer of technology for surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometers (probably No Dong) and land-to-sea missiles with a range of 300 kilometers. The document quotes the North Koreans as understanding the limitations imposed by the U.N., but being prepared 'to cooperate with Iraq on the items it specified.'"

The report also indicated that Iraq had internal programs to upgrade its already existing missiles.

Kay stressed that the ISG investigation was still in its preliminary stages and the volumes of information needed to be pursued in the coming months. In one example he noted that only 10 or the estimated 120 Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASPs) have been examined. He also pointed out that some WMD personnel crossed borders in the pre/trans-conflict period and may have taken evidence and even weapons-related materials with them.

"[When] President Bush brought his concerns about Iraq to the United Nations, he made it plain that his principal concern in a post-Sept. 11 world was not just that a rogue regime such as Saddam Hussein's had WMD programs," Secretary Powell wrote in his Washington Post Op-Ed. "[But] that such horrific weapons could find their way out of Iraq into the arms of terrorists who would have even fewer compunctions about using them against innocent people across the globe."

"In the interim report, Kay and his team record the chilling fact that they 'found people, technical information and illicit procurement networks that if allowed to flow to other countries and regions could accelerate global proliferation,'" Powell concluded. "Having put an end to that harrowing possibility alone justifies our coalition's action against Hussein's regime."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

President Bush has clearly done the right thing by removing Saddam from power!

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