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A. U.S. Mulls 4-Month Delay in Iraqi 'Smart Sanctions', 27th November, Reuters [latest on 'smart' sanctions] B. Next Target in Terror War: Bush Says It Could Be Iraq, New York Times, November 26th C. Anthrax Type That Killed May Have Reached Iraq Baghdad's Bid to Obtain Microbe Fuels Suspicions, Washington Post, November 25th D. Iraq's Weapons Could Make It a Target, Bush Says, Washington Post, November 27, 2001 ***************************************** A. Tuesday November 27 2:02 AM ET U.S. Mulls 4-Month Delay in Iraqi 'Smart Sanctions' By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Racing against the clock, the United States is considering a four month delay on its proposals to ease the flow of civilian goods to Iraq but tighten military supplies, diplomats said. The current U.N. oil-for-food program, which contains the sanctions regulations, expires on Friday with few signs Russia has dropped its opposition to the type of ``smart sanctions'' proposals the United States wants. Consequently Washington on Monday proposed to key U.N. Security Council members extending the current U.N. oil-for-food program until the end of March, with the proviso the council commit themselves to a revision of the embargoes by then, U.S. and other diplomats said. But the envoys cautioned that Russia has not agreed to the dates contained in the American proposals. Moscow's own suggestions, in an earlier paper, called for a six month extension before it would ``consider new arrangements for the sale or supply of commodities or products to Iraq.'' Iraq, which shut off oil supplies for a month last June until it was sure Russia would reject the ``smart sanctions,'' wants no changes in the oil-for-food program except to end the embargoes entirely. Its U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, said that an extension less than six months was unacceptable. Under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, Iraq can sell oil and use the proceeds to buy humanitarian supplies and repair the country's infrastructure. But the United States and other Security Council members can place holds on contracts for items they suspect are intended for the Iraqi military. Britain, with U.S. support, last May submitted a resolution that seeks to ease restrictions on civilian goods, retain bans on military hardware and set down a list of ``dual use'' goods that can be used for both military and civilian purposes. Other supplies can go through without council approval. The proposed ``goods review list'' of dual use items that would require council approval before they could be imported into Iraq already has been considerably relaxed by the United States to obtain the support of China and France. But Russia has not yet signed on, mainly because Iraq objects to anything short of lifting the sanctions, imposed when its troops invaded Baghdad in August 1990. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the sanctions by telephone on Monday with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia, whose government blocked the changes when the embargoes came up in the U.N. Security Council in June. After those talks, John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, met on the Iraqi controversy in New York. On the CNN program ``Larry King Live,'' Powell admitted it was a ``tough issue'' but said he believed ``smart sanctions'' was the way to go. ``What we don't want to have go in are equipment that can be used for developing weapons of mass destruction. We're not doing this just to protect America, but to protect the region,'' Powell said on Monday. He said the Russians also understood this but they had commercial interests they wanted to protect. ``We have been working with the Russians to see if we can find a compromise that would satisfy the need,'' he added. At the same time, President Bush warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that if he did not admit United Nations inspectors to determine if Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction, he would face consequences. Bush did not spell out what those might be but said: ''He'll find out.'' Powell characterized Bush's words as ``a very sober, chilling message,'' adding: ``There are many options available to the international community and to the president.'' So far, however, Russia and the United States disagree on the inspections. Moscow wants sanctions suspended shortly after they are on the scene, a position Washington rejects. The Bush administration has been torn for months between conservatives who want to oust President Saddam Hussein, by bombing if necessary, and those who believe this would shatter any coalition against terrorism. ************************************************************* B. November 27, 2001 Next Target in Terror War: Bush Says It Could Be Iraq By ELISABETH BUMILLER WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 — President Bush warned Saddam Hussein today that if he did not admit United Nations inspectors to determine if Iraq is developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, he would face consequences. Mr. Bush declined for now to say what those might be. "He'll find out," Mr. Bush said. In issuing the threat, the president seemed to broaden his definition of terrorism to include the development of weapons that would "terrorize nations," a significant departure from the definition he used in an address to Congress in September about the purpose of the war. "If anybody harbors a terrorist, they're a terrorist," Mr. Bush said today. "If they fund a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they're terrorists. I mean, I can't make it any more clearly to other nations around the world. If they develop weapons of mass destruction that will be used to terrorize nations, they will be held accountable." Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said tonight that Mr. Hussein should hear Mr. Bush's words as "a very sober, chilling message." In an appearance on CNN on "Larry King Live," Secretary Powell added, "There are many options available to the international community and to the president." Mr. Bush's remarks came as his administration continues an internal debate over the next phase of the war, including whether it will undertake military action to try to oust Mr. Hussein. Mr. Bush has been criticized by conservative Republicans for not moving forcibly against Mr. Hussein, who has been accused of plotting to assassinate Mr. Bush's father and whose survival continues to torment Washington a decade after the Persian Gulf war. For his part, Mr. Bush insisted that he had not widened the definition of what his administration considers terrorism, even though he did not mention weapons of mass destructions in his speech to Congress. "Have I expanded the definition?" Mr. Bush said. "I've always had that definition, as far as I'm concerned." Mr. Bush made his remarks in a question-and-answer session with reporters after a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden welcoming two American Christian relief workers who were rescued this month by American forces in Afghanistan. The president, whom one missionary, Heather Mercer, praised as "such a man of God," repeated some of the same strong language that he first used last week in a speech to cheering members of the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Ky. "Afghanistan is still just the beginning" of the war on terrorism, Mr. Bush said today, emphasizing that Americans would die there. "It's going to happen," the president said. "I said this early on, as the campaign began: America must be prepared for loss of life. I believe the American people understand that we've got a mighty struggle on our hands and that there will be sacrifice." Mr. Bush added that "as for Mr. Hussein, he needs to let inspectors back in his country, to show us that he is not developing weapons of mass destruction." Other than this warning, the president gave no further hint of what course the war might take should Osama bin Laden be captured or killed and his Al Qaeda network be destroyed in Afghanistan. Iraq is the most conspicuous example of a country that either has or is suspected of developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, but it is not the only one. Mr. Bush also said today, "We want North Korea to allow inspectors in, to determine whether or not" North Korea is developing nuclear weapons. A showdown with North Korea in 1994 led the United States to reinforce its troops on the peninsula. The crisis was partly resolved with an agreement that froze the North's nuclear activity at one major site, but the Bush administration suspects there are additional plants capable of producing nuclear weapons. The United States has also said it strongly suspects Iran, Libya and Syria of developing biological weapons. In each of these cases, the White House appears to be laying the groundwork for demanding international inspections. What administration officials will do if the nations refuse is unclear. Iraq has refused to admit inspectors since 1998, when the Clinton administration and British forces responded with four nights of air and missile strikes against more than 100 targets, including military headquarters and air defenses. But Mr. Hussein remained in place. During the the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr. Bush and his advisers pledged to confront Mr. Hussein more aggressively than Mr. Clinton had. Significantly, those advisers included Secretary Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney, who had helped Mr. Bush's father oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the gulf war in 1991. In February of this year, barely a month in office, Mr. Bush ordered air strikes with Britain against Iraqi radar stations and air-defense command centers, calling the action a necessary response to Iraqi provocation. Since Sept. 11, a group of administration hard-liners has argued that the United States should move further against Iraq, but Secretary Powell has said there is no evidence linking Mr. Hussein to the Sept. 11 attacks and that the coalition against terrorism will not hold if Washington acts against Iraq. The secretary said on CNN tonight that he was working with Russia for a compromise on what the administration calls "smart sanctions" against Iraq, which are intended to let in civilian goods but not military ones. "What we don't want to have go in, are equipment that can be used for developing weapons of mass destruction," Secretary Powell said. "We're not doing this just to protect America, but to protect the region." Mr. Bush has so far seemed to endorse the views of Mr. Powell, and the president said again today that he remained focused on the war in Afghanistan. "We're going to make sure that we accomplish each mission that we tackle," Mr. Bush said. "First things first." Although Mr. Bush has been criticized by some conservatives for what they consider his hesitation in dealing with Mr. Hussein, Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, warned today about opening up another front in the war. "The principal focus should be on achieving the goals of this mission," Mr. Warner said in a news conference on Capitol Hill. Before tackling terrorism in a new country or region, Mr. Warner added, the administration should conduct "a complete reassessment with regard to coalition support." ****************************************************************** C. Anthrax Type That Killed May Have Reached Iraq Baghdad's Bid to Obtain Microbe Fuels Suspicions By Colum Lynch Special to The Washington Post Sunday, November 25, 2001; Page A12 UNITED NATIONS -- In August 1988, two key figures in Iraq's secret germ warfare program attended a scientific conference in Winchester, England, to survey advances in the battle against the anthrax disease. Professor Nassir Hindawiand a colleague, Abdul Rahman Thamer,attracted little attention at the gathering, which was sponsored by scientists from the British biodefense institute at Porton Down. But U.N. inspectors who uncovered Iraq's secret biological weapons years later believe that the trip was part of a covert mission to identify foreign suppliers for Baghdad's biological weapons program and to obtain deadly anthrax microbes, including the Ames strain, a highly virulent anthrax bacteria found in letters sent to American targets. Shortly after the visit, Baghdad's trade ministry telexed an order to Porton Down for samples of the Ames strain and at least two other varieties of anthrax microbes. But the British scientists were suspicious that Baghdad might be seeking to develop biological weapons. "There were requests for anthrax strains, and they were denied," said Porton Down spokeswoman Sue Ellison. U.S. officials and former U.N. weapons experts have found no proof that the Iraqi scientists obtained the Ames strain from another supplier. But Iraq's attempt to obtain the Ames microbes has fueled suspicions among some U.S. and U.N. experts that Iraq may yet be linked to the series of biological attacks against the United States. "We know that Iraq was very keen on obtaining that specific strain as well as others, and they were contacting many countries of the world," said retired Col. Richard Spertzel,a microbiologist and former head of biological inspection teams in Iraq for the United Nations. "The effort with which they [pursued] Porton Down would suggest that if they thought someone else had it, they would press for it. But we simply don't know." Porton Down scientists obtained the Ames strain in the early 1980s from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md. The deadly pathogen has been passed to an unknown number of scientists. Iraq's unsuccessful attempt to secure the Ames bacteria from Britain represented a minor setback in its largely successful campaign in the mid-1980s to acquire ingredients for a massive covert biological weapons program. Iraq sought materials from government and commercial labs in the United States, Europe and Africa. "The Iraqis had set up this very secret and very sophisticated procurement system so that there would be no chance that outsiders could figure out what they were doing," said Raymond Zalinskas,a former U.N. inspector who is now senior scientist in residence at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. In 1988, Iraqi scientists obtained from a private British business, Oxoid Ltd., and other suppliers, nearly 40 tons of medium to grow anthrax and botulinum bacterium for its biological weapons, according to former U.N. officials and a 1999 U.N. report. Iraq also acquired at least two other forms of anthrax, the Sterne strain, commonly used in an animal vaccine, and the A-3 strain derived from Spanish sheep, from France's Institut Pasteur. "There was absolutely no reason to refuse an order from Iraq in the 1980s," said Michael Haynes, a spokesman for Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant that owned Oxoid until 1997. Haynes noted that Iraq at that time was not considered hostile to the West and was under no economic sanctions. "As far as we knew the growth medium would be used for genuine medical, humanitarian purposes," he said. U.N. inspectors got their first glimpse at Iraq's offensive biological weapons program during an August 1991 U.N. inspection of Salman Pak, one of Iraq's premier biological weapons facilities. Rihab Taha,the head of Iraq's germ warfare program, provided a team of U.N. biologists with several sealed glass vials containing freeze-dried anthrax spores. The vials included two variants of the Vollumstrain, which had been used in U.S. and British biological weapons programs. The Iraqi scientist initially claimed that some of the anthrax spores were used in research but had never been weaponized. Baghdad also acknowledged that it had received the two Vollum strains and five other strains of anthrax bacterium from the American Type Culture Collection, a commercial germ bank now located near Manassas, Va. Iraqi documents later obtained by the United Nations indicated that Baghdad subsequently filled more than 50 bombs and missile warheads with a liquid form of Vollum anthrax. DNA analysis conducted on remnants of Iraq's Al-Hussein warheads at the Al-Nibai missile destruction site revealed traces of bacteria similar to the Vollum anthrax strain. "I can't say with one hundred percent certainty that they are identical," Spertzel said. "But they are consistent with Vollum." The U.S. company also sold Iraq several strains of Clostridiumbotulinum, a poisonous toxin that paralyzes the muscles and lungs and kills by suffocation. Iraq acknowledged producing at least 19,000 liters of botulinum toxin, using more than half to fill at least 116 bombs and missile warheads. Staff writer Joby Warrick contributed to this report. ****************************************************************** D. Iraq's Weapons Could Make It a Target, Bush Says By Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 27, 2001; Page A07 President Bush offered a new justification for future military strikes against Iraq yesterday, declaring in blunt and personal terms that countries that develop weapons of mass destruction could be a target in the U.S. war on terrorism. Bush was emphatic that much work remains to be done in Afghanistan, where U.S. ground troops landed Sunday for the first time, and he warned that casualties are likely as soldiers hunt cave to cave for Osama bin Laden and other suspected perpetrators of the Sept. 11 hijackings. "This is a dangerous period of time," he said. But Bush, when asked at a Rose Garden appearance about whether Iraq could be a target as the United States looks to expand the war on terrorists, said, "Afghanistan is still just the beginning. . . . If you develop weapons of mass destruction that you want to terrorize the world, you'll be held accountable." White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the president's comments represented a "restatement of a long-standing American policy." Since Sept. 11, the administration has appeared divided about where to take the war after Afghanistan, with some key Bush advisers urging a more aggressive stance versus Iraq. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has barred United Nations weapons inspectors from searching for chemical and biological weapons depots since 1997. U.S. officials have said satellite photographs and intelligence reports suggest that Hussein has continued his quest for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. "As for Mr. Saddam Hussein, he needs to let inspectors back in his country, to show us that he is not developing weapons of mass destruction," Bush said. Asked the consequences if inspectors are not admitted, Bush said, "He'll find out." The president also said North Korea must allow weapons inspectors. "We've had that discussion with North Korea," Bush said. "I made it very clear to North Korea that in order for us to have relations with them, that we want to know: Are they developing weapons of mass destruction? And they ought to stop proliferating." Kenneth Allard, a former Army colonel who is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said administration officials have been disciplined about not dwelling publicly on their grievances with Iraq, but now "are allowing themselves the luxury of looking ahead." "They have been very careful not to bite off more than they could chew," Allard said. "It is very clear that Iraq looms as the major continuing terrorist threat, and they just didn't want to talk about that until they were ready to go." In Bush's address to Congress on Sept. 20, he said, "Any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." On Oct. 30, he was more specific, saying, "If you feed a terrorist, if you provide sanctuary to a terrorist, if you fund a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the terrorist that inflicted the harm on the American people." Bush said yesterday that he was not consciously expanding his list of possible targets by citing countries, like Iraq, that possess weapons of mass destruction. "I've always had that definition, as far as I'm concerned," Bush said. The series of recent administration remarks about Iraq began with an appearance by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on CNN's "Late Edition" on Nov. 18. She said the United States is monitoring Hussein and added, "We'll deal with that situation eventually." Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz said during a briefing on Wednesday, after noting that the focus remains on Afghanistan, "We see a good deal of evidence -- chemical, biological, and even nuclear -- that the Iraqis are working both with their indigenous capabilities and acquiring what they can illicitly in the international market." Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last night on CNN's "Larry King Live" that Hussein should take Bush's comments as "a very sober, chilling message." Powell said Iraq remains dangerous. "They continue to try to develop these weapons, and we will keep the pressure on them to make sure that these weapons do not become a serious threat to the region or to the world," he said. Despite the drumbeat, White House officials said it would be a mistake to assume that Iraq is the next target, or even that the next phase in the war would be military. Officials have said strikes against bin Laden's al Qaeda network are possible in Sudan and Somalia. Actions are also possible, probably in coordination with the host governments, in the Philippines and Indonesia. "The military has been making plans and contingencies with regard to Iraq for 10 years," a senior administration official said. "We are focused on what we're doing right now, which is in Afghanistan." Bush's Rose Garden remarks were part of an appearance with two U.S. aid workers who had been detained in Afghanistan on charges that they had promoted Christianity. As Bush took questions, he said he was "not the least bit concerned" about international concern over his plan to establish secret military tribunals for certain terrorist suspects from abroad. Bush is to meet Wednesday with Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister of Spain, which has cited the possible use of the tribunals as a reason for not extraditing eight suspects as conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks. "A president must have the option of using a military tribunal in times of war," Bush said. "It makes sense for national security purposes, it makes sense for the protection of potential jurors. It makes sense for homeland security. It is the right decision to make, and I will explain that to any leader who asks." Staff writer Steven Mufson contributed to this report. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk CASI's website - www.casi.org.uk - includes an archive of all postings.