DATE=9/3/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUNDER
TITLE=IRAQ WEAPONS
NUMBER=5-44193
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  U-S officials say Washington is growing more 
worried about Iraq's programs to produce chemical and 
germ weapons along with the missiles needed to deliver 
them.  A new report to Congress says Baghdad has been 
operating out of sight of U-N weapons inspectors for 
nearly a year and could have made progress toward 
workable weapons of mass destruction.  V-O-A's Jim 
Randle reports, officials want to resume intrusive 
inspections by U-N weapons experts. 

TEXT: The report is based on intelligence information 
and says U-S spies, satellites, and electronic 
eavesdropping facilities are doing everything they can 
to peer into places where Iraqi weapons are thought to 
be made or stored.  But the authors complain that such 
means give only a partial picture of what Iraqi 
scientists and engineers are doing.

The report says it is only prudent to assume that 
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is still intent on 
developing chemical and biological weapons, and calls 
for resumption of intrusive inspections of Iraqi 
facilities.  

Weapons expert John Pike studies Iraq for the American 
Federation of Scientists, a non-government group.  He 
says there is good reason for worry.

            /// PIKE ACT ///

I think the concern all along was that Iraq retained a 
chemical and biological weapons capability that the U-
N was simply never able to find.  It looks like they 
may be building on that pre-existing capability to 
expand it.  So I think we have to assume that Iraq 
currently has useable amounts of chemical and 
biological weapons.  And that the amount of those 
weapons may be growing. 

            /// END ACT /// 

The report says Iraq probably still does not have the 
materials needed for nuclear weapons but still has 
much of the expertise and some of the equipment needed 
for such work.

State Department officials say the U-N Security 
Council should support a resolution proposed by 
Britain and the Netherlands to set up a new weapons-
inspection system in Iraq.  Iraq calls the proposal 
unacceptable because it does not end economic 
sanctions.  

France and Russia have made rival proposals for 
dealing with Iraq, and diplomats from U-N Security 
Council members are set to gather in Washington next 
week to discuss policy toward Baghdad. 

U-N weapons inspectors left Baghdad just before U-S 
and British warplanes carried out major bombing raids 
on Iraq last December.  Washington said it launched 
those attacks when Baghdad refused to comply with an 
agreement to allow inspectors access to buildings 
suspected of hiding weapons materials.

Mr. Pike says it is not clear what Washington's next 
step will be. 

            /// PIKE ACT ///

      It is very difficult for the United States just 
      to walk away from the Iraq problem because Iraq 
      threatens its neighbors.  The sanctions are not 
      working to stop Saddam Hussein's military 
      buildup.  And the real question is whether we 
      are going to have a much larger air attack on 
      Saddam Hussein's infrastructure that might 
      topple his regime.

            /// END ACT ///

Last December's U-S and British attacks were massive 
air raids involving hundreds of planes.  Since then, 
there have been smaller scale, but nearly continuous 
conflicts between allied planes and Iraqi air 
defenses.

            //REST OPT//

U-S and British planes are blocking flights by Iraqi 
planes and movement by military vehicles over much of 
the country, in an effort to protect dissident groups 
from Iraqi troops and planes.

U-S officials say Iraqi air defenses frequently 
challenge such flights, and allied planes respond with 
bombs and missiles.  The pace of such raids has 
intensified in recent days, with Baghdad claiming that 
dozens of Iraqi civilians have died in unjustified 
attacks.  U-S officials insist they strike military 
targets that threaten allied planes, but refuse to 
release any assessment of the allied bomb damage.  
(Signed). 

NEB/JR/LTD



03-Sep-1999 13:24 PM EDT (03-Sep-1999 1724 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.