-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020927-500715.htm
The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
Agency disavows report on Iraq arms
Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 9/27/2002
The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush
as
evidence that Iraq in 1998 was "six months away" from developing a nuclear weapon does
not exist.
"There's never been a report like that issued from this agency," Mark Gwozdecky,
the
IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's
headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
"We've never put a time frame on how long it might take Iraq to construct a
nuclear
weapon in 1998," said the spokesman of the agency charged with assessing Iraq's nuclear
capability for the United Nations.
In a Sept. 7 news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Bush
said: "I
would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied �
finally
denied access [in 1998], a report came out of the Atomic � the IAEA that they were six
months away from developing a weapon.
"I don't know what more evidence we need," said the president, defending his
administration's case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass
destruction.
The White House says Mr. Bush was referring to an earlier IAEA report.
"He's referring to 1991 there," said Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan. "In
'91,
there was a report saying that after the war they found out they were about six months
away."
Mr. Gwozdecky said no such report was ever issued by the IAEA in 1991.
Many news agencies � including The Washington Times � reported Mr. Bush's Sept. 7
comments as referring to a 1998 IAEA report. The White House did not ask for a
correction
from The Times.
To clear up the confusion, Mr. McClellan cited two news articles from 1991 � a
July 16
story in the London Times by Michael Evans and a July 18 story in the New York Times by
Paul Lewis. But neither article cites an IAEA report on Iraq's nuclear-weapons program
or
states that Saddam was only six months away from "developing a weapon" � as claimed
by Mr. Bush.
The article by Mr. Evans says: "Jay Davis, an American expert working for the U.N.
special commission charged with removing Iraq's nuclear capability, said Iraq was only
six
months away from the large-scale production of enriched uranium at two plants inspected
by UN officials."
The Lewis article said Iraq in 1991 had a uranium "enrichment plant using
electromagnetic technology [that] was about six months from becoming operational."
In October 1998, just before Saddam kicked U.N. weapons inspectors out of Iraq,
the
IAEA laid out a case opposite of Mr. Bush's Sept. 7 declaration.
"There are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for
the
production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance," IAEA
Director-
General Mohammed Elbaradei wrote in a report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair on Sept. 7 cited an agency "report" declaring that
satellite
photography revealed the Iraqis had undertaken new construction at several nuclear-
related sites. This week, the IAEA said no such report existed.
The IAEA also took issue with a Sept. 9 report by the International Institute for
Strategic
Studies � cited by the Bush administration � that concludes Saddam "could build a
nuclear
bomb within months if he were able to obtain fissile material."
"There is no evidence in our view that can be substantiated on Iraq's
nuclear-weapons
program. If anybody tells you they know the nuclear situation in Iraq right now, in the
absence of four years of inspections, I would say that they're misleading you because
there
isn't solid evidence out there," Mr. Gwozdecky said.
"I don't know where they have determined that Iraq has retained this much
weaponization capability because when we left in December '98 we had concluded that we
had neutralized their nuclear-weapons program. We had confiscated their fissile
material.
We had destroyed all their key buildings and equipment," he said.
Mr. Gwozdecky said there is no evidence about Saddam's nuclear capability right
now �
either through his organization, other agencies or any government.
Copyright � 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Return to the article
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A<>E<>R
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(but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's
important)
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth
shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
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