>When Madeleine Albright was told on a television show that a UN study had
>found that perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children may have died because of our 10
>years of sanctions, she responded, quote, "We believe it was worth it,"
>worth it. When did the greatest republic on earth start waging war on
>children?
>(END VIDEO CLIP)
>ZAHN: That was Pat Buchanan two weeks ago on the UN sanctions against Iraq.
>Joining me now in the studio is Ambassador Richard Butler, former executive
>chairman of the UN Special Commission and author of, "The Greatest Threat,
>Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Crisis of Global Security."
>Good to have you with us here on THE EDGE.
>AMB. RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER UNSCOM EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Good to be here,
>Paula.
>ZAHN: You didn't want to appear with Scott Ritter. Why not?
>BUTLER: Because if I were to debate him directly, it would give credence to
>some really shockingly wrong things that he's saying. And we heard some of
>them tonight.
>ZAHN: What wouldn't you say in front of him that you'll say in front of me
>tonight?
>BUTLER: Look, what would happen - and you know this very well - is that as
>we saw with the gun segment a few moments ago, that we could presumably lose
>valuable time in a he said-you said kind of debate. And I want to use that
>time to a better purpose.
>ZAHN: OK, let's quickly refute some of Scott Ritter's charges. One is he
>does not think Saddam Hussein has the capacity to create weapons of mass
>destruction.
>BUTLER: Well, I find Scott's performance truly sad, I must say. He's
>completely wrong. Scott himself, when he left UNSCOM almost two years ago,
>went to the Congress of the United States and said Iraq is not disarmed. His
>words were, "It is an ugly threat to the region and beyond." He was right
>then, he's wrong now.
>ZAHN: But he said tonight that he is convinced in his words, "qualitative
>disarmament has worked."
>BUTLER: Qualitative disarmament is a fictional concept that he invented for
>the article that you referred to that he wrote for "Arms Control Today."
>We're talking about quantity not quality, quantity of specific types of
>weapons. And he knows very, very well that we never got rid of all the
>chemical weapons, we never got rid of the missiles, all of them. We had a
>complete black hole facing us with respect to biological weapons. He
>knows...
>ZAHN: How do we know that if we never got into some of these key weapons
>sites?
>BUTLER: Because we had over a million documents. We got into millions of
>sites. We could see the tip of the iceberg. Look, take biological weapons,
>for example, Paula. I called it a black hole. And Scott Ritter knows this
>very well. Iraq had a substantial biological weapons program. They lied to
>the world for four years saying they had no program. When we were able to
>prove that that was false, they said, "Oh, well, it wasn't a big program."
>Now I begged the Iraqis towards the end of my time there to help us get them
>out of jail, to give us above all an honest declaration on biology. They
>robustly refused. And as I record in my book, Tariq Aziz told me privately
>that, "Of course, we had a biological weapons program," and he went on. He
>said, "That's because we need to use it on Israel." Now that's what we're
>dealing with.
>Now Scott Ritter knows that. He knew it then, but he's seeking to deny it
>now. I find that tragic.
>ZAHN: He's saying he actually used Tariq Aziz as one of the sources in this
>"Arms Control Weekly" piece that he just wrote and he's confident...
>BUTLER: And so that was the deception. That was a deception, too, because..
>ZAHN: Where was the deception in that?
>BUTLER: Because the piece in "Arms Control Today" was written before he went
>to Baghdad. You quite properly asked him, "Who was these Iraqis that you
>cite in your article that you spoke with? What was their names? What was the
>seniority? Who were they?" And Scott blurred that. He said the deputy
>ambassador in New York. Now I accept that he probably talked to him when he
>was preparing his "Arms Control Today" piece, but the meeting that he says
>he had with Aziz and Amir Rashid happened afterwards when he went to
>Baghdad, weeks or months after he prepared that article. So that was
>deceptive to say, "I received those assurances from those people leading to
>my concept of qualitative disarmament that he published in that article."
>That could not have happened then.
>ZAHN: So in closing tonight, give us your opinion on what you think Saddam
>Hussein is capable of doing to his enemies today.
>BUTLER: You know, well, I welcome that question because already, we've spent
>too much time talking about a person in his youth who frankly lost his way
>and is misleading people. I'll tell you quite plainly. Saddam Hussein is
>back in the business of making long-range missiles. Secondly, he has
>recalled his nuclear weapons design team. Thirdly, he's rebuilt his chemical
>weapons manufacturing factories, and we believe the same is true of biology.
>In other words, he is back in business but that is what I've said and it's
>true.
>ZAHN: And these new weapons teams are ready to go? Will he let them in?
>BUTLER: No, I don't think so. He could surprise us but I don't think so. And
>if that does not occur, then once again, we've got an Iraq crisis on our
>hands.
>ZAHN: And what do we do?
>BUTLER: Well, I'm not sure. I've made a recommendation in my book. I think
>the United States should make very clear to the Russians who have become
>Saddam's great supporter, that this is not acceptable, this is not
>acceptable behavior in the post Cold War world and try to rebuild unity
>amongst the great task to make clear to Hussein that he's got nowhere to go
>but to obey the law. I think that might work.
>ZAHN: Well, we'll be following this very closely and will have to have you
>come back as well as - what way to describe Scott Ritter? Your arch enemy?
>BUTLER: No, no, Scott was a great inspector and I was proud to have him as a
>colleague and a friend. As I've said earlier, I find it truly sad that he's
>lost his way on this issue. I don't know why but it's sad. I feel the
>obligation, however, to point out that he is misleading with respect to the
>facts of the weapons. And that's what I care about, not the personalities.
>ZAHN: All right, Ambassador Butler, good of you to join us here tonight on
>THE EDGE.
>BUTLER: Thank you.
>ZAHN: And we will be having you back.
>Coming up next, quite a change in scene. Are we a nation of voyeurs and
>peeping Toms? Is that why shows like "Survivor" and "Real World" and even
>car chases are such a hit? Find out. That's next as THE EDGE continues.
>(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
>END
>
>Content and Programming Copyright 2000 Fox News
>
>
>Iraq asks neighbouring countries for overflight rights.
>Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan has said Baghdad has approached a
>number of neighbouring countries to assess the possibility of allowing
>planes that want to land in Iraq pass through their airspace.
>
>Iraqi satellite TV said on Tuesday thatRamadan told a news conference at the
>Iraqi National Assembly that Iraq hoped there would be a speedy Arab
>reaction to the landing of a Russian plane at Saddam International Airport.
>
>"You already know the advantage that the Russians have as far as civil
>aviation is concerned. They made the decision to send direct flights to Iraq
>a while back. What is stopping them is the fact that there is no direct
>route that allows them to reach Baghdad," he said.
>
>Ramadan said Russia has asked Iran to permit overflights but this had been
>turned down.
>
>"What is stopping Russian Airlines from flying regular flights to Baghdad -
>and this was the decision of the Russian leadership and now this decision
>has been consolidated - is neighbouring states. Right now we want to work
>with some neighbouring states to resolve the matter," he said.
>
>"Will non-Arab airlines begin flights to Baghdad in reaction to the Russian
>move? If you ask me, I would say that I wish the reaction would be Arab. But
>so far, all that we wished for did not come true. Nevertheless, we always
>hope for the best, especially from our Arab nation," he said.
>
>Source: Iraqi Satellite Channel, Baghdad, in Arabic 22 Aug
>
>
>Missile fears spur air war over Iraq.
>By Michael Evans.
>BRITISH and American combat aircraft are being fired upon more than a dozen
>times a week by the Iraqis as the long-running air battle between Baghdad
>and the West passes an 18-month milestone.
>With hostilities between Iraq and the two Nato countries, which have been
>described as the "forgotten war", showing no sign of abating, there are
>continuing concerns at Baghdad's new short-range ballistic missile
>programme.
>
>Iraq has begun to test the new al-Samoud missile. Its range of less than 100
>miles does not breach the ceasefire agreement signed by Iraq after the 1991
>Gulf War, but with no UN arms inspectors in the country there are fears that
>President Saddam Hussein could also be developing longer-range weapons.
>
>The combat air patrols over northern and southern Iraq are among the only
>means left for the West to deter Iraq from developing a clandestine weapons
>programme.
>
>Baghdad has responded by ordering attacks on overflying aircraft. According
>to the latest figures, in the no-fly zone over the north of Iraq, British
>and American aircraft were fired upon more than 270 times by Iraqi
>anti-aircraft artillery and 14 times by surface-to-air missiles between last
>October and June this year.
>
>In the southern zone during the same period, the Iraqis tried to bring down
>American and British aircraft on 98 occasions with anti-aircraft artillery
>and launched 45 surface-to-air missiles.
>In the north of Iraq, above the 36th parallel, the coalition aircraft
>dropped 129 bombs on Iraqi air defence facilities and other radar sites. In
>the south, below the 33rd parallel, British and American aircraft responded
>on only 12 occasions during the same period.
>(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2000.
>
>
>U.N. Sanctions Claim Over 10,000 Lives Last Month in Iraq.
>BAGHDAD, August 22 (Xinhua) - More than 10,000 Iraqis died in July because
>of the United Nations sanctions against Iraq, bringing the total number of
>victims of the sanctions to 1,335,060 since 1990, Iraqi Health Ministry said
>on Tuesday.
>The ministry said in a statement that 7,457 children under the age of five
>died of diarrhea, pneumonia, respiratory infections and malnutrition.
>
>As to the elderly people, 2,843 died of heart diseases, diabetes,
>hypertension and malignant neoplasms.
>Such a high mortality rate, due to malnutrition and severe medicine shortage
>caused by the decade-long sanctions, was in sharp contrast with the same
>month in 1989, when some 378 children and 430 elderly people died, the
>statement said.
>
>Iraq has repeatedly called on the U.N. to unconditionally lift the stringent
>sanctions, which was imposed against the country after Iraq's invasion of
>Kuwait in August 1990.
>
>Moreover, Iraq has long accused the United States and Britain of impeding
>the implementation of the U.N. oil-for-food program by deliberately blocking
>the contracts Iraq signed with foreign countries to buy food, medicine and
>other humanitarian supplies.
>
>The U.N. humanitarian program allows Iraq to sell crude oil every six months
>to finance the vital imports of humanitarian goods to help offset the
>crippling impacts of the sanctions.
>
>Hans Von Sponeck, former U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, and Jutta
>Burghardt, former representative of the World Food Program, resigned in
>February to protest the continuing sanctions which caused the worsening
>humanitarian situation in Iraq.
>(c) Copyright 2000 Xinhua News Agency.
>
>
>New U.N. Weapons Inspection Team Is Prepared to Go to Iraq.
>Special to The Washington Post
>
>More than 1 1/2 years after United Nations weapons experts departed Iraq on
>the eve of a U.S.-British air bombardment, a new team of U.N. inspectors has
>been prepared to return to Iraq to restart the process of disarming that
>nation's weapons of mass destruction, according to senior U.N. diplomats.
>
>Hans Blix, the chairman of a U.N. inspection agency established by the
>Security Council nine months ago to complete the disarmament of Iraq, has
>concluded in a report to the Security Council that an advance team of
>weapons inspectors is ready to go to Iraq, according to a U.N. diplomat.
>
>Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has stated repeatedly that his nation has no
>intention of permitting U.N. arms inspectors back into Iraq. And the United
>States and Britain appear disinclined to threaten the use of force to compel
>Iraq to accept the inspectors, so it seems unlikely they will enter the
>country soon.
>
>Iraq, meanwhile, has pressed its allies on the Security Council, principally
>Russia, to seek an end to economic sanctions. Following a meeting in Moscow
>between Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and President Vladimir Putin,
>Russian officials in New York said they had little hope that Iraq would
>agree to allow the U.N. inspectors back without clearer assurances that
>sanctions would be lifted.
>
>U.S. officials have expressed concern that Iraq may have reconstituted its
>prohibited weapons programs in the absence of U.N. inspectors. And the
>United States and Britain are expected to cite the report's findings in
>urging the council's other key members, including Russia, China and France,
>to use their influence to persuade Iraq to submit to new inspections. Under
>the terms of a 1991 cease-fire agreement ending the Persian Gulf War, Iraq
>is obliged to provide full access to U.N. inspectors charged with ridding
>the country of long-and medium-range missiles and nuclear, chemical and
>biological weapons. In exchange for compliance, the council has pledged to
>provide Baghdad relief from a decade of economic sanctions.
>
>The task of disarmament was carried out by the U.N. Special Commission
>(UNSCOM) until December 1998, when the inspectors were ordered to leave by
>the commission's chief, Richard Butler, as the United States and Britain
>prepared to launch the air campaign against Iraq.
>
>Iraq has refused to let inspectors return, citing reports that the United
>States used the inspection agency to spy on Iraq. Earlier this year, the
>Security Council created a successor agency, the U.N. Monitoring,
>Verification and Inspection Commission, to complete the job of disarming
>Iraq. Unlike UNSCOM, which relied primarily on personnel loaned by
>governments, the new agency's arms experts will be employed by the United
>Nations.
>
>Blix is scheduled to discuss his findings with a panel of international arms
>experts, known as the college of commissioners, later this week.
>
>He will then report to the Security Council that the inspectors are prepared
>to begin their work. The decision comes as a team of U.N. inspectors
>completed its final round of training in Maryland.
>Copyright (c) 2000 Washington Post. All rights reserved.
>Source: WASHINGTON POST
>
>
>IS ABU-NIDAL BACK IN BAGHDAD?
>Reports that terrorist Sabri Al-Banna (Abu-Nidal) is inBaghdad have been
>surfacing in the Arabic press for severalmonths. London's "Al-Hayat" on 12
>May reported that he hadreturned to Baghdad to live there several months
>ago, andLondon's "Al-Zaman" on 15 August said that he is using hisresidence
>in Baghdad to regroup his movement, Al-Fatah. Sincereturning to Iraq from
>Egypt, Abu-Nidal reportedly haskidnapped three youths from the Iraqi
>Palestinian communityand executed two of them "on the pretext that they had
>lefthis organization." (David Nissman) Copyright (c) 1999. RFE/RL, Inc.
>Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
>
>
>
>tel: +44 (0)20 78725451
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>web: www.mariamappeal.com
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