The Hindu : U.N. team on spying mission, says Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 06, 2002

International

International

U.N. team on spying mission, says Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) DEC. 5. The U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq are caught in a crossfire between the Iraqi establishment and the United States, with Baghdad accusing them of spying for an upcoming war and Washington saying that they are not exerting themselves enough. The Iraqi Vice-President, Taha Yassin Ramadan, on Wednesday told Egyptian journalists in Baghdad that the inspectors were gathering military intelligence for the U.S. and Israeli secret services as part of a preparation for war.

Pointing out that the U.S. was primarily focusing on the war option, he said, "The inspectors have come to provide better circumstances and more precise information for a coming aggression.'' "This is not an accusation, because the inspectors, from day one, their foremost work was spying. Their work was spying for the CIA and Mossad together'', he added referring to the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.

Orchestrating a similar theme, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, said in an interview to a U.S. television channel "Washington wants the war.'' "The whole issue of weapons of mass destruction is a hoax. When they find that there are no weapons of mass destruction, they would use another pretext to attack.'' Analysts point out that the Iraqi emphasis on the U.S. having pre-decided on waging war, maybe intended to counter an anticipated U.S. diplomatic offensive against it next week.

By Sunday, Iraq is expected to meet the U.N. mandated deadline of declaring its stockpiles and capability to produce mass destruction weapons. Iraq has already stated that it does not possess such weapons and is likely to pursue a similar line in its declaration. But there are concerns in Iraq that the U.S. could cite this response as an expression of "bad faith", and follow it up with an international campaign that would encourage the use of force. In Baghdad, the head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, Hussam Mohammed Amin, said that Iraq's arms dossier for the U.N. would be huge, but added that, "the declaration will repeat that in Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction."

Elsewhere in the region, the Iranian English daily, Teheran Times, known to be close to the conservative establishment has also suggested that the U.N. weapons inspectors could be working to facilitate military operations against Iraq.

The newspaper points out that Israeli agents have in the past planted "homing devices" to structures such as Iraq's Osirak nuclear power plant, which was then, with the help of these devices, bombed by air with pin-pointed accuracy in 1982. According to the daily, "some also suggest that there is a possibility that some U.N. inspectors with dubious allegiances be able to surreptitiously plant such homing devices in various places they visit, or even hide them in cameras they are entitled to install in sensitive places. Afterwards, the United States and its allies can use the homing devices for extremely effective targeting of Iraqi sites in case a good excuse if found."

The prominent buildings that the U.N. weapons inspectors have visited so far include one of the places of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, the Muthanna military site, some 75 km north of Baghdad where they said they found artillery shells that contained mustard gas that previous inspectors could not destroy before they left in 1998.

Besides, they have visited the Iraq's main nuclear plant al-Tuweitha, around 20 km south of Baghdad.

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