Lifting the Veil of Mystery - 21 December, 2002 - News

The US ready to share with the UN its intelligence information about Iraqi weapon of mass destruction

Yesterday, a great scandal took place in the US: Hans Blix, UNMOVIC head, accused Great Britain and the US of not presenting to the weapon inspectors full intelligence information on Iraq. Blix said the governments of Great Britain and the US did not inform UN weapon inspectors working in Iraq in which Iraqi objects, according to the Great Britain and the US intelligence information, weapon of mass destruction could be kept.

In the meanwhile, these data are necessary for experts to press upon Saddam. Having understood its mistake, the US at once tried to correct it. And – is it not a wonder? – Blix started to sing another song. The US presents to UN weapon inspectors a new piece of information about the places where the Saddam Husain regime could hide evidence of developing its programme on weapon of mass destruction. This piece of information will be delivered this weekend, Blix said in his interview to BBC.

The inspectors will receive information about several objects where, according to the US intelligence, Iraqi chemical weapon or some means of its production are kept. The reason why Washington kept back the data on the Baghdad military programme is following: the Bush administration is afraid of Iraqis having intelligencers among UN weapon inspectors. According to one of US officials, the decision to share the intelligence information with UN inspectors is partly explained with the Washington intention to check up whether they are able to keep secret the data before a sudden examination of some object.

Iraq, while stating there is no weapon of mass destruction in its arsenal, made a risky step, British Daily Telegraph reads. Within many years, the Iraqi leader said how important this kind of weapon was, while now Saddam Husain insists on Iraq not possessing weapon of mass destruction. While considering different variants of further evolution of the situation, the newspaper does not exclude the regime change in Iraq could be carried out without any military meddling. Anyway, the US and Great Britain must take care of what will happen in Iraq after the Saddam Husain resignation. It is necessary, first of all, to guarantee territorial integrity of the country and, therefore, to avert the region destabilization. Secondly, the US and its allies, who do not stop talking about the Husain despotism, must guarantee that will be not one more dictator who will replace Saddam. Of course, the forcible displacement of Saddam Husain could bring some surprises, though it certainly promises a great potential for positive changes which could be carried out in democratic Iraq, Daily Telegraph concludes.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/1/last_news_2.html