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Pressure on US to find WMDs
08/04/2003 20:46 - (SA)
Washington - US forces have so far failed to uncover stocks of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - a stated goal of the US-led invasion - despite a string of suspicious finds and false alarms.
Washington and London had alleged that Iraq possessed large quantities of poison gas and biological agents such as anthrax while working to develop nuclear weapons and would not hesitate to use them if brought to the brink of defeat.
Baghdad denied the allegations, and UN weapons inspections were inconclusive before being interrupted by the war, in which fears that Iraqi forces would use such weapons have all but dissipated.
Washington is now under heavy pressure to locate weapons stocks and to convince the international community of the credibility of its finds.
"If the United States does not make any undisputed discoveries of forbidden weapons, the failure will feed already widespread scepticism abroad about its motives for going to war," the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday. Specialised mobile laboratories
As coalition forces battle for Baghdad, teams of soldiers in specialised mobile laboratories are searching for biological and chemical weapons behind the scenes.
One of the so-called "fox teams" was called on Sunday to a military site adjacent to a pesticide factory near Karbala where troops from the US 101st Airborne Division discovered barrels containing suspicious materials.
US defence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that preliminary tests on the barrels had indicated the possible presence of chemical agents.
But Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not confirm the discovery, stressing that further study was needed.
"Almost all first reports we get turn out to be wrong. We don't do first reports and we don't speculate," he told a news conference. "We have to take our time and look at it."
The detection equipment used on the ground is hyper-sensitive and generates many false alarms, said Jonathan Tucker, an expert at the US Institute of Peace. 'Sarin gas' just pesticide
The facility near Karbala, which a US officer had claimed might finally be "smoking gun" evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons production, turned out on Monday to contain pesticide, not sarin nerve gas as originally thought.
Initial tests had reportedly detected traces of sarin - a powerful toxin that quickly affects the nervous system - after US soldiers guarding the facility near Hindiyah, 100km south of Baghdad, became ill.
According to National Public Radio, quoting a senior official in the First Marine Division, marines found a warehouse near the Baghdad airport containing missiles ready to fire and loaded with warheads filled with mustard gas and sarin. No confirmation from the Pentagon was available on this subject.
Even if they find banned weapons, the United States must assure sceptics the evidence was not manufactured, said former UN arms inspector David Kay.
"We have to communicate this credibly to places like the Middle East, where some people still think we or Israel's (intelligence services) staged the attack on the World Trade Centre," Kay said.
- AFX
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