Ex-inspector dismisses US report

2003-02-08 14:19

Abu Dhabi - Scott Ritter, a former senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq, on Saturday blasted US Secretary of State Colin Powell's case for a US-led war on Baghdad as "smoking mirrors" and nothing to do with reality.

Powell's presentation to the UN security council last week was a "compelling case and sound argument" only for the unknowing, Ritter said in a lecture in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

But for those with knowledge of the disarmament process, the report was nothing but "smoking mirrors, nothing to do with reality (and) plain wrong", Ritter said.

Putting satellite photos and tape recordings before a landmark meeting of the UN security council, Powell provided what he said was fresh evidence of Iraqi efforts to hide its weapons of mass destruction as he pressed the US case for tough action against Saddam Hussein.

"The purpose of the briefing was to destroy the inspection process," Ritter said, arguing it was not in US interests to have inspections teams finding nothing on the ground as that could prevent the removal of Saddam Hussein, "which has overtaken disarmament as the primary goal in Iraq".

Ritter questioned Powell's "improper" briefing on anthrax, in which he said UN experts estimated that Iraq could have produced 25 000 litres, saying stocks, if they did indeed exist, had gone well past their shelf life.

"Powell gave no substantive evidence" on alleged chemical weapons programmes, said Ritter, a former intelligence officer in the US Marines who was once dubbed a "cowboy" by UN staff and diplomats in Baghdad for his intrusive inspection procedures.

Ritter also dismissed photographs and radio intercepts Powell offered as evidence to the security council.

"What he presented is not hard evidence... because the context, frequencies, history (of use) of the frequencies and who the individuals (talking) are must be known to ascertain whether they are relevant or not," he said of the tape recordings.

The CIA had since November provided UN arms monitors with imagery of more than a dozen "suspect" sites, which proved upon inspection to be completely unrelated to weapons programmes, Ritter added.

Ritter also cast doubt on the US administration's policy of sourcing information from Iraqi defectors, whom he charged had sometimes been "pre-briefed" and were of "questionable veracity." - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA