:: Has the whole world gone mad or is it just me. ::

:: Saturday, May 10, 2003 ::

washingtonpost .com

Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq
Task Force Unable To Find Any Weapons

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- The group directing all known U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that President Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms, according to participants.

The 75th Exploitation Task Force, as the group is formally known, has been described from the start as the principal arm of the U.S. plan to discover and display forbidden Iraqi weapons. The group's departure, expected next month, marks a milestone in frustration for a major declared objective of the war.

Leaders of Task Force 75's diverse staff -- biologists, chemists, arms treaty enforcers, nuclear operators, computer and document experts, and special forces troops -- arrived with high hopes of early success. They said they expected to find what Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described at the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 -- hundreds of tons of biological and chemical agents, missiles and rockets to deliver the agents, and evidence of an ongoing program to build a nuclear bomb.

Scores of fruitless missions broke that confidence, many task force members said in interviews.

Army Col. Richard McPhee, who will close down the task force next month, said he took seriously U.S. intelligence warnings on the eve of war that Hussein had given "release authority" to subordinates in command of chemical weapons. "We didn't have all these people in [protective] suits" for nothing, he said. But if Iraq thought of using such weapons, "there had to have been something to use. And we haven't found it. . . . Books will be written on that in the intelligence community for a long time."

Army Col. Robert Smith, who leads the site assessment teams from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said task force leaders no longer "think we're going to find chemical rounds sitting next to a gun." He added, "That's what we came here for, but we're past that."

Motivated and accomplished in their fields, task force members found themselves missing vital tools. They consistently found targets identified in Washington to be inaccurate, looted and burned, or both. Leaders and members of five of the task force's eight teams, and some senior officers guiding them, said the weapons hunters were going through the motions now to "check the blocks" on a prewar list.

U.S. Central Command began the war with a list of 19 top weapons sites. Only two remain to be searched. Another list enumerated 68 top "non-WMD sites," without known links to special weapons but judged to have the potential to offer clues. Of those, the tally at midweek showed 45 surveyed without success.

Task Force 75's experience, and its impending dissolution after seven weeks in action, square poorly with assertions in Washington that the search has barely begun.
:: Beauxbeaux's Daddy 10:12 PM [+] ::
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U.S. Offers Rewards in Iraq Weapons Hunt

9 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American authorities have promised rewards to Iraqis for information leading to discovery of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs, the U.S.-run Information Radio said Saturday.


AP Photo
 

Besides the unspecified reward, potential informants were offered anonymity and guarantees of safety in exchange for useful information "regarding any site that manufactured or held weapons of mass destruction."

"The reward you may get can improve your living standard," it said.

The lengthy spot on the Arabic-language radio was part of a growing U.S. government campaign to find Iraqi sources potentially knowledgeable about prohibited arms programs.

The suspected presence of such weapons was the prime reason cited by the Bush administration for launching the war against Iraq ( news -web sites ).

From November to March, U.N. weapons teams conducted more than 700 surprise inspections at hundreds of Iraqi sites, and did not report finding any weapons-making programs. A U.S. military unit of experts in unconventional arms that followed invading U.S. troops into Iraq in March, has surveyed 75 of 90 high-priority sites, and thus far also has not reported conclusive evidence of such programs.

The difficulty in finding the banned weapons now threatens U.S. and British plans to end U.N. sanctions against Iraq. Russian diplomats have said they need to see conclusive evidence that such programs have been eliminated before approving the lifting of the 13-year sanctions regime, and President Vladimir Putin ( news -web sites ) has even raised the possibility that Saddam Hussein ( news -web sites ) could still be alive and in possession of the deadly weapons.

American officials have indicated they would increasingly depend on fresh information from hoped-for Iraqi informants to trace any weapons-making programs.

High-ranking Iraqis already in custody have uniformly denied that their government, ousted last month by the invasion force, had any weapons of mass destruction, U.S. officials say. The deposed government maintained it destroyed its chemical and biological weapons by the early 1990s. It never succeeded in building a nuclear weapon.

Saturday's radio announcement said the U.S.-British coalition was interested in "locations of components, materials and supplies that had been used in developing, processing, manufacturing and maintaining weapons of mass destruction."

:: Beauxbeaux's Daddy 12:36 PM [+] ::
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In other words "We will pay you to say so"Keep searching til you find someone we can corrupt.
In other words "We will pay you to say so"
:: Beauxbeaux's Daddy 12:33 PM [+] ::
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Hello
To you.
:: Beauxbeaux's Daddy 6:57 AM [+] ::
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I cant believe that no one can figure out that this is W's way of getting back at the French. The French would normally be involved with this sort of colonialization with us & the Brits, but W wants to let The French know that they are relegated to sub-Polish. What an incredible insult!

FT.com Home UK Warsaw's role in postwar Iraq surprises EU - and the Poles
By Judy Dempsey in Kastellorizo, Greece
Published: May 4 2003 19:27 | Last Updated: May 4 2003 19:27

Washington's announcement that Poland is to take charge of one of three postwar sectors in Iraq seems to have taken Poles almost as much by surprise as the other European Union and applicant nations attending an informal meeting of foreign ministers in Greece at the weekend.

Poland was among the US's strongest supporters in toppling Saddam Hussein, and contributed combat troops to the US-led coalition, despite strong domestic opposition to the war.

It emerged at the weekend that it would also take the lead in stabilising one of three sectors into which Iraq is being divided - the other two falling under US and British command. Troops from at least seven other countries will also be involved.

Nevertheless, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Polish foreign minister, had to do some explaining to his EU counterparts. He said the US announcement had first to be discussed by the Sejm, or Polish parliament. It needed a legal basis and it required considerable financing.

Some diplomats said Germany and other EU countries might find it difficult to justify allocating to Poland significant structural (development) funds as well as generous agricultural subsidies while Warsaw could find money to send thousands of troops to Iraq. Poland is expected to join the EU in May 2004.
:: Beauxbeaux's Daddy 8:38 AM [+] ::
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