WASHINGTON, May 12: With evidence of weapons of mass destruction elusive, the United States and its war allies are replacing arms inspectors in Iraq with a new, larger team that will try to piece together “a deception programme” by Saddam Hussein, a top White House official said on Monday.
The new team will be “more expert” at following the paper trail and other intelligence left behind by the Saddam government, said President George W. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
The United States, against much international opposition, pushed for war against Iraq to disarm Baghdad of its alleged programmes to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. But so far none have been found to provide conclusive proof of those programmes.
The US military unit directing the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is dismantling its operations and will likely leave Iraq in coming weeks.
Rice, in an interview, said a “different kind of team” is now needed to continue the search. She called the change a “long-planned rotation.” The new team will include Americans, Britons and Australians.
“The team that will be going in will be larger (and) will have people who are more expert in document exploitation and intelligence and all of the pieces that we need,” she said.
Rice said Iraq appeared to have had a virtually “inspections proof” system of concealing chemical and biological weapons by developing chemicals and agents that could be used for more than one purpose, but that could be put together as weapons at the last minute.
She said US officials never expected that “we were going to open garages and find” weapons of mass destruction.
“It was a sophisticated deception programme. and it will take some time to untangle that, but we will,” she said.
At the same time, the United States and Britain are pushing the UN Security Council to lift UN sanctions against Iraq.
They are seeking a vote by June 3, when the oil-for-food programme, which gives the United Nations control over Iraqi oil revenues and allows them to be used to buy food and medicine, needs to be renewed.
Their proposal is likely to face at least some resistance from France and Russia, which would like verifiable proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
“It is time to lift sanctions. It is purely cynical to say that sanctions ought to remain, particularly if you are a country that thought that sanctions ought to be lifted on Saddam Hussein,” Rice said, referring to Russia and France, which had favoured lifting UN sanctions in recent years while Saddam was still in power.
With retired Gen. Jay Garner leaving as the head of the US-led reconstruction effort in Iraq, Rice said his replacement, L. Paul Bremer, will have a broader role to get more international participation in helping rebuild Iraq.
Bremer’s appointment followed repeated Iraqi criticism of the slow pace of work to restore basic services and form a transitional Iraqi government.
Rice praised Garner’s role and said Bremer will continue trying to get the electricity and water running for Iraqis as well as undertake a broader political effort.
“I think you’re going to see a more focused effort to get broader participation of other countries,” she said.—Reuters