- Apr 25, 2003
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U.S. Weapons Hunt Shifts Focus to 'Intent' in Iraq
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (news - web sites) will continue despite the failure so far to find them but the mission will also investigate whether Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) intended to develop such weapons, the chief U.S. arms hunter said on Tuesday.
"Ultimately what we want is a comprehensive picture, not just simply answering questions -- were there weapons, were there not weapons?" Charles Duelfer told reporters after briefing the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) behind closed doors.
"The hunt will go on until we're able to draw a firm and confident picture of what the programs were and where the regime was headed with respect to them. But we're looking at it from soup to nuts -- from the weapons end to the planning end and to the intentions end," he said.
The new direction of trying to determine whether the former Iraqi president was actively pursuing the development of banned arms reflects the Bush administration's evolving public rationale for the war on Iraq.
Initially, the administration said an invasion was necessary to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction that Iraq possessed and was prepared to use. With none uncovered, the White House now says the war, in which more than 500 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis have died, was justified by Saddam's alleged intent to build and use such weaponry.
"We are looking for weapons, we're looking for production equipment, we're looking for the decisions by the regime to sustain a capability ... but we have not found existing stocks of weapons as some had expected," Duelfer said.
Duelfer, appointed by the CIA (news - web sites) in January, guides the on-the-ground hunt by the Defense Department's Iraq Survey Group of about 1,200 to 1,400 personnel. He said they regularly receive reports of hidden weapons which are then checked out, "but we haven't found any at this point in time."
Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, said as he stepped down that he did not believe Iraq had large stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons when U.S. forces invaded Iraq last year.
But Duelfer said it was still too early to draw conclusions and make final judgments.
"Much work remains to be done," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said.
The failure to find banned weapons in Iraq has emerged as a key political issue ahead of the November presidential election. Republicans urge patience until the hunt is finished, while Democrats say the lack of banned weapons showed that the White House exaggerated the threat from Iraq to push for war.
The administration has also been accused of focusing resources on Iraq instead of the hunt for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), whom Washing believes masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.
Duelfer, who was in Iraq for about six weeks since taking the job, said he was surprised at the reluctance of Iraqi scientists and engineers to speak freely. The Iraqis feared that being candid would put them at risk of being prosecuted by U.S.-led authorities or retribution from former regime elements, he said.
Iraq had a complex system for the procurement of military goods and technology which it financed mainly through oil smuggling that was conducted through arrangements with neighboring countries, Duelfer said in an unclassified summary of his testimony.
Money was also obtained from "kickback payments" made on contracts set up through the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, he said. Iraq derived "several billion dollars" between 1999 and 2003 from oil smuggling and kickbacks, he said.
He believed Iraq had plans to improve, expand and build new facilities suitable for the production of biological and chemical agents needed for weapons.
There was also information that suggested Iraq had been interested in preserving and expanding the knowledge needed to design and develop nuclear weapons, he said.
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