washingtonpost.com
U.S. Announces Expanded Search for Iraqi Arms
By Charles Aldinger and Will Dunham
Reuters
Friday, May 30, 2003; 3:56 PM
The United States Friday announced a major expansion of so-far fruitless efforts to find chemical and biological arms in Iraq, forming a team of 1,400 U.S., British and Australian experts to take up the hunt.
The Pentagon named Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton to head the new Iraq Survey Group, which will try to find alleged arms that Washington cited as its main justification for the invasion of Iraq in March that toppled President Saddam Hussein.
No such weapons have been found, and the move was announced just hours after Lt. Gen. James Conway, the top U.S. Marine officer in Iraq, said U.S. intelligence was "simply wrong" in leading the military to believe that the invading troops were likely to be attacked with chemical weapons.
"The Iraq Survey Group represents a significant expansion of effort in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction as we build on the efforts that are ongoing," Dayton, director of operations for the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Pentagon briefing.
"We may get lucky. We may not. We may find out three months from now that there was a very elaborate deception program going on that resulted in the destruction of stuff."
While the new group will be staffed by up to 1,400 people from the United States, Britain and Australia, it will increase the number of searchers in Iraq to about 300 from the current 200, Dayton said. Others will be involved in tasks ranging from analyzing documents to questioning people who may have knowledge of such weapons.
With offices in Baghdad, Qatar and Washington, the group will undertake other tasks including collecting information on terrorism, war crimes and prisoner of war issues, he said.
It will replace the U.S. military's 75th Exploitation Task Force, which has been looking for weapons for two months with no success despite visiting 220 of 900 suspected sites. A two-week transition period will begin no later than June 7.
"The goal is to put all the pieces together in what is appearing to be a very complex jigsaw puzzle," Dayton said.
But Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon it was too early to say whether the United States also had been wrong in charging that Iraq had chemical and biological arms when the invasion began 2-1/2 months ago.
"We were simply wrong," he said of the assessment that chemical shells or other weapons were ready in southern Iraq and likely to be used against invaders by Saddam's forces.
"Whether or not we are wrong at the national level I think still very much remains to be seen. ... 'Intelligence failure,' I think, is still too strong a word to use at this point," said Conway, speaking from the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have expressed confidence such weapons will be found, although Rumsfeld this week conceded Iraq may have decided to destroy them ahead of the invasion.
Conway said he was convinced when U.S. and British troops swept into Iraq from Kuwait that they would come under chemical or biological attack before they reached Baghdad.
But such shells have not been found even in ammunition storage sites. "It was a surprise to me then. It remains a surprise to me now that we have not uncovered weapons ... in some of the forward dispersal sites," said Conway. "Believe me, it's not for lack of trying."
© 2003 Reuters
U.S. Announces Expanded Search for Iraqi Arms
By Charles Aldinger and Will Dunham
Reuters
Friday, May 30, 2003; 3:56 PM
The United States Friday announced a major expansion of so-far fruitless efforts to find chemical and biological arms in Iraq, forming a team of 1,400 U.S., British and Australian experts to take up the hunt.
The Pentagon named Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton to head the new Iraq Survey Group, which will try to find alleged arms that Washington cited as its main justification for the invasion of Iraq in March that toppled President Saddam Hussein.
No such weapons have been found, and the move was announced just hours after Lt. Gen. James Conway, the top U.S. Marine officer in Iraq, said U.S. intelligence was "simply wrong" in leading the military to believe that the invading troops were likely to be attacked with chemical weapons.
"The Iraq Survey Group represents a significant expansion of effort in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction as we build on the efforts that are ongoing," Dayton, director of operations for the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Pentagon briefing.
"We may get lucky. We may not. We may find out three months from now that there was a very elaborate deception program going on that resulted in the destruction of stuff."
While the new group will be staffed by up to 1,400 people from the United States, Britain and Australia, it will increase the number of searchers in Iraq to about 300 from the current 200, Dayton said. Others will be involved in tasks ranging from analyzing documents to questioning people who may have knowledge of such weapons.
With offices in Baghdad, Qatar and Washington, the group will undertake other tasks including collecting information on terrorism, war crimes and prisoner of war issues, he said.
It will replace the U.S. military's 75th Exploitation Task Force, which has been looking for weapons for two months with no success despite visiting 220 of 900 suspected sites. A two-week transition period will begin no later than June 7.
"The goal is to put all the pieces together in what is appearing to be a very complex jigsaw puzzle," Dayton said.
But Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon it was too early to say whether the United States also had been wrong in charging that Iraq had chemical and biological arms when the invasion began 2-1/2 months ago.
"We were simply wrong," he said of the assessment that chemical shells or other weapons were ready in southern Iraq and likely to be used against invaders by Saddam's forces.
"Whether or not we are wrong at the national level I think still very much remains to be seen. ... 'Intelligence failure,' I think, is still too strong a word to use at this point," said Conway, speaking from the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have expressed confidence such weapons will be found, although Rumsfeld this week conceded Iraq may have decided to destroy them ahead of the invasion.
Conway said he was convinced when U.S. and British troops swept into Iraq from Kuwait that they would come under chemical or biological attack before they reached Baghdad.
But such shells have not been found even in ammunition storage sites. "It was a surprise to me then. It remains a surprise to me now that we have not uncovered weapons ... in some of the forward dispersal sites," said Conway. "Believe me, it's not for lack of trying."
© 2003 Reuters
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