Iraq Inspectors Mark First Month
U.N. arms experts marked the first month of resumed inspections Friday by visiting two sites, including an engineering factory that is linked to Iraq's Military Industrialization Committee.
The inspectors went to the al-Nasr al-Atheem State Company in Baghdad, a plant formerly known as the State Heavy Engineering Company, the Iraqi Information Ministry said. The visit was a follow-up to one on Dec. 16. Much of its equipment has dual civilian and military uses.
In their second visit Friday, the inspectors went to al-Assriya Company, an old Baghdad factory that produces arak — an anis seed-based spirit that is virtually the national alcoholic beverage of Iraq, the Information Ministry said.
During the inspections in the 1990s, after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War, the United Nations destroyed tons of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
However, the inspectors do not believe they had found all of Iraq's banned arsenal by the time they left ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes in late 1998. After the airstrikes, Iraq refused to allow the inspectors to return and insisted it had no weapons of mass destruction.
The new round of inspections is being carried out under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 that entitles the inspectors to visit any facility or property at any time.
The United States and Britain have threatened war to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. The new resolution threatens serious consequences if Iraq is found to have nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or if Iraq fails to cooperate with inspectors.
So far, reviews of Iraqi cooperation have been mixed.
Nearly 200 sites have been checked, but there are still hundreds of others yet to be examined. On one occasion earlier this month, the inspectors had difficulty gaining access to certain rooms in a Baghdad facility on a Friday as the officials with the keys were at home for the Muslim sabbath.
Iraq promised this week to hand over a list of hundreds of others for questioning — as U.N. experts are allowed to request — but hinted if any of them leave the country with inspectors, they would be unpatriotic.
Last week, an Iraqi weapons declaration was said by top inspectors to be contradictory and incomplete, leading the United States to declare Iraq in "material breach" of its obligations, a finding that could justify war.
While U.S. officials have ruled out an immediate attack, it appears war plans are being readied for early next year. There are increasing signs that Iraqis are preparing for that war.
In a Friday prayers sermon broadcast live on Iraqi state television, a preacher in a Baghdad mosque railed against U.S. pressure on the country.
"God rescue us from the Americans," said Abdel-Razaq Al-Saadi in the Abdel-Qader Al-Kailani Mosque. "It has become the duty of every Muslim to stand in the face of this American Satan, and to say 'No'."
The Iraqi army said Thursday it has been holding exercises in central Iraq aimed at countering an American attack. The soldiers showed they were ready "to foil the schemes of America and its evil allies," according to an official of the ruling Baath party.
CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports the Iraqi government announced Thursday that beginning in January, it will increase food rations to allow families to stockpile supplies.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the looming confrontation, the diplomatic and military build-up to possible war also moved forward.
On Thursday, U.S.-British planes bombed Iraqi military command and communication targets in southern Iraq in retaliation for Iraq's downing of a U.S. reconnaissance drone earlier in the week. The Iraqi government said three civilians were killed.
Two top U.S. officials met with Turkish treasury and finance officials Friday to discuss measures to buffer the Turkish economy if there is war in neighboring Iraq. According to the daily Hurriyet newspaper on Friday, Turkish officials will ask for $28 billion in aid from the United States to protect the crisis-ridden economy.
Meanwhile, NATO's chief said Thursday the alliance has a "moral obligation" to support the United States if it goes to war against Iraq.
NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said NATO "is very, very supportive of the United Nations process and if that breaks down then clearly there is a moral obligation by NATO to give whatever support is required.