The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #56410   Message #884283
Posted By: CarolC
06-Feb-03 - 05:16 PM
Thread Name: BS: Iraq: Report of The Smoking Gun
Subject: RE: BS: Iraq: Report of The Smoking Gun
5.Decides that Iraq shall provide UNMOVIC and the IAEA immediate, unimpeded, unconditional, and unrestricted access to any and all, including underground, areas, facilities, buildings, equipment, records, and means of transport which they wish to inspect, as well as immediate, unimpeded, unrestricted, and private access to all officials and other persons whom UNMOVIC or the IAEA wish to interview in the mode or location of UNMOVIC's or the IAEA's choice pursuant to any aspect of their mandates; further decides that UNMOVIC and the IAEA may at their discretion conduct interviews inside or outside of Iraq, may facilitate the travel of those interviewed and family members outside of Iraq, and that, at the sole discretion of UNMOVIC and the IAEA, such interviews may occur without the presence of observers from the Iraqi Government; and instructs UNMOVIC and requests the IAEA to resume inspections no later than 45 days following adoption of this resolution and to update the Council 60 days thereafter;

UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have the right at their sole discretion verifiably to remove, destroy, or render harmless all prohibited weapons, subsystems, components, records, materials, and other related items, and the right to impound or close any facilities or equipment for the production thereof; and

UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have the right to free import and use of equipment or materials for inspections and to seize and export any equipment, materials, or documents taken during inspections, without search of UNMOVIC or IAEA personnel or official or personal baggage;

These are the tools the inspectors were given in order to do their job of verifying wheter or not Saddam has complied with the prior order to disarm.

10.Requests all Member States to give full support to UNMOVIC and the IAEA in the discharge of their mandates, including by providing any information related to prohibited programmes or other aspects of their mandates, including on Iraqi attempts since 1998 to acquire prohibited items, and by recommending sites to be inspected, persons to be interviewed, conditions of such interviews, and data to be collected, the results of which shall be reported to the Council by UNMOVIC and the IAEA;

This article places a responsibility on the US to provide any intelligence or evidence it has about the whereabouts of any WMDs that the US believes Saddam has contrary to anything he has told the inspectors about his compliance with the UN resolutions.

If Saddam says he has complied with the resolutions, the US government isn't in a positions to refute what Saddam has said unless it has evidence to the contrary. If it has such evidence, the US is compelled to supply it to the inspection teams. And when the inspection teams have this information, they are authorized to use it to find and destroy whatever WMDs or other prohibited weapons Saddam has.

It's time for the US to let the inspectors do their job unimpeded by the US and Britain.