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Powell describes Iraq’s ‘web of lies’
In an 11th-hour effort aimed at swaying opinion at home and
abroad, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United
Nations on Wednesday that Iraq has made no effort to disarm as
demanded by the international community.
Feb. 5 -- The setting was the U.N. Security Council, but the
audience was the world as Secretary of State Colin Powell spelled
out the administration’s case against Saddam Hussein. NBC’s Andrea
Mitchell reports.
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 5 — Setting the stage for a final diplomatic
showdown on Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell prosecuted
Washington’s case for immediate action against Baghdad at the United
Nations on Wednesday. Armed with secretly recorded conversations and spy
photos, Powell documented what he described as a “web of lies” by Iraq,
which he said offered “irrefutable and undeniable” evidence of Baghdad’s
defiance of the U.N.’s call for disarmament. The charges were rejected by
Iraqi officials, while the key members of the Security Council indicated
they were not swayed by the U.S. presentation.
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View slides used in Powell's presentation and hear the secretary of
state make his points.
“CLEARLY, SADDAM will stop at nothing until something stops him,”
Powell told a skeptical council.
“For Saddam Hussein, possession of the world’s most deadly weapons
is the ultimate trump card, the one he must hold to fulfill his ambition.”
Three months after Iraq pledged that it would disarm, Powell gave
his evidence in an appearance that was televised live around the world.
The council members — joined by Iraq’s U.N. ambassador — sat around a
large circular table with Powell and listened attentively.
Powell buttressed the U.S. case — a detailed audio-visual
presentation that relied on declassified intelligence — by saying that the
United Nations risked undermining its status as a global body if it did
not act to address Iraqi noncompliance.
“I believe the conclusion is irreparable and undeniable,” Powell
declared. “Iraq has now put itself in danger of the serious consequences
called for in U.N. Resolution 1441, and this body places itself in danger
of irrelevancy if it allows Iraq to continue to defy its will without
responding effectively and immediately.”
Read full text of Powell speech
Iraq swiftly denounced the presentation. Iraq’s ambassador to the
United Nations, Mohammed al-Douri, characterized Powell’s information as
“utterly unrelated to the truth,” and he particularly questioned the
veracity of the audio recordings presented by the United States.
In Baghdad, Saddam’s adviser Lt. Gen. Amir al-Saadi attempted a
point-by-point rebuttal of Powell’s charges. He derided the audio evidence
as something “any third-rate intelligence outfit” could have produced
while rejecting the satellite photos as “cartoon films.”
Iraq and al-Qaida?
Feb. 5 — For the first time, the Bush administration provided
details for what it has always insisted was a connection between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports.
MINDS UNCHANGED
• The issues
• U.S. troop deployments
• The order of battle
• Behind the U.N.
• Iraq's exiles
• Pictures of Saddam's Iraq
In addition to Iraq, the 14 members of the Security Council were
given five minutes each to respond to Powell’s speech. And based on the
response of the key veto-wielding nations, the United States has its work
cut out for it in winning broad support for any quick military action
against Saddam.
Coming to Powell’s defense was British Foreign Minister Jack Straw,
who said the secretary made a “most powerful” case. Saddam is “gambling
that we will lose our nerve rather than enforce our will,” Straw said.
In a more than hour-long presentation, Powell also detailed the
U.S. claims that Baghdad and al-Qaida operatives are working together and
that some followers of a senior lieutenant of Osama bin Laden are
currently in the Iraqi capital, with the approval of Saddam.
Saddam, in an interview broadcast Tuesday in London, denied his
government has a relationship with al-Qaida or has weapons of mass
destruction. He said it would be impossible to hide such arms.
Skeptics not swayed
‘ENOUGH, ENOUGH’
Powell presented his case in a rapid-fire delivery, moving from
tape recordings to photos and other evidence without pause.
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He said his case was persuasive that Iraq is hiding its chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons programs and missile activity and was
deliberately misleading inspectors. “I believe this conclusion is
irrefutable and undeniable,” he said.
“The issue before us is not how much time we are willing to give
the inspectors to be frustrated by Iraqi obstruction, but how much longer
are we willing to put up with Iraq’s noncompliance before we as a Council,
we as the United Nations say: ‘Enough. Enough.’”
As for al-Qaida links, Powell said members of a group have been
operating freely in Baghdad for eight months.
“Iraq harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab
Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of bin Laden and his al-Qaida
lieutenant.” Zarqawi is connected with Ansar al-Islam, a group that
operates in northern Iraq outside the control of Baghdad.
But Powell said Zarqawi spent two months in Baghdad in May and June
2002 for medical treatment and that some members of his groups were now
based in the Iraqi capital.
RECALLING 1441
How did Colin Powell do in his U.N. presentation?
He made a convincing case for the U.S. to attack Iraq with or
without U.N. support.
He provided some new information, but not enough for the U.S. to go
it alone.
His case was so weak that the U.N. should consider suspending arms
inspections.
Vote to see results
How did Colin Powell do in his U.N. presentation?
* 170226 responses
He made a convincing case for the U.S. to attack Iraq with or
without U.N. support.
70%
He provided some new information, but not enough for the U.S. to go
it alone.
26%
His case was so weak that the U.N. should consider suspending arms
inspections.
4%
Survey results tallied every 60 seconds. Live Votes reflect
respondents' views and are not scientifically valid surveys.
As he opened his presentation, Powell reminded the council that it
had voted unanimously last Nov. 8 for a resolution — U.N. Resolution 1441
— that “gave Iraq one last chance to come into compliance or to face
serious consequences.”
“No Council member present...had any illusion...what serious
consequences meant,” he said.
Following a White House breakfast that Bush had with congressional
leaders in advance of Powell’s presentation, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware
said: “If I had this evidence before a jury that was an unbiased jury, I
could get a conviction.”
But Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee,
said “we’re talking about a different stage. (Powell) has a tougher jury
and there is a lot of skepticism that exists in the international
community.”
2ND RESOLUTION?
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell noted that State Department officials see
Powell’s presentation as focusing on persuading the European skeptics
while the White House hopes he makes a persuasive case to the American
public.
The administration sees Powell as the most credible U.S. official
for most foreign leaders while he also has high popularity here at home.
fact file
Powell's points
•Intercepted conversations•Missing documents
•Satellite photos•Hidden scientists
•Mobile bio-weapon production labs•Chemical weapons
•Nuclear evidence•Al-Qaida
Secretary of State Colin Powell called Iraq's denials a “web of
lies,” during his Feb. 5 speech before the U.N. Security Council.
Click above for highlights of what Powell labeled “irrefutable and
undeniable” evidence that Saddam Hussein is concealing weapons of
mass destruction.
Powell played several tapes of intercepted communications between
officers puportedly discussing hiding data from weapons inspectors.
The first involved two officers in the Republican Guard discussing a
modified vehicle which Powell said was involved in a chemical or
biological weapons program.
Officer 1: "We have this modified vehicle."
Officer 2: "I’m worried you all have something left."
Officer 1: "We evacuated everything. We don’t have anything left.
Powell asserted that all Iraqi organizations were ordered to hide
their correspondence with the Organization of Military
Industrialization. This organization, experts believe, oversees
Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction activities. Powell also said that
Iraqi weapons facilities have had their hard drives replaced and
that government officials and scientists have been ordered to keep
prohibited items in their home, citing the recent discovery of 2,000
pages of documents recovered in the home of an Iraqi scientist.
Among the satellite photos revealed by Powell
A munitions facility in Taji suspected of housing chemical
munitions. One photo reveals decontamination vehicles, a sign,
according to Powell, of chemical activity. The second taken on Dec.
22, 2002 shortly before the arrival of weapons inspectors, shows the
area cleaned up.
A suspected ballistic missile site. A Nov. 10 photo shows a cargo
truck preparing to move ballistic missile components.
A Nov. 25 photo of a suspected biological weapons related facility
shows a truck caravan, two days before inspections resumed. Powell
said this type of "house cleaning" occured at almost 30 sites.
Iraq, according to Powell, has prevented weapons inspectors from
interviewing Iraqi scientists. The methods included replacing
scientists with intelligence agents. Powell said that this happened
at one facility in mid-December. On another occasion, Iraqi
officials issued a false death certificate for one scientist. Powell
also said that a dozen experts have been placed under house arrest.
Powell said that interviews with defectors has revealed the
existence of mobile weapons productions labs. According to Powell,
the labs -- trucks and train cars -- are capable of producing a
quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq
claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War.
Powell repeated the point that Iraq has yet to account for vast
amounts of chemical weaponry including 550 artillery shells armed
with mustard gas and 6,500 bombs from the Iran-Iraq war. He accused
Iraq of embedding key portions of its illicit chemical weapons
infrastructure within its legitimate civilian industry.
Backing up his argument, Powell produced an intercepted conversation
of one officer asking a second to remove any mention of "nerve
agents" from correspondence.
Powell said Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a
nuclear bomb and has made repeated covert attempts to acquire
high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries, even
after inspections resumed. While Powell noted that there have been
differences of opinion over the tubes, he said U.S. experts believe
the high-tolerance tubes were acquired for only one purpose, to
advance Iraq’s illicit nuclear program.
Powell described a “sinister nexus” between Iraq and the terrorist
network. As evidence, he said Iraq harbored a network headed by Abu
Musab Al-Zarqawi, a collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida
lieutenants. He also noted Iraqi support for anti-Israeli groups,
including Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Front.
Printable version
Following his address, the United States will evaluate the response
to Powell before deciding how much to invest in seeking a second U.N.
resolution that would give more explicit authorization for military
action.
Mitchell reported that the State Department wants to take more time
to work the diplomatic angle, although other U.S. officials are reluctant
to stretch out the U.N. negotiations beyond a few weeks.
Meantime, in a related development, the Vatican announced Wednesday
that Pope John Paul II plans to meet with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister
Tariq Aziz on Feb. 14, the very day weapons inspectors are to deliver
progress reports to the U.N. Security Council.
The assessment by chief inspector Hans Blix and head nuclear
inspector Mohamed ElBaradei could help swing the diplomatic balance on
war.
In a brief statement, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said
Aziz had requested the meeting with John Paul, and that the pope had
agreed to see him.
The Vatican has been outspoken in its opposition to a new conflict
against Iraq, with top officials saying a preventive strike would have no
legal or moral justification, and warning that it could unleash
anti-Christian sentiment in the Muslim world.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Linda Fasulo at the United Nations, as
well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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