Iraq's threat to peace and security

[Terrance]

That's word play. Iraq is a threat to peace and security. We're talking
about Iraq, the nation that had a long and bloody war with Iran and used
WMD in that war. Iraq is the same nation that invaded Kuwait and burned
the place up on the way out. Iraq is the same nation that used WMD to
kill 5,000 Kurds. The same leadership is still in place. Iraq is a
threat to international peace and security. Let's admit that because
it's a fact. Effective policy must be governed by facts, not word play.
Of course the Bush administration and the Congress are not playing with
words so much as the facts. The US, 
its current Administration, the Congress, the Military want war with
Iraq. To stop them we can't play with words or the facts. 

What are the facts? 

Fact is, most of the facts we would like to have we simply don't have.
That's why people play with words about the facts or play with the facts
we have. Untenable indeed! 

BTW, National Geographic has a wonderful piece on WMD in the current
issue. 

Words and Facts about WMD

What are "weapons of mass destruction"? 
Well, they include nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. But these
are not the same. And they are certainly not equal. Not equal as threats
to security and peace. 

Iraq has chemical weapons. And Iraq has used them. There is no reason to
believe that Iraq will refrain from using them in the future, either as
a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world or as 
weapons in war or conflict. In 1988, Iraq killed 5,000 people with
chemical weapons. Thousands died in the Iran-Iraq war from chemical
weapons. 
Inspections by the United Nations revealed that Iraq had one of the most
extensive chemical weapons capabilities in the developing world. By the
Gulf War, Iraq had produced sufficient quantities of chemical precursors
for almost 500 metric tons of the nerve agent VX and hundreds of metric
tons of tabun, sarin, and mustard gas. Iraq had weaponized mortal
shells, artillery shells, grenades, aerial bombs and rockets for
chemical use and deployed 50 missiles equipped with potent chemical
warheads. U.N. officials have publicly expressed their doubts that the
entire Iraqi stockpile of chemical weapons was found. Rough estimates
conclude that Iraq may have retained up to 600 metric tons of agents,
including VX, mustard gas and sarin. There are thousands of possible
chemical munitions still unaccounted for.

Biological Weapons

Until August 1990, the Iraqi biological weapon capability had been
expanding and diversifying at a steady pace. The biological weapon
program included a broad range of agents and delivery systems. Pathogens
produced included both lethal agents (e.g., anthrax, botulinum toxin and
ricin) and incapacitating agents (e.g., aflatoxin, mycotoxins,
hemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus and rotavirus). UNSCOM reports
indicated that Iraq had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax, 20,000 liters
of botulinum, 2,200 liters of aflatoxin, and the biological agent ricin.
The Iraqi BW program explored and developed a broad range of  weapon
delivery systems, including aerial bombs, rockets, missiles and spray
tanks. In December of 1990, Iraq began the large-scale weaponization of
biological agents that lasted through the end of the Gulf War and
included more than 160 aerial bombs and 25 filled warheads for the
600-kilometer-range Al Hussein missiles.
UNSCOM repeatedly reported that Iraq had failed to provide a full and
correct account of its biological weapon program. UNSCOM remained
concerned that
Iraq may have retained a stock of biological weapons and related
manufacturing capabilities as late as 1997. In the absence of
inspections, it is likely that Iraq retains stockpiles of anthrax,
botulinum toxin and
aflatoxin. There are numerous unconfirmed reports of Iraq's research
into and
possible production of other agents.

Bilogical weapons can be far more dangerous than chemical weapons, but
are not as  dangerous as the possession or use of a nuclear weapons. 

Nukes

Drawing on his personal experience, Dr. Khidhir Hamza spoke candidly
about Iraq's clandestine development of nuclear weapons, and his own
crucial part in the program. A nuclear physicist trained in the United
States, Dr. Hamza was brought back to Iraq by the
Baathist regime, in order to develop a nuclear bomb. A
copy of the Manhattan Project report, which he found
in an Iraqi library, provided an early blueprint for Iraq's
nuclear weapons program. 

The effort to acquire nuclear weapons continued, he
said, with some success even after the end of the
Persian Gulf War. Dr. Hamza fled Iraq in 1994. He
strongly believes that Saddam Hussein's quest to
dominate the Middle East with the acquisition of
nuclear weapons continues undeterred. A team of
qualified Iraqi scientists and technicians enables this
effort. 


Iraq ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1969, pledging not to
manufacture nuclear weapons and agreeing to place all its nuclear
materials and
facilities under safeguards. Soon thereafter, Iraq began violating its
NPT
obligations by secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon program. The program
was centered
around the Osiraq research reactor purchased from France in 1976, which
was capable of irradiating uranium to produce significant quantities of
plutonium. Saddam Hussein planned to slowly extract enough plutonium for
a bomb. Israel's preemptive strike on the reactor in June 1981 did not
end
Iraq's program, but expanded it.

Khadir Hamza says, "Israel made a mistake." The bombing ended the
plutonium effort but began a new program to produce highly-enriched
uranium. "At the beginning we had
approximately five hundred people working, which increased to seven
thousand working after the Israeli bombing. The secret program became a
much larger and ambitious program." After the war, International Atomic
Energy Agency inspectors supervised the destruction of most of the
nuclear weapon program facilities and removed all weapon-usable nuclear
material
from Iraq. In 1998, the IAEA reaffirmed that there were no indications
that Iraq had achieved its objective of producing nuclear weapons, nor
were
there indications that Iraq had produced more than a few grams of
weapon-usable nuclear material or had otherwise acquired such material.
It also
reported that there were no indications that there remained in Iraq any
physical
capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any
practical
significance and that the IAEA had removed all weapon-usable nuclear
material (research reactor fuel) from Iraq.

However, Iraq may have secretly reconstructed some nuclear capabilities.
Some experts believe Saddam may have a workable design for a weapon, but
no
official report claims that he yet has the material to put in it. CIA
officials told the Senate in March 2002, that Iraq, unconstrained, would
need several
years to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon. But, these
estimates
are not facts. And history demonstrates that nation states produce
nuclear weapons much
faster than the most conservative estimates have predicted. 

Prevent the War. Inspect Iraq.