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Iraq's point of view on the article I forwarded at the end of a message yesterday: ------------------------------------------------ Aziz Refutes CNN Report on IRAQ'S Secret Missile BAGHDAD (Nov. 30) XINHUA - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz Monday refuted a report of the American Cable News Network (CNN) on Iraq's secret Missile program. In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Aziz said he followed Monday's CNN program which said Iraq tried to buy "highly sophisticated missile technology" from Romania and Russia. Aziz said the CNN report involved two events which took place in 1995, adding that one event was concerned with an individual's conduct, in which the Iraqi government was not involved and the other was a sheer lie. "They are speaking about it as if it is a current issue. This was an event that took place in 1995," said Aziz, adding that "a joint investigation conducted by the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) and Iraq shows that Iraqi government is not involved." The deputy premier said that "all Iraq's facilities that work in the missile area are under daily surveillance. Everyday, they (U.N. arms inspectors) go and check them. So no proscribed activities could be conducted without the acknowledge by UNSCOM." Aziz said UNSCOM had never reported to the U.N. Security Council on any event that showed Iraq did not comply with strict U.N. resolutions. "CNN is an American television. They go to that television and make an allegation. These allegations are not put on the table of the Security Council so that we could present our case," he said. "This is American propaganda against Iraq," Aziz said, arguing that "if there is such a case as they alleged, why did not they bring it to the table of the Security Council as a violation by Iraq for the Council to consider." In the same CNN report, UNSCOM Deputy Chairman Charles Duelfer alleged that "Iraq was successfully deceiving UNSCOM." In response, Aziz said that "you can expect from American deputy chief of UNSCOM to speak against Iraq, that is his job. He was appointed by the American government in this job, as deputy chairman of UNSCOM, to keep the sanctions on Iraq and to distort the image of Iraq." "So I am not surprised to hear that from Duelfer," Aziz added. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html