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I have been looking on line for this article: Dafna Linzer-Associated Press June 9, and do not see it. If it is on line, could someone give the URL? Thanks. pg ----- Original Message ----- From: <VnStroope@aol.com> To: <soc-casi-discuss@lists.cam.ac.uk> Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 7:01 PM Subject: [casi] Hunt for Weapons slows in Iraq-Dafna Linzer-Associated Press > > [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] > > BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 9) - U.S. military units assigned to track down Iraqi > weapons of mass destruction have run out of places to look and are getting time > off or being assigned to other duties, even as pressure mounts on President > Bush to explain why no banned arms have been found. > > After nearly three months of fruitless searches, weapons hunters say they are > now waiting for a large team of Pentagon intelligence experts to take over > the effort, relying more on leads from interviews and documents. > > ``It doesn't appear there are any more targets at this time,'' said Lt. Col. > Keith Harrington, whose team has been cut by more than 30 percent. ``We're > hanging around with no missions in the foreseeable future.'' > > Over the past week, his and several other teams have been taken off > assignment completely. Rather than visit suspected weapons sites, they are brushing up > on target practice and catching up on letters home. > > Of the seven Site Survey Teams charged with carrying out the search, only two > have assignments for the coming week - but not at suspected weapons sites. > > Lt. Col. Ronald Haan, who runs team 6, is using the time to run his troops > through a training exercise. > > ``At least it's keeping the guys busy,'' he said. > > The slowdown comes after checks of more than 230 sites - drawn from a master > intelligence list compiled before the war - turned up none of the chemical or > biological weapons the Bush administration said it went after Saddam Hussein > to destroy. > > Still, President Bush insisted Monday that Baghdad had a program to make > weapons of mass destruction. ``Intelligence throughout the decade shows they had a > weapons program. I am absolutely convinced that with time, we'll find out > they did have a weapons program,'' he said. > > The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency said work will resume at a brisk > pace once its 1,300-person Iraq Survey Group takes over. > > Ahead of the war, planners were so certain of the intelligence that the > weapons teams were designed simply to secure chemical and biological weapons rather > than investigate their whereabouts, as U.N. inspectors had done. > > But without evidence of weapons, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have > begun reviewing the accuracy of information they supplied to the > administration before the March invasion of Iraq. Government inquiries are being set up in > Washington, London and other coalition countries to examine how possibly > flawed intelligence might have influenced the decision for war. > > ``The smoking guns just weren't lying out in the open,'' said David Gai, > spokesman for the Iraq Survey Group. ``There's a lot more detective work that > needs to be done.'' > > The group will work more along the model of U.N. weapons inspectors. > > Future sites in the search will be compiled from intelligence gathered in the > field, and the teams will be reconfigured to include more civilian scientists > and engineers, Gai said. > > Several former U.N. inspectors from the United States, Britain and Australia, > who know many of Iraq's top weapons experts, will also be brought in. > > Led by Keith Dayton, a two-star general from Defense intelligence, the Iraq > Survey Group is settling into headquarters in Qatar rather than Iraq. However, > it will maintain a large presence of analysts and experts on the same palace > grounds outside Baghdad where the weapons hunters are based. > > Several dozen staffers have moved to the palace and into other buildings, now > being turned into classified document centers, living quarters and office > space for the Iraq Survey Group. > > With prewar intelligence exhausted and senior figures from the former regime > insisting Iraq hasn't had chemical or biological weapons in years, Dayton's > staff will be starting from scratch. > > ``We've interviewed a fraction of the people who were involved. We've gone to > a fraction of the sites. We've gone through a fraction of thousands and > thousands and thousands of documents about this program,'' National Security > Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. > > Intelligence agents and weapons hunters have been speaking with scientists > and experts for the past month, but those interviews have not led the teams to > any illegal weapons and none of the tips provided by Iraqis have panned out. > > U.N. inspectors spent years learning the names and faces of the Iraqi weapons > programs. But in postwar Iraq, the Bush administration cut the organization > out of the hunt because of recent assessments that conflicted with Washington's > portrayal of Saddam's weapons. > > Relations soured further amid reports that U.S. troops failed to secure > Iraq's largest nuclear facility from looters. > > This week, a U.N. nuclear team returned to Iraq to survey the damage at > Tuwaitha - where 2 tons of uranium had been stored for more than a decade. They > began scanning the facility and its equipment for leaking radiation and signs of > missing uranium. > > One weapons team, specializing in nuclear materials, has been tasked to > accompany the U.N. experts until they leave on June 25. > > 06/09/03 15:46 EDT > > Roger Stroope > Austin College > Sherman Texas, USA > www.austincollege.edu > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk