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25.09.02, 19:27
Iraq takes journalists on tour to expose Blair 'lies'
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
25 September 2002
Iraq crisis
Read the full report
Fifty-three Labour MPs rebel despite Blair's assurances
Left-wingers rebel as MPs tell Blair not to bypass UN
Clergy clash with former military commanders
Designed to keep hawks and doves happy
Backbench Tories break ranks from their leader
Few revelations, but enough detail to stoke the fears
Muted reaction as UN prepares resolution
Iraq takes journalists on tour to expose Blair 'lies'
Iraq has the expertise, Saddam has the desire
Gore ends silence with outspoken attack on Bush
The Lawyer: A flawed document, and the price to preserve unity
The Inspector: Inspectors will need to test access pledges
David Aaronovitch: We've seen the evidence. Now go back to the UN
Robert Fisk: The dishonesty of this so-called dossier
The Sketch: No evidence, no rebellion: a supreme act of parliamentary
management
Al Gore: The United States has squandered the world's goodwill
Leading article: Mr Blair has failed to make the case for war
At the al-Qa'qa complex, 30 miles south of Baghdad, one of Iraq's main
centres for producing nerve agents – according to Tony Blair's "dossier" –
the director-general, Sinan Rasim Said, declared yesterday he would welcome
United Nations inspectors to expose the "lies".
Saddam Hussein's regime responded to the British report about its alleged
acquisition of a nuclear, chemical and biological arsenal with accusations
of "baseless fabrications and zionist conspiracy", and demanded that the
document should be handed over to the UN monitors for examination.
Within two hours and 10 minutes of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction – The
Assessment of the British Government appearing on the internet, the Baghdad
authorities were taking a group of British journalists to see the sites of
alleged manufacture and storage named in the document.
One was the al-Qa'qa chemical complex, the site of the execution of British
journalist Farzad Bazoft on spying charges in March 1990, and the other the
Amariyeh Sera vaccine plant at Abu Ghraib, a suburb of the capital. We, the
journalists, chose both locations and neither had been visited before by the
media.
Al-Qa'qa, according to the British dossier, was severely damaged in the Gulf
War but has "been repaired and (is) also operational. Of particular concern
are elements of the phosgene production plant. They were dismantled under
Unscom supervision, but have since been rebuilt. While phosgene does have
industrial use, it can also be used by itself as a chemical agent or as a
precursor for nerve agent," according to the dossier.
Unscom had established that the Amariyah Sera site "was used to store
biological agents, seed stocks and conduct biological warfare associated
genetic research prior to the Gulf War. It has now expanded its storage
capacity".
At al-Qa'qa, a 26 square kilometer military establishment, Mr Said insisted
that no part of the plant had ever been dismantled by Unscom.
He said that the work was solely to produce centralit, a stabliser for
gunpowder used in a variety of legal, conventional weaponry from artillery to
small arms. Phosgene, he claimed, was generated as a result of making
centralit, and could not be extracted from the manufacturing equipment, let
alone be used for making nerve agents.
"Unscom knew all along what we are doing, it was done with their
authorisation, and they carried out regular inspections", he said sitting in
the boardroom, beside a portrait of President Hussein. Producing an Unscom
letter from "Harald Marhold, Chief Inspector CG-15", dated 13 August 1998
authorising maintenance work, he continued "they did not dismantle anything
here. Mr Blair's report is totally wrong."
"We knew the Unscom people well, one was an English guy called Steve, all the
British have to do is ask them. The UN keeps records, it would have been easy
to find out." Al-Qa'qa was also bombed by the United States and British
warplanes, during Operation Desert Storm, in 1998. "They destroyed boiler
rooms and a storage area, They did not bother to bomb the part of the plant
where there's phosgene, because they knew we can't make use of it," Mr Said
said.
Orange smoke belched from chimneys at the plant. Vapours escaped through the
pipes containing the phosgene, Mr Said pointed out, sloshing through pools of
murky water on the floor. The phosgene was being stored in cooling tanks.
"Unscom put stickers on pieces of equipment to ensure that they cannot be
used for dual use, and as you can see, we have kept them," he said. "We have
given detailed reports every year since the inspectors left in 1998. They are
available for the inspectors. We want them to come and expose these lies as
soon as possible." However, like the majority of Iraqis we have spoken to, Mr
Said did not believe war could be avoided. "I think the Americans will bomb
this place again, and use this false report as one of the excuses," he said.
Amir al Sa'adi, a senior Iraqi weapons expert, accused Mr Blair of singling
out the plant because it could produce propellant powder for weapons from
pistols to artillery guns for Iraqi air defenses.
At Amariyah Sera, the director, Karim Obeid, disputed that Unscom had found
it was used for biological warfare associated genetic research or store
biological agents. "They were coming here ever since the Gulf War until they
left, and they have never accused us of any of those things in that time," he
said. "All our work was done with their supervision." The complex, he said,
was used for "for testing typhoid fever".
These are all standard practices, the inspectors are welcome to see them,"
said Mr Obeid, who added he was morally opposed to biological warfare "both
as a scientist and a human being".
The storage capacity had indeed been increased, as the report claimed, he
said, showing us what he said were the two additional structures.
One was a large mostly empty room. The first room, said Mr Obeid was used to
store solutions for blood tests, imported from the Melat pharmaceutical
company in France. The second room was stacked with empty bottles of various
brands of vaccine.