Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?
U.N. Expert Disputes U.S.
BY LORNA TYCHOSTUP
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The Bush administration is gearing up to invade Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. Scott Ritter, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in Iraq as a senior United Nations weapons inspector from 1991 to 1998, argues that Iraq has no such capacity. The following are excerpts from a March 18, 2002 interview with Ritter.

-Editor

Scott Ritter: We had monitoring inspection teams in every major Iraqi industrial facility for over four years. Never once could we state that we had evidence or proof that Iraq was in possession of prohibited weapons.

The major factories that produced weapons of mass destruction were identified and destroyed. The production equipment associated with the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction was identified and destroyed. The vast majority of the weapons produced by these factories were identified and destroyed. This means that [in 1998] Iraq was no longer capable of producing biological or chemical weapons, or nuclear weapons or long-range ballistic missiles.

Even if Saddam wanted to rebuild these weapons programs, he doesn't have the ability to. Because of the economic sanctions, he doesn't have the money or access to the technology. He no longer has the industrial infrastructure. This industrial infrastructure lends itself to detection by the very capable intelligence capabilities-not only of the U.S.-but the rest of the world. And nobody has detected such capability.

But what is clear is that the U.S. has a policy that is more focused on the removal of Saddam Hussein than the elimination of his weapons of mass destruction. Weapons inspections were convenient to the U.S. only so far as they assisted in their efforts to isolate, contain and destabilize Saddam Hussein. The second the inspectors can account for Iraq's weapons, that they can certify that Iraq no longer has viable weapons programs-that's when the U.S. will manipulate the process [by] using the inspectors to deliberately provoke confrontation and crisis and to spy on Iraq.

Lorna Tychostup is an editor, writer and photographer in Gardiner, NY.