Bush warns Iraq over arms as Sunday deadline looms
( 2002-12-03 09:38 ) (7 )

US President Bush stepped up his war of words on Iraq to come clean on whether it possessed weapons of mass destruction by a UN Sunday deadline, or reject the chance of peace.

Bush delivered his warning on Monday in a speech to military leaders at the Pentagon, already laying plans to go to war against Baghdad if it fails to disarm, as UN arms inspectors said they had hit a snag with Iraq over missing equipment.

"Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance, and has rejected the path of peace," said Bush.

In Denver, Vice President Dick Cheney put Iraq in the same enemy camp as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, the main target so far of Washington's "war on terrorism" after last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said in a speech.

"Either Saddam Hussein will fully comply with the United Nations...or the United States with a coalition of other nations will disarm Saddam Hussein," Cheney said.

The Sunday deadline for Iraq to give the United Nations a list of weapons programs could well determine whether Bush marches on toward a possible military attack against Iraq. Iraq suspects Washington is looking for a pretext for a war.

Iraq has pledged full cooperation with the UN inspectors, who returned to Iraq last week to search for any chemical, biological and nuclear arms under a tough UN Security Council resolution that gives Baghdad one last chance to disarm.

Baghdad has denied possessing these banned weapons but Washington says Iraq has them.

MISSING EQUIPMENT

So far in five days of searches, UN arms inspectors have found no evidence of the weapons.

But in a swoop on suspect sites on Monday, they said they discovered some equipment and several UN monitoring cameras were missing from a missile factory.

In a statement, the inspectors said the equipment, tagged by previous inspection teams, was no longer at the Karamah (Dignity) compound in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said it had either been destroyed in Western bombing or moved elsewhere, the inspectors said.

A UN source declined to comment on how serious the matter was, but said Iraq had informed inspectors where remaining equipment had been placed. "When the time comes, our inspectors will verify their claims," the source told Reuters.

Bush, at the Pentagon to sign a defense bill providing extra billions for the "war on terrorism," was reluctant to call the first UN inspections in Iraq in four years a success.

"So far the signs are not encouraging," said Bush, citing Baghdad's firing on US and British warplanes enforcing "no-fly" zones over southern and northern Iraq and letters he said were "filled with protests and falsehoods" that Saddam's government had sent to the United Nations.

US and Iraqi officials said US and British warplanes had attacked targets in the northern "no-fly" zone in a second raid in two days against Iraqi air defenses.

Bush has threatened to lead a "coalition of the willing" to disarm Iraq if Baghdad fails to give up alleged weapons programs.

BRITAIN ENTERS FRAY

America's staunch ally Britain on Monday stepped up its own war of words, releasing a 23-page dossier accusing Saddam of rights abuses.

The dossier accused the Iraqi leadership of systematic torture, including acid baths, rape and mass executions, and said Saddam had a "cruel and callous disregard for human life."

In one of the longest inspections of a single site to date, inspectors spent just over six hours on Monday at Karamah, run by Iraq's Military Industrialization Commission in the Wazireyah industrial district of the capital.

It was one of Iraq's main missile development sites before it was placed on long-term monitoring by previous inspection teams. UN experts said the facility was currently an engineering design and research and development site.

Brigadier Mohammad Saleh Mohammad, commander of the compound, told reporters the facility was involved in the production of missiles permitted by UN Security Council resolutions. Iraq is allowed to have only missiles with a range of 90 miles or less.

Last week inspectors said UN monitoring equipment at one site had either been destroyed or taken away by Iraqi authorities in the four years inspectors were out of the country. But the United Nations said it was not a problem since much of the equipment was now outdated.

Another complaint of missing equipment at a foot-and-mouth vaccination laboratory south of Baghdad last week was resolved after Iraqi minders drove inspectors to see the site where the equipment had been moved to.

One inspection team spent about 90 minutes on Monday at private distilleries that produce alcoholic drinks near Khan Abi Sa'ad, some 20 miles northeast of Baghdad. It was not immediately clear why the team went there.