re: us gives up wmd hunt, the war a scam BUT US NOW WANTS UN...

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    re: us gives up wmd hunt, the war a scam BUT US NOW WANTS UN SCALP

    US gives up search for banned weapons in Iraq

    13.01.05 8.15am
    by Will Dunham


    WASHINGTON - The US force that scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction has abandoned its long and fruitless hunt and is assisting in the more immediate task of counter-insurgency efforts, US officials said on Wednesday.

    President George W Bush and other US officials cited the grave threat posed by Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and Baghdad's efforts to acquire a nuclear arms capability as a central justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. No such weapons have been found.

    The 1700-strong Iraq Survey Group, responsible for the hunt, last month wrapped up physical searches for weapons of mass destruction, and its mission is now refocussed on gathering information to help US forces in Iraq win a bloody guerrilla war, officials said.

    "You can only search so many places for WMD," said a defence official, who added that the ISG continues to review documents and interview people knowledgeable about deposed President Saddam Hussein's arms programmes for possible leads.

    Charles Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who led the ISG's weapons search, has returned home and is expected next month to issue a final addendum to his September report concluding that prewar Iraq had no WMD stockpiles, officials said.

    "While the actual physical search is over for all intents and purposes, it's not closed in the sense that while this (document exploitation) operation continues ... if they stumble upon something in the course of that effort that says the stash is there, they are certainly going to run out there and look for it," said another US official.

    The US official, who asked not to be named, added that the team that had conducted the actual physical search was back home.

    The defence official, who also asked not to be named, said Marine Corps Brigadier General Joseph McMenamin was replaced last month as the ISG's military head by an officer of lesser rank. The defence official said Air Force Colonel Lloyd Somers is now serving as acting director of the ISG.

    Duelfer's role as the CIA's special adviser on Iraqi WMD is unchanged, an official said.

    "The mission is weighted differently to providing intelligence support to the MNFI," said the defence official, referring to Multi-National Force-Iraq, the US military command there.

    "Obviously, I would say that counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism is kind of job number 1 over there for everybody," the official added.

    US forces are locked in a bloody struggle with insurgents in Iraq, and the US military death toll since the invasion stands at more than 1350, with 10,000 more American troops wounded.

    The Washington Post first reported that the ISG had ended its weapons search and said the White House had been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons had been shipped out of Iraq before the war or well hidden inside the country.

    White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that he believed "a few people" in the ISG were still focused on finding any weapons of mass destruction.

    "(Duelfer) is continuing to wrap things up at this point on an addendum to the report which will be issued some time next month," McClellan said. "That's not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report."

    The Duelfer report concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and its nuclear programme had decayed before last year's US-led invasion.

    The findings are contrary to prewar assertions by the Bush administration, which stated in the run-up to the war that Saddam possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, was actively reconstituting his nuclear arms programme, and might provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists to attack America.

    - REUTERS

    US turns on Annan over Iraq aid

    13.01.05
    by Saul Hudson


    WASHINGTON - The Bush Administration, which earlier backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal, yesterday demanded he be held accountable for mismanagement in the programme.

    "What we have heard, so far, is that there were serious problems inside the UN on the management of this.

    "We're not sure if there were criminal problems, but there were certainly management problems," said outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

    "And the Secretary-General will have to be accountable for those management problems," he added.

    UN internal auditors have found management lapses in the now-defunct, US$64 billion ($92.7 billion) programme, although they found no corruption among individual UN officials.

    The spotlight on Annan has intensified this week after Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, who is conducting an independent probe of the programme, released more than 50 internal UN reports.

    Although the Bush Administration was slower than other major Governments to back Annan as the scandal mushroomed last year, it has resisted echoing some calls in Washington for Annan to resign.

    Powell's criticism yesterday was noteworthy because it came from the Cabinet official believed to be most supportive of Annan.

    Still, the top US diplomat sought to soften the blow by praising Annan and defusing his criticism.

    "I think Kofi Annan is a very distinguished gentleman. He has served the cause of humanity well over the years," he said.

    "The responsibility does not rest entirely on Kofi Annan. It also rests on the membership.

    "And especially on the Security Council and we are a member of the Security Council. It is the Security Council," he added.

    On Tuesday, the State Department said it would release documents to Volcker's panel after he complained the Bush Administration had baulked at its requests.

    The programme began in December 1996 to allow Iraq to sell oil and buy civilian goods as an effort to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

    Volcker criticised the UN audits for failing to examine contracts more thoroughly for the "potential use of oil and humanitarian contracts by the former regime to gather illicit payments ... a major concern".

    The UN audits found three big inspection firms who looked at oil flows and incoming goods had overcharged the world body by about US$5 million.

    But they did not probe former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's kickbacks on oil and other contracts.

    Charles Duelfer, a US arms expert for Iraq who did a detailed survey for the CIA, has said Saddam earned US$1.5 billion from kickbacks through the UN programme.

    Duelfer said a further US$10.9 billion was garnered from selling oil illegally, with the knowledge of Security Council members, including the United States.

    - REUTERS

 
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