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Source: U.S. to offer intelligence to U.N. inspectors
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration "has agreed to offer" United Nations weapons inspectors "a variety of reconnaissance and surveillance equipment" they might need for their efforts in Iraq, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official. The official said the Pentagon and the United Nations have had a number of discussions in recent weeks about the types of equipment considered most appropriate. It is generally understood the assistance will include Predator unmanned drones, satellite photography and U-2 surveillance aircraft already flying over Iraq. It is not yet clear whether the U.N. inspection team has sent a formal request to the Pentagon for specific equipment as a result of the talks, but the official said an agreement is likely. The reconnaissance platforms would look for certain types of activity such as movement of Iraqi personnel and construction at suspected weapons sites. The U.S. military source said the Pentagon and the United Nations are also discussing the type of intelligence the United States can appropriately provide to inspectors about possible nuclear, chemical and biological weapons sites. Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, has made it a point to say his inspectors will not engage in intelligence-gathering on behalf of individual governments. The senior Pentagon official Tuesday told CNN that in keeping with that concern, the Bush administration is sensitive to determining what constitutes "appropriate" U.S. military and intelligence assistance. A decision on exactly what the United States could offer the disarmament inspectors is expected shortly. The official said the Bush administration is not likely to publicly announce the details. Blix and his team arrived in Baghdad on Monday to begin preliminary work to prepare for initial inspections set for November 27. Iraq -- which has repeatedly denied possessing weapons of mass destruction -- agreed to destroy all such weapons, nuclear, biological or chemical, when it signed a cease-fire after losing the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In 1998, U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq after they said the government was hiding evidence of such weapons.
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