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Iraqi official: Inspections prove no illegal weapons
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi official working with U.N. weapons inspectors said Wednesday that the first week of inspections prove the nation has no weapons of mass destruction, and charged that the purpose of the inspections of presidential palaces is to "provoke Iraq." Hassam Amin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, said of the 20 sites inspectors have visited so far, seven or eight are sites that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others have claimed are secretly used for the production and storage of prohibited weapons. The teams have now been able to see for themselves "that these allegations were false and lies," Amin said. After seven days of searching through facilities, inspectors have reported finding no evidence of chemical or biological weapons, long-range missiles, or nuclear weapons capability. Amin said the inspectors' visit to a presidential palace Tuesday further proved his point. U.S. and British intelligence have said the presidential palaces may contain facilities for biological and chemical weapons. But "if there was any possibility of any chemical weapons in the palaces the inspectors would have had to wear special clothing to protect themselves," Amin said. The inspectors were dressed in civilian clothes, which Amin called "an evidence that the purpose was not to look for weapons but rather a political attempt to provoke Iraq. ... We consider the entry of the presidential sites is unjustified and really unnecessary." Amin also said that Baghdad will deliver a required report on its alleged weapons of mass destruction programs on Saturday, a day ahead of the United Nations' deadline. Amin spoke shortly after a team of nuclear, chemical, and biological experts searched an Iraqi site about two hours outside Baghdad where deadly chemical and biological weapons were once produced, according to the United Nations. U.N. inspectors arrived at the al-Muthanna site around 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET) and continued their search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction for at least three hours. An inspection team had previously searched the site in the mid-1990s, after it had been bombed during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The facility, which covers about three square miles, is believed to have been the main research, development and production center for agents such as anthrax, the agent that causes botulism and mustard gas. The U.N.-mandated search was conducted as U.S. officials expressed skepticism about Iraqi participation. U.S. President George W. Bush has threatened to lead a military coalition against Iraq if it refuses to disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction -- biological, nuclear or chemical -- weapons Iraq says it does not possess. The Bush administration is concerned that not enough U.N. weapons inspectors are in Iraq and the type of searches are not varied enough, a senior U.S. official said. That official said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice relayed that message in a meeting Monday with Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector. Bush, during a campaign stop in Shreveport, Louisiana, on Tuesday, said the world should not be fooled by the new, more cooperative Iraq. "To countries around the world, I want them to understand the nature of the man who runs Iraq, the nature of a man who doesn't tell the truth, says he won't have weapons of mass destruction. He's got them," Bush said during a campaign stop in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Full story) "Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows they have weapons of mass destruction," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday. Iraqi officials maintain that the nation has no prohibited weapons -- a claim U.S. and British officials disbelieve. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraq's cooperation so far "seems to be good, but this is not a one-week wonder. They have to sustain the cooperation and effort." Iraq said Tuesday that the declaration it submits to the United Nations this weekend will contain new information, but will not indicate that Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction. Journalists in Iraq who were following inspectors on Wednesday -- including CNN's Nic Robertson -- were stopped at the gate house outside the facility where the inspectors headed, and officials would not disclose details of the visit. The lead inspector emerged briefly and gave a thumbs up. On Tuesday, Iraq sought to display cooperation with weapons inspectors as the nation allowed inspectors unlimited access to a presidential palace for the first time ever and announced it would submit a declaration detailing its weapons of mass destruction Saturday -- one day before the U.N.-imposed deadline. But U.S. and U.N. officials cautioned against assuming the apparent cooperation was not pretense. The inspectors' surprise visit Tuesday to the opulent, sprawling al-Sujud compound in western Baghdad was the first visit to a presidential palace since previous inspections were cut off in 1998. At that time Iraq insisted the teams give advance warning and be accompanied by an Iraqi official. Baghdad had protested the palace search, saying it was a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. U.N. Resolution 1441, passed unanimously by the Security Council on November 8, calls for Iraq to provide unfettered access to all sites, including presidential palaces. Inspectors Tuesday spent less than two hours inside the palace on the banks of the Tigris River, searching for evidence of programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. (More on palaces) Afterward, they gave no indication of having found any. In a related development, Turkey's foreign minister's office backed off a statement that had said the United States would be allowed to use Turkish air bases for a possible war on Iraq. Instead, his office said the country had made no such commitment. (Full story) CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson and CNN's Rym Brahimi contributed to this report.
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