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Iraq dossier hints at 'dirty bomb'

U.S.: Iraq hiding weapons, documents

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Two suitcases of documents arrive Sunday night at the United Nations.

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CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon reports on the task for International Atomic Energy Agency experts as they review Iraq's declaration (December 9)
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CNN's Nic Robertson reports U.N. inspection of a chemical complex northwest of Baghdad (December 9)
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RELATED
IRAQ DECLARATION

Documentation includes:


11,807 pages of information

1,334 on biological weaponry

1,823 on chemical weaponry

6,887 on missiles

Plus 12 CD-ROMs containing 529 megabytes of information

WHAT'S NEXT?
On or before January 27, inspectors must report back to the Security Council.

If the United Nations finds the declaration to be incomplete or untrue, it could find Iraq in "material breach" of Resolution 1441, which calls for Iraq to fully disclose its weapons of mass destruction programs and to disarm.

The U.S. government has said if Iraq does not comply and fully disarm, it will lead a coalition to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through military force.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Iraq's declaration of its weapons programs could identify countries or firms that supplied its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, according to a table of contents obtained Monday by CNN.

In a letter that accompanies the nearly 12,000-page document, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said the dossier's publication "entails risk" of releasing information that violates nonproliferation standards.

Sabri called the report "currently accurate, full and complete," but told the U.N. Security Council it contains information that could aid countries seeking to develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

The nine-page preface to the report being circulated among council members Monday refers to a terminated "radiation bomb project" -- possibly a so-called radiological weapon, or "dirty bomb." (Portions of report)

The contents pages also include references to procurement of petrochemicals for Iraq's nuclear weapons program and to "foreign technical assistance" and "relations with companies, representatives and individuals" under its chemical weapons declaration.

Diplomatic sources said Security Council members, including the United States, were concerned some of the information might serve as a "training manual" for stockpiling and hiding weapons, and they did not want it to fall into the wrong hands.

The United States received an unedited copy -- a switch from last week's council announcement that inspectors would analyze and screen parts relating to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction before passing it along to members.

Security Council President Alfonso Valdivieso, Colombia's U.N. ambassador, said the council decided to provide full copies to its five permanent members -- the United States, Russia, France, China, and Great Britain -- all of which are declared nuclear powers.

It was not clear when the remaining 10 council members would see the declaration or portions of it.

'Very similar' to 1998 document

The U.S. copy was taken to a secure location in Washington where officials were making copies for the four other permanent members, a State Department source told CNN.

U.N. officials said it could take days to fully analyze the declaration. They cite its complexity, its length, and the fact that parts have to be translated from Arabic.

A senior official in the Bush administration told CNN the U.S. intelligence community would take the lead in conducting the U.S. analysis of the documents.

The International Atomic Energy Agency expects to be able to provide a preliminary analysis of the nuclear part of the document to the Security Council within the next 10 days, an agency statement said, with a fuller assessment to be provided when it reports to the council at the end of January.

Speaking from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that on first glance nuclear arms experts said they believe much of the document is "very similar" to a declaration Iraq released in 1998.

"We're going to scour through this document word for word, and we're going to check it against declarations we've received in the past," Fleming said. "We have been scanning them since the moment we got them back to IAEA headquarters last night.

"We're not in the position at all to make any kinds of judgment on this document -- truth or no truth. We're in a good position to be able to assess the document in due time against vast amounts of information we have and against what our inspectors can go out and look for on the ground." (Latest inspections)

She said the IAEA had a "very good understanding of Iraq's past nuclear weapons program -- how far they got and what kinds of steps they would have needed to take to complete it" and she said the IAEA believes "they did have a ways to go."

Though Iraq said the declaration proves the nation has no prohibited weapons, U.S. Defense Department officials Monday repeated assertions that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein does have them and has hidden the evidence.

U.S. officials are eager to compare the declaration to their own intelligence reports.

Sources and abilities to win war

Defense Department officials said U.S. intelligence shows that in recent weeks the Iraqis had engaged in "wide dispersal" of their suspected weapons stocks and documentation.

The officials said Iraq had placed some in underground facilities and bunkers and placed suspected biological material in mobile trucks.

They said Iraq had put some critical documentation in individual houses, making it almost impossible to find.

When asked why the United States had not shared intelligence with U.N. weapons inspectors, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said President Bush would not release information "that will compromise sources or methods or abilities to win a war."

"Let's just say as a hypothetical that there is an individual inside Iraq who is in a position to know things, who's telling us things. Would you expect us to name that individual ... [so] that harm could be done? Of course not."

But Fleischer said the United States has cooperated with weapons inspectors. And he credited Bush with getting them into the country and making it possible for them to do their job.

Resolution 1441 required Iraq to provide "a currently accurate, full, and complete declaration of all aspects of its programs to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other delivery systems ... as well as all other chemical, biological, and nuclear programs, including any which it claims are for purposes not related to weapon production or material."

The Bush administration has threatened to use force to disarm Iraq if it does not comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.

If Baghdad's declaration is found to include false information or omit pertinent information, it could constitute a "material breach" of the U.N. resolution sending inspectors back to Iraq.

CNN's Nic Robertson, Rym Brahimi, Rebecca MacKinnon and Maria Arbelaez contributed to this report.



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