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Powell: Iraq standoff nears final stage
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The standoff with Iraq will be "reaching an endgame in a matter of weeks," Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. "More and more nations are realizing that this cannot continue like this indefinitely," Powell said, adding that an expansion of weapons inspections will do little good without a change in the Iraqis' attitude. The secretary of state appeared before the Senate committee a day after he gave the U.N. Security Council an extensive presentation of U.S. intelligence on Iraq, including satellite photos and communications intercepts. He told the Security Council the material demonstrated that Iraq is continuing to pursue nuclear, chemical and biological weapons despite U.N. resolutions requiring it to disarm. Other Security Council countries, including permanent members France and Russia and council president Germany, said the U.S. information should be given to U.N. weapons inspectors, who should be given time to verify it. These countries also suggested increasing the number of inspectors to make the process more effective. Powell told the Senate committee that U.S. officials are giving inspectors "all the information they can use," but he said more inspectors would do little good unless Iraq complies with U.N. resolutions and "comes clean." "Twice as many inspectors, three times as many inspectors, as was suggested by my French colleague and seconded by my German colleague yesterday, might be useful if there was a change in attitude," Powell said. "But if there's not a change in attitude, we don't need to hire more detectives." Biden asks questions about campSen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned why U.S. warplanes haven't bombed a camp in northern Iraq run by a group U.S. officials said is linked to al Qaeda. "We could take that out in a heartbeat. Why have we not taken it out?" Biden asked Powell. Satellite photos of the camp were part of Powell's presentation to the Security Council. In an attempt to demonstrate links between Iraq and al Qaeda, Powell said the camp is used by a network -- led by al Qaeda fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- that "is teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other poisons." The camp is in part of northeastern Iraq that the country's Kurdish minority controls. Biden suggested the United States could bomb the camp, back an assault on the group or encourage the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdish militia that controls neighboring territory. "Why have we let it sit there if it's such a dangerous plant producing those toxins?" Biden asked. Powell said he did not want to discuss possible military actions in an open session, but he said U.S. officials are "closely monitoring who is going in an out of that place." The camp is in territory controlled by Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic militia. Powell told the Security Council on Wednesday that an agent of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government offered al Qaeda operatives safe haven in the region.
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