/ 6 February 2003

Powell raises the banner for war

Colin Powell yesterday used satellite photographs, tapes of intercepted conversations and newly opened CIA files to make the United States case against Iraq in a determined attempt to win over international opinion.

However, the presentation appeared to do little to heal the deep rifts in the UN security council. America and Britain claimed the evidence proved Iraq was in ”material breach” of its UN obligations, justifying ”serious consequences”. France and Russia said that the evidence only strengthened the case for further inspections. Iraq rejected the presentation as a fraud.

Facing Iraq’s UN representative and surrounded by foreign ministers from the 15 members of the security council, the US secretary of state took well over 70 minutes to make the multi-media presentation in the most climactic showdown in the UN chamber since the cold war.

In the course of the presentation, the crackling sound of telephone conversations allegedly between Iraqi officers echoed around the hushed chamber, and satellite pictures said to show chemical weapons being moved before the UN inspectors’ visits were beamed on to a big screen above the foreign ministers.

Powell said the Iraqi government had set up a special organisation dedicated to spying on the weapons inspectors. He quoted intelligence sources and an unnamed al-Qaeda captive as evidence of longstanding and continuing links between Iraq and al-Qaida. The CIA director, George Tenet, sat behind Powell’s shoulder in a display of confidence in the US case, after persistent reports of divisions between his agency and the Pentagon over the strength of the evidence.

It was a prosecution case with the American public in mind, as well as the international community, and it was broadcast live on all the major television networks. An opinion survey yesterday found that nine out of 10 Americans said they were going to make up their mind about whether to support a war based on Powell’s performance.

Among the most dramatic evidence were satellite pictures of what Powell said was an ammunition dump known as al-Taji, showing 15 bunkers, four of which had been outlined with a thick red line.

He described them as ”active chemical munitions bunkers” and showed a close up of structures he described as ”signature” items of bunkers containing active chemical weapons: a tent serving as a security checkpoint and a decontamination vehicle.

In a second picture, said to be of the same site, the tent and the vehicle were missing. Powell said: ”It’s been cleaned up and it was done on December 22, as the UN inspection team is arriving, and you can see the inspection vehicles arriving in the lower portion of the picture on the right.”

Powell also played three scratchy audiotapes he said were intercepted conversations between Iraqi officers, all about the ”cleaning” of sites that the inspectors might visit, or the removal of other incriminating evidence.

The men on the tapes do not identify themselves fully, nor do they name other people or places. In the most explicit of the three tapes, between two commanders of Iraq’s 2nd Republican Guard corps ”a few weeks ago”, according to Powell, one voice is slowly dictating an order to a junior officer to remove any reference to the words ”nerve agents” wherever they appear in ”wireless instructions”.

In Baghdad, Iraqi officials dismissed the tapes, satellite pictures and defector evidence as a collection of ”stunts, special effects and unknown sources”.

Iraq’s UN representative, Mohammed al-Douri, called the presentation a fraud ”utterly unrelated to the truth”.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, insisted yesterday ”war is not inevitable”, but he urged Saddam Hussein to offer better cooperation with the chief UN weapons inspector when the teams revisit Iraq this weekend.

Until the inspectors present another report next Friday, the security council deadlock on Iraq is set to continue.

Powell also alleged yesterday that a senior al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had gone to Baghdad in May 2002 for medical treatment, and that during that time ”nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there.

”These al-Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad now coordinate the movement of people money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for [Zarqawi’s] network, and they’ve now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months,” Powell said.

He added that the network, made up of 116 operatives, included the ”ricin plotters” arrested in Britain.

Powell said his case proved ”Iraq is now in further material breach of its obligations. I believe this conclusion is irrefutable and undeniable.”

However, some aspects of Powell’s case was patchy. Images of alleged mobile biological weapons laboratories were computer-generated, on the basis of defectors’ accounts.

In a theatrical moment, Powell held up a small phial which he said represented the amount of anthrax used to cause havoc in the US in 2001. However, the US administration has never claimed that either Iraq or al-Qaeda were behind the anthrax attacks.

The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, described the US case as ”powerful and authoritative”. He added that Iraq had failed to provide an accurate account of its weapons programmes and was orchestrating a ”charade” to mislead inspectors.

However, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, instead launched a counter-proposal, suggesting the UN inspection teams be doubled or tripled, and a special organisation to put suspect sites under permanent surveillance.

He did not rule out the use of force as a last resort, but he insisted that the UN remain at ”the centre of operations” and that the safety of civilians and the territorial integrity of Iraq must be respected. – Guardian Unlimited Â