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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
         Dismissing Powell   
         Story On Scott Ritter's Reaction   
      
         by Scott Ritter; February 07, 2003   
      
     TOKYO - Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Thursday dismissed   
   U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's allegation before the U.N. Security   
   Council that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction as unsubstantiated.   
      
     "There's nothing here that's conclusive proof that Iraq has weapons of   
   mass destruction," Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and outspoken critic of   
   Washington's policy on Iraq who participated in U.N. weapons inspections   
   there from 1991 to 1998, told Kyodo News in an interview.   
      
     "Everything in here mirrors the kind of allegations the U.S. has made in   
   the past in regard to Iraq's weapons program," he said.   
      
     Powell on Wednesday presented what he described as "irrefutable and   
   undeniable" evidence that Iraq has been deceiving U.N. arms inspectors and   
   hiding banned weapons. He played intercepted telephone conversations between   
   Iraqi officials and showed satellite photos as part of the U.S. drive to   
   convince the world of the need to disarm Iraq, by military force if   
   necessary.   
      
     "He just hits you, hits you, hits you with circumstantial evidence, and he   
   confuses people - and he lied, he lied to people, he misled people," Ritter   
   said of Powell.   
      
     Ritter argued that the United States is giving weapons inspectors too   
   little time to do their job.   
      
     He said many things in Powell's presentation should be properly   
   investigated, such as a Nov 26 communications intercept in which two senior   
   Iraqi military officers were overheard talking about the need to hide from   
   U.N. weapons inspectors a "modified vehicle" made by an Iraqi company that   
   Powell said is "well known to have been involved in prohibited weapons   
   systems activity."   
      
     "What vehicle? I mean, obviously Colin Powell's concerned, he presented   
   it, so let's find out what the vehicle is - but let's not bomb Iraq based   
   upon that," Ritter said.   
      
     Ritter also questioned the veracity of Powell's allegation that Iraq still   
   possesses vast amounts of anthrax and described as irrelevant his repeated   
   references to dry powder anthrax contained in envelopes and sent through the   
   U.S. postal system in the fall of 2001, which killed two people and created   
   a national panic.   
      
     "What anthrax is he talking about?" he said, adding that Iraq is only   
   known to have produced liquid bulk anthrax, which has a shelf life of only   
   three years.   
      
     He said the last known batch of liquid bulk anthrax was produced in 1991   
   at a state-owned factory blown up in 1996.   
      
     "Colin Powell holds up a vial of dry powder anthrax and he makes allusions   
   to the attack in the United States through the letters. That was U.S.   
   government anthrax! It had nothing to do with Iraq," Ritter said.   
      
     Ritter accused Powell of engaging in "classic bait-and-switch" in his U.N.   
   presentation, catching his listeners' attention with one piece of   
   information and then putting up an irrelevant photograph "to make them think   
   the two are the same when they're not."   
      
     "I mean, the photographs are real but what do the photographs show," he   
   said. "The Powell presentation is not evidence...It's a very confusing   
   presentation. What does it mean? What does it represent? How does it all   
   link up? It doesn't link up."   
      
     "Iraq, anthrax, vial, dry powder - what connection do they have? None," he   
   said.   
      
     Ritter termed a "fabrication" Powell's assertion that Iraq may have 18   
   trucks from which it can produce biological agents such as anthrax or   
   botulinum toxin, and noted that U.N. inspectors who followed up on such U.S.   
   intelligence based on defectors' testimony were only able to find two trucks   
   used for testing food.   
      
     "They had nothing to do with biological laboratories. That's what (U.N.   
   chief inspector) Hans Blix says. He says, 'There's no mobile lab."'   
      
     "You know who came up with the idea of mobile trucks? The inspectors...We   
   sat back one day and said, 'If we were the Iraqis, how would we hide   
   biological production? We'd put them on trucks,"' Ritter said.   
      
     "So we designed it and we went out looking for them. But the problem is,   
   you look for something that you have no evidence exists, but by postulating   
   the existence you create the perception of existence. Now we look for   
   trucks...and we don't find them," he said.   
      
     In his presentation, Powell spoke of the futility of trying to find the   
   trucks in question among the thousands that travel Iraqi roads daily without   
   Baghdad voluntarily surrendering the information.   
      
     Ritter, however, said Powell was merely trying to create an impression   
   that U.N. inspections could never work.   
      
     "You can never expect the inspectors to find these 18 trucks," he said,   
   because "these trucks don't exist."   
      
     Defectors' reports, he said, could be misleading, especially those coming   
   from people associated with the opposition Iraqi National Congress, who he   
   said could have been "pre-briefed in advance to tell lies."   
      
     "Are these legitimate defectors or are they deliberately out there   
   falsifying testimony? I don't know. What I do know is I'm not willing to put   
   American lives on the line based on the testimony from an Iraqi defector. I   
   want something a little bit more solid than that," Ritter said.   
      
     But he stressed he is not arguing that Iraq does not possess weapons of   
   mass destruction - merely that the U.N. inspectors should be given   
   sufficient time to do their job in Iraq and make a final determination based   
   on solid evidence. (Kyodo News)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)