FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2003
NEWS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Empty warheads found by inspectors in Iraq
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — An inspection team searching bunkers in southern Iraq yesterday found 11 empty chemical warheads that Iraqi officials had not declared to the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said. Iraq insisted that it had reported the rockets, which it said were old and never used for chemical weapons.
The 122 mm warheads were found in bunkers built in the late 1990s at the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area, 75 miles south of Baghdad, Ueki said in a statement. The team examined one of the warheads with X-ray equipment and took away samples for chemical testing, the statement added.
A 12th warhead was also found that needed further evaluation, and samples were taken for chemical testing, said Hiro Ueki, the inspectors' spokesman in Baghdad.
It was not clear if the discovery constituted a "material breach" of the U.N. resolution requiring Iraq to itemize its weapons of mass destruction and their components. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush administration was "aware of the reports and we look forward to receiving information from the inspectors." McClellan would not comment on the significance of the find.
Key questions about the find are whether any chemical weapons were ever loaded into the ordnance, and, if so, when, officials said. Serial numbers on the rockets should tell inspectors where and when they were made.
The United States, which has begun a heavy military buildup in the Persian Gulf, has threatened war on Iraq if it is found to be hiding banned weapons programs. The Iraqi government says it no longer has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and submitted a 12,000-page declaration to the United Nations last month that it said proved its case.
Ueki told The Associated Press the shells were not accounted for in Iraq's declaration. "It was a discovery. They were not declared," he said.
But Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison officer to the inspection teams, said they were short-range shells imported in 1988 and mentioned in Iraq's report. He expressed "astonishment" over what he called "no more than a storm in a teacup."
Amin said the inspectors found the munitions in a sealed box that had never been opened and was covered by dust and bird droppings.
On Dec. 7, a chemical team secured a dozen artillery shells filled with mustard gas that had first been invented by earlier inspectors in the 1990s. Those were the first weapons of mass destruction brought under inspectors' control in the current search, which began in November.
Inspectors yesterday also searched the homes of two Iraqi scientists in Baghdad, escorting one of them to a field to examine what appeared to be a manmade mound of earth. The scientist, who carried a box of documents as he left his house, was
then taken to the inspectors' hotel along with the documents and Iraqi officials.
Amin said the inspectors also asked to speak privately at their hotel with two other scientists linked to Iraq's weapons programs yesterday, but the scientists refused to be interviewed without Iraqi officials present. The inspectors did not interview the two scientists, whom Amin did not identify.
The homes searched yesterday were those of physicist Faleh Hassan and his next-door neighbor, nuclear scientist Shaker el-Jibouri, in the Baghdad neighborhood of al-Ghazalia.
It was the first time the inspectors have searched private home since they resumed their work. The team searched the homes for six hours, with experts seen going through documents at a table set up near Hassan's front door.
Afterward, Hassan — who is director of al-Razi, a military installation that specializes in laser development — drove with the inspectors and Iraqi officials about 10 miles west of Baghdad to an agricultural area known as al-Salamiyat. There, Hassan, two inspectors and a liaison officer walked to a bare field and examined the mound of earth for about five minutes.
After the visit, a visibly angry el-Jibouri told reporters the inspectors spent two hours in his home — and cordoned it off for much longer — looking into everything.
"This is a provocative operation," he said. "They did not take away any documents but they looked at personal research papers."
Vatican issues new guidelines for Catholic politicians to utilize
The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued a new set of guidelines for Catholic politicians yesterday, reminding them to heed the church's "nonnegotiable" teachings on abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage and other issues when making public policy.
The Vatican said it was publishing the document now because of medical and scientific advances and because of the "emergence of ambiguities or questionable positions in recent times."
The guidelines, prepared by the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, don't offer any change to the church's long-held opposition to abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage and its promotion of the rights of the unborn
Rather, they serve as a
reminder of church teachings for Catholic politicians, so that when they vote for legislation or otherwise influence public policy, they do so in line with certain "non-negotiable ethical principles."
In particular, the document said laws concerning abortion and euthanasia "must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death. In the same way, it is necessary to recall the duty to respect and protect the rights of the human embryo."
It said laws safeguarding marriage between man and woman must be promoted and that "in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such."
The document also referred vaguely to issues of peace, saying Catholics should not confuse the church's promotion of peace and rejection of violence with "secular" pacifist and ideological
visions.
The guidelines don't mention punishment—such as excommunication —for Catholic politicians who fail to toe the line. Rather, they frame the issue as one of "conscience" that politicians will have to deal with.
"Scientific progress has resulted in advances that are unsettling for the consciences of men and women, and call for solutions that respect ethical principles in a coherent and fundamental way," the document said.
"Catholics, in this difficult situation, have the right and the duty to recall society to a deeper understanding of human life and to the responsibility of everyone in this regard," it said.
The Vatican stressed that it wasn't trying to dictate policy or interfere in matters of state, but to rather "instruct and illuminate" Catholic political leaders.
Official at Pentagon urges NATO to present united front against Iraq
The Associated Press
STUTTGART, Germany — NATO should agree to help with a possible war against Iraq to present a united front against the threat of Iraq's weapons, the second-in-command at the Pentagon said yesterday.
The threat of military action is the only way to persuade Iraq to disarm peacefully, and the more countries that back the United States, the more credible the threat is. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.
aimed at some of America's NATO allies. Germany, for example, has ruled out participating in any war with Iraq, though it has offered to help provide security at the many U.S. bases in Germany should war break out.
His comments, made during a trip to install a new head of the U.S. European Command, were
Other NATO allies such as Canada have indicated they would only participate in a war if one were explicitly authorized by the U.N. Security Council.
U. S. officials say they do not need another U.N. resolution to attack Iraq, which they say is a direct threat because of its stocks of chemical and biological weapons. Iraq denies it has any such banned weapons,
though U.N. inspectors on yesterday found at least 11 empty chemical warheads that Iraq had not declared.
The United States has asked NATO to provide alliance military help in the event of a war. Such aid could include using naval forces to patrol the eastern Mediterranean, and sending AWACS surveillance planes and Patriot missile batteries to help defend NATO ally Turkey, which borders Iraq's northern tip.
"There are a number of ways in which NATO could contribute, both during and after a conflict, if there has to be one," Wolfowitz said.
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