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| AMBASSADOR BUTLER | |
 November 10, 1998 
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And now we turn to the United Nations chief weapons inspector - not the U.S. Chief Weapons Inspector as I said earlier - Richard Butler, executive chairman of the Special Commission on Iraq. Thank you for being with us, Mr. Ambassador. You just heard Ambassador Hamdoon say that American intelligence and others know that Iraq doesn't have any more of that stuff, meaning weapons of mass destruction. Is that true?
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Ambassador, you also heard Ambassador Hamdoon say that they stopped cooperating because this would never end. He said that the inspections will just go into the next century. And, meanwhile, sanctions will continue. What's your response to that? |
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The need for full disclosure |
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What is the status of the inspections and of the inspectors in Iraq now, yours and also the International Atomic Energy Agency? AMBASSADOR BUTLER: We're not able to do any of ours, and all that succeeded in doing is slowing down the process that we also deeply want to be brought to an end. The International Atomic Energy Agency is being allowed to do a portion of its monitoring task. But as far as the hard core disarmament elements of missiles, chemical weapons, and biological weapons are concerned, the things for which we're responsible, we've been stopped in our tracks. We're doing none of them at the present time.
AMBASSADOR BUTLER: A little over a hundred. A few days ago I brought a small number of people out, and there will be a few more in the next few days. And I want to make very clear we are not withdrawing. These are people who are slightly excess to requirements, given Iraq's policy of not permitting us to do our work. But the core team in each field - missile, chemical, and biological -- remains in Baghdad. And if Baghdad would stop this confrontation with the Security Council, get back to work with us tomorrow, we could be up and running within 24 hours. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Your October report details what you - some of the items you haven't been able to verify. I mentioned to Ambassador Hamdoon the 550 shells filled with mustard gas, for example. Is your main fear that these items that you can't find, including - or that you can't verify - were destroyed, including warheads with biological capability, that they're somewhere and could be used? AMBASSADOR BUTLER: Well, I'm really glad that your research produced that example. It's one of a few. They're not large in number, but they're potentially large in significance -- a few examples in the chemical and in the missile area. These shells are one such example. Now, this enables me to explain what I said a moment about the kind of misleading statements that Iraq has too often given us. A few months ago when the existence of those shells became clear to us and we asked about it, Iraq said, oh, don't worry about that, the content, the mustard gas content would be so old that it wouldn't be useful anymore. So we tapped into four of them and we tested them, and we found it was 97 percent pure, as good as the day it was made. Now we need an account of those 550 shells, not only because that's not an insignificant number but because it would give us confidence in other elements of the chemical program that are as yet unverified. If we can know about those 550, we'll know about a lot of other things as well. And the same extends across the board in the chemical and missile area. Iraq has this information. If it would give it to us and stop telling us stories, we would verify, and we would bring this to an end. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So short of getting that information, do you have to assume that those weapons still exist somewhere?
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| An end for
weapons inspections? |
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AMBASSADOR BUTLER: No. I don't accept that at all. I think there are two things at play here that are of irreducible importance. One, the international community is not going to let go of the business of getting this disarmament work done -- not only because it's important with respect to Iraq but also because this is a test case of our wider efforts to ensure that we prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century. And the other reason I call the logical reason. If there were to be enforcement action against Iraq in the near future, the reason for it would be to make clear that the disarmament law has to be obeyed. Now when that action stopped, logic dictates that the first thing that would then be made clear again is that why all this just happened was so that the disarmament law would be obeyed. So I don't accept the logic that says were there to be the business of enforcement, that that would put us out of business. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: All right. Well, Ambassador Richard Butler, thank you for being with us. AMBASSADOR BUTLER: Thank you. |
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RICHARD
BUTLER, chief U.N. weapons inspector: I'm not going to discuss in public
intelligence matters. What is true is that Iraq is obliged to demonstrate
to the Security Council that it has no more of the prohibited weapons
of mass destruction. Ambassador Hamdoon and the authorities in Baghdad
know that very well. We've given them recently a very clear list of
the remaining items that we need in order to be able to report to the
Council under Paragraph 22 that he mentioned - and I quote - that Iraq
has taken all the actions required of it. And that is with respect to
disarmament, after which the oil embargo could be lifted. Now, Iraq
has not taken all of the actions required of it. There is evidence available
to us that continuing weapons of mass destruction capability exists.
We want to verify whether or not that's true. We want to be able to
give to the Council the report that is needed so that Iraq can, indeed,
emerge from sanctions as a consequence of having been properly disarmed.
AMBASSADOR
BUTLER: Well, that's sadly, deeply untrue. Everyone has made clear that
they're genuine about Paragraph 22, that when Iraq takes all the actions
required of it, the sanctions will be lifted. Iraq also knows very well
exactly what remaining materials it holds that it needs to yield to
us. The claim he made that all of that was destroyed in 1991 is simply
contrary to the facts. While we have discovered things as recently as
in the last few months, Iraq, when confronted with our discoveries,
because inspections do work, when they let us do them, when confronted
with our discoveries, they say, oops, sorry, we made a mistake, we did
have those materials after all. It's a truly sad circumstance. Everyone
wants this to be solved in the name of disarmament, in the name of peace.
But the only solution that can be found is if Iraq faces up to the fact
that disarmament is connected to sanctions. The key is in its hands.
And it's called full disclosure to us of its remaining weapons and weapons
capability. 
ELIZABETH
FARNSWORTH: How many of your people are still there? 
AMBASSADOR
BUTLER: There is sufficient evidence for us to make the inquiry of Iraq,
what happened to certain warheads. And, you know, in that context we
discovered traces of VX nerve agent in certain warheads where Iraq had
robustly sworn for the whole of the last eight years that they never
did that. Now there are certain things we need to know in each area.
They're key indicators; they're also intrinsically important, like those
shells. And when we have those pieces put together, it should give us
a technically coherent picture of their program, their weapons programs.
And we should be able to say to the Council we've destroyed everything
we could get our hands on, and as to the rest, we have a technically
coherent picture. And it will enable us to say, yes, Iraq has taken
all the actions required of it. And that's what we want to do but the
key is in their hands. 
ELIZABETH
FARNSWORTH: Mr. Ambassador, do you have the feeling this is the end
of the road for the weapons inspections? If there's bombing, as you
heard Ambassador Hamdoon say, they are certainly not going to have much
motivation to continue with them, and you're not getting them started
now. Is it the end of the road for your group?