|
US, Iraq
exchange words on disarmament
US
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday
made a presentation, supported with
intercepted telephone conversations, satellite
photos and statements from informants, to show
that Iraq had defied all demands that it
disarm. But his allegations were immediately
refuted by a senior Iraqi official as being a
"typical American show, completely with
stunts and special effects."
POWELL'S
EVIDENCE CLAIMS SADDAM HUSSEIN CONCEALED
WEAPONS, LINKED WITH TERRORISTS
At a high-level
open meeting of the United Nations Security
Council which drew 12 foreign ministers to UN
headquarters in New York, Powell said the tape
recordings, satellite photos and statements
from informants constituted irrefutable and
undeniable evidence that Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein was concealing weapons of mass
destruction.
Powell began by
playing audiotapes of what he said were two
Iraqi officials discussing a coming inspection
by UN officials, and called the recordings
"part and parcel of a policy of evasion
and deception that goes back 12 years."
He also showed
a satellite photograph of what he said was an
active chemical weapons bunker. He said the
photograph showed Iraqi officials cleaning out
the bunkers ahead of another inspection. Other
photographs showed caravans of trucks at other
suspected chemical weapons and ballistic
missile sites just two days before inspections
resumed.
He said the
United States learned through human
intelligence sources that Saddam Hussein
warned Iraqi scientists that there would be
"serious consequences" to them and
their families if they provided sensitive
information to inspectors.
Powell said
four different sources have said that Iraq has
built sophisticated, mobile biological weapons
production and research facilities that could
be used to make anthrax, ricin and other
agents. Iraq had at least seven of the mobile
facilities which could be concealed in 18
trucks, according to Powell.
During the
presentation, Powell also accused Iraq of
links to the al Qaeda terrorist network,
saying members of the network had been
operating freely in Iraq for more than eight
months and were using Baghdad to coordinate
their activities.
The Bush
administration has not committed to seeking a
second Security Council resolution on Iraq.
But Powell's presentation was designed to
gauge support for a new resolution that would
declare that Iraq failed to keep its
commitment to honor Security Council
Resolution 1441, set a deadline for Iraqi
compliance, and give the UN blessing for
military action if the deadline passes,
according to diplomats at the UN headquarters.
IRAQ DENIES
POWELL'S CHARGES
The
satellite photos shown by Powell proved
nothing, because this had happened
time-and-time again before, Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein's science adviser, Amir Al-Saadi,
told a press conference in Baghdad immediately
after the UN Security Council meeting closed
in New York.
The inspectors
always had the same satellite photos taken in
the past when they visited the sites and asked
the questions about these photos, he said. The
inspectors have explained the photos in their
reports.
The whole
performance of Powell was in violation of the
UN Resolution 1441, because the United States
should submit all of its information to the
appropriate authorities, that is, UNMOVIC (the
UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission) and IAEA (the International Atomic
Energy Agency), he said, because they are the
proper channels to verify and assess these
claims.
"This was
a typical American show, completely with
stunts and special effects," he said.
Regarding the
telephone intercepts, he said that any
intelligence service can produce them, it is
nothing beyond their capability. It is simply
untrue, he said. "The reason is simple,
because Iraq has nothing to hide", he
added.
Regarding the
evidence to show Iraq conducted the banned
activities, he said that it was targeted at
undermining the credibility of the UNMOVIC and
the IAEA by making allegations contradictory
to the two bodies' statements.
Regarding
Powell's allegations that Iraqi officials
ordered the evacuation of banned weapons from
the palaces, he said that this was a lie.
Recently, UN inspectors visited Iraq's
presidential palaces and found nothing that
could be described as banned weapons.
Al-Saadi also
denied allegations that Iraq had hidden some
documents at homes of Iraqi scientists and
that Iraq refused to allow U-2 planes to fly
over Iraq.
NASA
discounts foam debris as root cause of
Columbia disaster
 NASA
Shuttle program manager Ron D. Dittemore on
Wednesday discounted the theory that a piece
of foam debris that struck Columbia during
liftoff was the primary cause of the space
shuttle disaster.
"It just
does not make sense to us that a piece of
debris would-be the root cause for the loss of
Columbia and its crew," Dittemore told a
news conference at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston. "There's got to be another
reason."
He said
investigators are now asking if there was
"another event that escaped our
attention" that might have caused
Columbia to break up just minutes before the
end of its 16-day mission.
A piece of foam
insulation the size of a doormat fell off the
Columbia's external fuel tank, striking the
heat-resistant tiles on the underside the
spacecraft's left wing, 81 seconds after
liftoff on Jan. 16.
Investigators
had focused on that as the first incident in
the fatal sequence that led to the destruction
of the shuttle, but Dittemore said: "It's
difficult for us to believe as managers, as
engineers and as a team that this particular
foam represented a safety-of-flight issue. So
we're looking elsewhere."
NASA is trying
to recover a final 32 seconds of data from the
spacecraft. "Perhaps the 32 seconds will
help us understand," Dittemore said.
French
socialists dismiss US evidences of Iraqi
weapons
The
French Socialist Party (PS) on Wednesday
dismissed the evidences of Iraq's possession
of illegal weapons presented by the United
States as brilliant in form but not able to
justify Washington's march to war.
"The
evidences have not been provided, and the
resort to force cannot be justified,"
said Francois Hollande, first secretary of
France's largest opposition party, when
commenting the presentation by US Secretary of
State Colin Powell to the United Nations
Security Council.
"If the
intervention were brilliant in form, in
substance there is no element to support the
American argument," said Hollande at
French radio France Inter.
"At this
stage, what should be said is what France
says," he added, fully backing the
position of the French government.
"No one
says that (Iraq President) Saddam Hussein is
innocent ... But the question is to know
whether we could make war instead of whether
Saddam Hussein is guilty," he added.
The French
Communist Party also said war is not justified
in a statement issued following Powell's
speech, during which he presented satellite
photos and intercepted telephone conversations
to prove that Iraq had defied all disarmament
engagements.
In New York,
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
said the Security Council must consider the
possibility of war against Iraq if UN weapons
inspections in that country fail. But he
repeatedly emphasized that the inspections
which began on November 27 must be more
intrusive, suggesting to double or triple the
number of inspectors and open new regional
offices in Iraq.
"We must
strengthen the path of inspections chosen in
Resolution 1441 which has not been explored to
the limit," Villepin said. France is
willing to deploy Mirage-IV spy planes to help
strengthen the surveillance, he said.
Los Angeles
resident charged with spying for Korea
South
Korean immigrant living in Los Angeles has
been charged with spying for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), court
documents released Wednesday said.
John Joungwoong
Yai, 59, was arrested Tuesday by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at his Santa
Monica home in western Los Angeles. A criminal
complaint unsealed Wednesday in United States
District Court in Los Angeles alleged that Yai
was paid to work for the DPRK government.
Yai, who has
lived in the United States for 20 years, was
arrested on charges of failing to register as
a North Korean agent as required by US law. If
convicted, he will face a maximum 20-year
sentence in federal prison.
In the 76-page
affidavit, FBI agent James G. Chang said that
between December 1997 and April 2000, Yai was
working as a North Korean agent living in the
United States. The charges claimed that he was
paid to identify and recruit other agents to
meet with North Korean officials abroad.
Chang wrote
that Yai was the subject of surveillance under
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from
December 1996 to June 2000. During this
period, investigators bugged Yai's downtown
Los Angeles office and allegedly intercepted
faxes, e-mails and telephone calls between Yai
and his DPRK handlers. The communications were
often filled with code words, the FBI said.
In April 2000,
Yai and his wife, Susan Youngja Yai, traveled
to the Czech Republic and Vienna of Austria to
meet with a DPRK representative, authorities
said.
Upon arrival at
Los Angeles International Airport from Zurich,
Switzerland on April 20, 2000, Yai and his
wife declared to US Customs officials they
were not carrying more than 10,000 US dollars
in US currency.
"In fact,
a search revealed that they were carrying
18,179 dollars," the FBI said in court
papers. The ongoing investigation was to
determine whether Yai's actions posed any
threat to national security, said Cheryl
Mimuma, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Los
Angeles.
Yai is expected
to make an initial appearance in the court
late Wednesday while his wife will receive a
summons to appear in federal court at a later
date.
|
One week after the
murder, police show much optimism of the possibility in solving the murder of
Emma Elizabeth Góngora Jaime. Sub. director of the OIJ, Gerald Lázcarez,
declared that the investigation is going very well, and that they have important
leads to the perpetrators of the homicide, although he preferred not to give
details.
