What is the point behind issuing some lengthy, Iraqi document claiming they don’t have weapons of destruction? By the time it’s translated, digested, etc., they could have launched those weapons! Why is the U.N. even bothering with this? I don’t understand! And, why would the U.N. trust such a document?
I’m guessing it details when and where they made the weapons, how they were stored, and how they were destroyed.
It’s not like 1400 pages of “We don’t have anything!”
Slight nitpick. At the moment no one really knows what claims are made in the document. Saddam et.al. have given us the sound-bite description, but no one, or at least anyone who talks to the media, has read much more than the document’s table of contents. Everything else is sheer speculation.
The news accounts I’ve seen indicate that the documents are in English, so the US which is leading the charge to get Saddam doesn’t have to worry about translating the documents. (Additionally, I’d be willing to bet that for the French, Chinese, and Russians it’s easier for them to get lots of English translators than lots of Arabic translators.) Most likely, what’s happening right now is that the documents are being divided up and duplicated amongst teams of experts, each one only being given a couple hundred pages or so. They’ll pour over the documents, make notes of what they think’s important or what they want cross checked, and meet with others to exchange information/notes. They’ll keep doing this until all they’ve answered all the questions that they have.
No doubt part of the reason the Iraqi’s released such a massive document is that they intend to use it as a delaying tactic. Even with all those people pouring over the documents, it will take at least a week or more to digest everything. Iraq is no doubt hoping to use that time to win more support to it’s side. It’s highly unlikely that Iraq would launch a first strike with any of its WMD (assuming it has them in a handy, ready to use form), they might be used in a last ditch effort if the US invaded. It seems more likely to me that Saddam’s adopted a “bunker” mentality. He’s going to hunker down and wait, hoping that the US and others get tired of poking him with sticks to see if he’ll jump.
It’s also a list of all their conventional weapons, AFAIK there isn’t anything about WMDs in it as Iraq claims to have previously destroyed all documents relating to them.
Many conventional weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction. Here’s a discussion of the term’s exact meaning: Definition of the phrase - weapons of mass destruction ?
Ok, perhaps I’m being a bit liberal with my use of the terms conventional and WMDS, by WMDs I basically mean ones that he shouldn’t have and by convential the one that he’s allowed.
Well, Bush, himself, demanded the report. He has claimed that the US has “solid evidence” of Iraqi WMDs but has refused to tell anybody, including UN weapons inspectors, what that evidence is. I suspect that the US was hoping to bluff Hussein into reporting some WMDs (thus giving the US an excuse for an invasion) but Hussein seems to have called that bluff by issuing a report which flatly denies any WMDs and challenges Bush to basically put up or shut up with his evidence.
The ball is now in Bush’s court to prove that the report is incomplete or false in any way.
How exactly do you write a 12000 page document (that’s right - twelve thousand pages) that "flatly denies any WMDs ".
As I hear it, they have massive resources for producing WMD, and are trying to hide them as dual-use facilities. For example, you have a stockpile of radioactive material. Now that has some legitimate use in medical diagnostics and therapy, and can also be refined futher into weapons-grade material. Same goes for biochemical stuff.
Clearly, the document is trying to set out as much of the material as it can as “legitimate” and they’ll try to hide the rest.
BTW - I heard that several thousand of the pages are in Arabic and have to be translated.
Think of it as Iraq being on “probation” as a result of invading Kuwait. Iraq agreed to dismantle, destroy etc any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons (weapons of mass destruction) and not aquire any more.
The UN ordered Iraq to produce this report on its weapons. The weapon inspectors are there to see that the report is true.
The report is long because many chemicals and manufacturing facilities could have multiple uses. The report will show what they are being used for, or kept for.
I believe it was Sam Donaldson or Tom Brokaw who said how tedious the translation process of this lengthy document would be. My wife and I laughed picturing the SCUDs being launched while the UN is distracted… It’s like the old lawyer trick of satisfying the obligation of disclosure (sharing the evidence) by burial in tons of paperwork. - Jinx