Stewart Stogel
Tuesday Dec. 10, 2002

The declarations had arrived in NY from Baghdad just hours earlier.

Shortly before the U.S. "visit," U.N. chief weapons inspector Dr. Hans Blix had a surprise meeting with Security Council president Alfonso Valdiviezo (Colombia).

As he hurriedly left the meeting, looking annoyed with the turn of events, Validiviezo told NewsMax that the Council had instructed Blix to grant immediate access to the declarations to certain members who offered to "assist" in their "analysis."

A U.S. delegation showed up shortly thereafter and took the documents away to parts unknown, literally in the middle of the night.

On Monday morning, the declarations reportedly surfaced at the Pentagon.

"It was a surprise to us, they (the U.S.) just came and took the papers away. We had no idea where they were going," explained one U.N. arms control source.

Another source confided that Blix "was not happy" with the turn of events, nor the way the U.S. went about seizing the documents.

British diplomatic sources tell NewsMax the U.S. move "was a PR nightmare. It was incredibly poorly handled."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan refused comment, telling reporters: "The Council is the master of its own destiny."

U.S. mission spokesman Richard Grenell insisted that: "Everyone on the Security Council backed us, but the Syrians." What Grenell did not mention was that Washington used intense pressure on Council members for the preceding 36 hours to get what it wanted. The U.S. strongarm tactics were led by Secretary of State Colin Powell who was yielding to "requests" from both the Pentagon and the CIA.

The controversy revolved around the fact that within the Iraqi declarations are so-called "cookbooks" or manuals on how to build some weapons of mass destruction.

If the Council members had access to these manuals, they could be in violation of numerous arms control treaties, explained Valdiviezo just days earlier. Therefore, the Council decided to allow the U.N. arms inspectors to purge these manuals and any references, before releasing the declarations.

All 15 Council members (including the U.S.) agreed to the arrangement. In fact, the U.S. publicly acknowledged its acceptance of the new procedures as late as Friday, one day before Baghdad released the material.

Council sources tell NewsMax that the statements by U.S. diplomats at the U.N. "took certain people in the (Bush) administration by surprise." At that point, it was explained, the White House went into overdrive to reverse its acceptance.

Iraqi diplomatic sources insist that the U.S. wanted the unedited documents to see rumored references to U.S. participation in helping Iraq's weapons programs in the late 1980's and into 1990.

The Iraqis reveal that several well-known current and past U.S. officials are named, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

It should be noted that during the periods in question, Iraq was not under U.N. economic or military sanctions.

As the U.S. moved to corral the Iraqi files, it met resistance from other permanent Council members, namely the Russians, French and the British.

The U.S. got its way by framing its demands in the context that all of the so-called Perm 5 be given access to the unedited Iraqi declarations. Access was later explained to mean copies which the U.S. was to provide once it obtained possession.

However, in an effort to avoid publicly embarrassing the 10 non-perm members, Valdiviezo explained that the unedited documents would only be released to countries who have experts in the weapons areas in question.

While that criteria eliminated most non-perm Council members now, it may not, come January 1. At that time, Germany and Pakistan join the Security Council.

It is widely accepted that Germany has numerous experts in the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons areas. Pakistan has exploded two atomic bombs.

Both nations have expressed serious reservations about a military campaign against Iraq. Will they have access to the unedited Iraqi declarations and the so-called "cookbooks?" The U.S. mission's Grenell curtly replied: "Call me back in January."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
United Nations
Editor's note:
Saddam Hussein’s race to make a nuclear bomb
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