CIA Analysis Of Iraq's Weapons Programme Released

Findings Of US Team Confirms UN Analysis Of Iraq's Weapons Programme

The United Nations commission that was in charge of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction says the conclusions of a CIA report largely confirm the analysis reached by its own inspectors.

The latest report to the Security Council by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) includes an initial analysis of the findings of the Iraq Survey Group, led by Charles Duelfer, on Iraq's chemical, biological and missile weapons programmes.

UNMOVIC does state, however, it had been unaware of some of Iraq's procurement efforts after 1998 which are highlighted in the Duelfer report.

Mr. Duelfer (himself a former UN weapons inspector), the Special Adviser to the United States Director of Central Intelligence for Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, and his team shared their findings with UNMOVIC during a meeting on 8 October in New York.

UNMOVIC also notes in its report that the Governments of Jordan and the Netherlands have destroyed, under UN supervision, the Iraqi missile engines which had been found in scrap yards in those countries.

The UN inspectors also note the deterioration of two weapons sites inside Iraq: The Muthanna State Establishment, Iraq's prime chemical weapons facility, and Al Qaa Qaa State Establishment, one of the country's major weapons-related industrial complexes.

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