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A large new US team heading into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction will shift its focus away from areas identified as suspicious sites before the war, the Army general heading the effort said Friday.
Instead, the searchers will focus on areas where documents, interviews with Iraqis and other new clues suggest biological or chemical weapons could be hidden, Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton said.
Dayton leaves Monday for Baghdad, where he will head the Iraq Survey Group. The team of about 1,400 experts from the United States, Great Britain and Australia will take over the weapons search from a smaller US military team.
The shift comes amid growing questions from allies and some members of Congress about why no chemical or biological weapons have been found. President Bush said Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, as well as a nuclear weapons development program. Bush used the elimination of those programs as justification for waging war against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview this week the United States should have considered giving UN inspectors more time to find the weapons.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a video teleconference from his headquarters in southern Iraq that he remains puzzled why his troops have failed to uncover chemical or biological weapons.
"Believe me, it's not for lack of trying," Conway said. "We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."
Before the war, the United States drew up a list of more than 900 "suspect sites" where weapons of mass destruction or evidence of such programs might be found. Military teams have visited more than 200 of those sites without finding any actual weapons.
The United States has found two equipment-filled trailers in northern Iraq that American intelligence agencies say were mobile biological weapons production facilities. Bush and other administration officials say the finds show Iraq did indeed have clandestine programs to make germ weapons.
Dayton, a top official in the Defense Intelligence Agency, said he remains convinced his team will find chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. He said he believed the information the United States had before the war indicating Iraq had the banned weapons and continues to believe that.
"Do I think we will find something? Yeah, I kind of do," Dayton told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. "This is not necessarily going to be quick and easy, but it's going to be very thorough."
Dayton said the Iraq Survey Group will include 200 to 300 searchers to fan out around Iraq to look for weapons, hundreds of experts to interrogate Iraqis, about 250 people to analyze documents and computer files at a regional base in Qatar and analysts to put the pieces together and figure out what they mean.
The group will begin a two-week transition period to take over the weapons hunt in Iraq no later than June 7, Dayton said.
The group includes both military and civilian experts, including former United Nations weapons inspectors. Stephen Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, said Friday he did not know whether the United States would agree to have UN inspectors return to Iraq.
Critics say the Bush administration should let UN inspectors back in.
"Given the size and complexity of the task, it's unwise to turn down help from groups who have demonstrated expertise in this area," said Paul Kerr, an analyst at the Arms Control Association in Washington.
Cambone and Dayton said they did not know why no chemical or biological weapons have been found so far. Dayton echoed comments by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld earlier in the week speculating that Iraq could have destroyed such weapons before or during the war.
"These things could have been taken and buried. They could have been transferred. They could have been destroyed," Dayton said. "That doesn't mean they weren't there in the first place."
Comments by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz add further questions about weapons of mass destruction. In an interview in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Wolfowitz cites "bureaucratic reasons" for focusing on Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal.
Along with the weapons search, the Iraq Survey Group also will investigate possible war crimes by Iraqis, links between Saddam's regime and terrorism and the fate of those missing in action or held prisoner since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Dayton said those other missions make sense because his team will be interrogating Iraqis who may know about all of those issues and because his analysts will be able to pull together clues on those matters.
"They're all interrelated," Dayton said. "We'll be connecting pieces that haven't been connected before."
(China Daily May 31, 2003)
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