People's Democracy

Powell Conceals Vital Info From UN

THE US is portraying the recent Hans Blix-led weapons inspection in Iraq, under the UN aegis, as the only evidence of the so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD) allegedly acquired by Iraq, and its war is already on. According to newspaper reports, its operatives inside Iraq are feeding US agencies including the CIA with information. The US is tracking the calls made by Iraqis. Even secret official communication is being monitored with the help of sophisticated high tech sensors and other such instruments that have the capacity to detect smokestack emissions, soil samples or missile exhaust --- for any evidence of banned weapons.

But US secretary of state Colin Powell did not mention any of this in his presentation to the Security Council. Instead, he attributed the information to intercepts of Iraqi calls made on non-secure phone lines. Also, he did not attribute any information to those operating inside Iraq, as many of them could later be asked to play major roles in the post-Saddam government in Iraq --- if that ever materialises. The CIA had advised Powell to conceal all this information from the UN Security Council for obvious reasons.