United Nations, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said ``deeply troubling'' evidence shows Iraq has hidden chemical weapons from United Nations inspectors, blocked interviews of scientists and aided terrorist groups. ``The information and intelligence we have gathered points to an active and systematic effort by the Iraqi regime to keep key materials and people from the inspectors,'' Powell told the 15- nation UN Security Council, in laying out the U.S. case for disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Using transcripts of intercepted telephone conversations, satellite photographs and the words of defectors, he accused Saddam Hussein's regime of thwarting the inspectors, dispersing biological warheads to western Iraq, and hiding illegal arms in homes, cars and trains. He produced aerial images showing chemical arms bunkers being ``sanitized'' before inspectors arrived. The presentation failed to convince some members of the council that inspections haven't worked. China, France and Russia, permanent members that could veto a resolution authorizing a war, said the search for illegal arms should be strengthened. Of the 10 elected council members, only Spain clearly agreed with the U.S. and U.K. that Iraq has violated the Nov. 8 resolution that set terms for inspections and threatened ``serious consequences'' if Hussein didn't comply.
Military Buildup
President George W. Bush has said that while the U.S. is willing to act without UN authorization, he'd prefer the world body's support. Bush has ordered a military buildup in the Gulf region, and the U.S. and the U.K. will have 215,000 troops there by mid- February. Oil, stock and currency markets have been roiled by uncertainty over a possible war. The dollar had its biggest gain against the euro since Jan. 2 after Powell's speech, as traders speculated the U.S. will gain support from allies for an attack. Crude oil, which has risen 69 percent from a year ago on concern that war will disrupt supplies, rose on speculation the U.S. will move ahead with invasion plans. Gold fell for the first time in three days. Powell warned the UN that it was ``in danger of irrelevance'' if it failed to act, a comment echoed by U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said Hussein is testing the resolve of the UN.
Al-Qaeda Link
Powell said U.S. intelligence indicates the al-Qaeda terrorist network had sought Iraq's help and that the overture was ``successful.'' An al-Qaeda-linked cell, headed by militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, is operating in Baghdad and Iraq's embassy in Pakistan was a liaison for the network that's accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said. Among the other evidence he presented was an English-language transcript of an Arabic conversation between Iraqi military inspectors, in which a colonel said a vehicle that UN weapons monitors wanted to inspect was ``evacuated.'' ``If this isn't a smoking gun, what is?'' Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York, said of the speech. Powell also said Iraq has a committee whose purpose is to block inspections and which reports to Hussein. ``Think about that,'' he said. ``Iraq has a high-level committee to monitor the inspectors who were sent in to monitor Iraq's disarmament; not to cooperate with them, not to assist them, but to spy on them and to keep them from doing their jobs.''
U-2 Insufficient
Powell said Iraq was violating UN resolutions by refusing to allow U-2 surveillance flights over the country to help the arms monitors, possessing Scud missiles and developing longer-range weaponry. Interviewed later on the CBS television network, Powell said, even if Hussein relented on the U-2 flights, that wouldn't be sufficient, because the U.S. wants progress on disarmament not more ``token'' acts of compliance with the inspectors. ``The issue is him,'' Powell said of Hussein. ``He needs to come clean.'' Powell, accompanied at his UN testimony by Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, charged that Hussein has blocked UN interviews with Iraqi scientists, saying in one case the government faked a death certificate for a scientist the UN inspectors wanted to interview, then sent him into hiding.
Iraqi Dismissals
Iraq's representative to the UN dismissed Powell's presentation as false, based on unknown sources and ``assumptions and presumptions.'' Powell's assertions are ``utterly unrelated to the truth,'' Mohammed al-Douri told the Security Council. He said the U.S. was using the presentation as a reason to wage war. Al-Douri said Iraq was willing to provide its scientists to weapons inspectors, argued that it was unable to guarantee the safety of planes used for aerial inspections and denied his government had any prior knowledge of sites that UN workers planned to inspect. Powell, asked about the Iraqi response in the CBS interview, said he spent the past four days ensuring the accuracy of ``every sentence in my statement'' to the UN. ``There are no doctored tapes, there are no doctored photos,'' Powell said.
`Impressive Results'
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, while not ruling out the use of force, said the inspections had achieved ``impressive results'' since they began on Nov. 27 and suggested measures to enhance the search for weapons of mass destruction such as tripling the 110 inspectors currently in Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Bush and Powell are incorrect in asserting that time is running out. He echoed French calls for the inspections unit to be strengthened. Chief UN arms inspectors Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei will travel to Baghdad for meetings Saturday and Sunday with Iraqi officials. Blix said he wants to see progress on the issue of U-2 surveillance flights, private interviews with inspectors and the status of previously documented VX nerve gas and anthrax. Blix and ElBaradei are scheduled to report next to the Security Council Feb. 14. ``That will be a very important meeting,'' Powell told CBS, saying that Iraq is ``slowly going by all the off ramps for peace.'' ``The issue before us is not how much time we are willing to give the inspectors to be frustrated by Iraqi obstruction,'' Powell told the council. The issue is ``how much longer are we willing to put up with Iraq's non-compliance before we, as a council, we as the United Nations, say enough. Enough.'' //www.quote.bloomberg.com