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CIA: Iraq hiding medium-range missile arsenal

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, August 13, 2001

WASHINGTON Ñ The United States believes Iraq has upgraded its secret arsenal of medium-range missiles.

U.S. intelligence officials said Iraq is hiding dozens of Scud-class missiles with a range of 650 kilometers. At the same time, the regime of President Saddam Hussein has rebuilt missile production facilities and continues to develop new missiles according to Middle East Newsline.

The Iraqi goal, the officials said, is to achieve long-range and intercontinental ballistic missile capability. By 2015, they said, Iraq could achieve this capability and strike targets in the United States.

"We also believe that Saddam is hiding a small force of Al Hussein SRBMs, [short-range ballistic missiles] with a range of 650 kilometers, capable of targeting Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey," CIA deputy director John McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin told a Pentagon-sponsored ballistic missile conference last week in Huntsville, Ala. that Iraq has repaired much of the missile infrastructure damaged in the 1991 Gulf war. He said the Saddam regime has been aided by Russia.

"Iraq has rebuilt several critical missile production sites," the CIA official said. "Last year, Russian entities continued to supply ballistic missile-related goods and technical know-how to countries like Iran, China, and Libya."

U.S. officials said Iraq has also restored some of its nonconventional weapons facilities damaged during the Gulf war. They said that on the eve of the 1991 war Iraq had both biological and chemical warheads for its Scud arsenal.

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