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.
|