Iraq has quadrupled its revenues from smuggled oil
exports, allowing it to import dual-use technology for the development of weapons of mass destruction, a new CIA report says.
The 24-page unclassified report, entitled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass
Destruction Programs, said Iraq has obtained $3 billion a year from what it
termed illicit oil sales.
The report, released on Friday, said that in 1998
Iraqi smuggling was estimated at $750 million. Since 1991, Baghdad was
bound to export oil through the United Nations, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Iraq has been able to import dual-use, WMD-relevant equipment and
material through procurements both within and outside the UN sanctions
regime," the report said. "Baghdad diverts some of the $10 billion worth of
goods now entering Iraq every year for humanitarian needs to support the
military and WMD programs instead. Iraq's growing ability to sell oil
illicitly increases Baghdad's capabilities to finance its WMD programs.
Over the last four years Baghdad's earnings from illicit oil sales have more
than quadrupled to about $3 billion this year."
The CIA report lacked many of the details of a British intelligence
report released last month. The CIA study did not echo the British report's
assertions that Iraq was developing missiles with a range of more than 1,000
kilometers.
The U.S. intelligence report asserted that the regime of President
Saddam Hussein has also used oil revenues through UN auspices to bolster its
military programs. The CIA said that over the last few years Baghdad has
diverted goods contracted under the UN oil-for-food program for military
purposes.
"Even within the UN-authorized oil-for-food program, Iraq does not hide
that it wants to purchase military and WMD-related goods," the report said.
"For example, Baghdad diverted UN-approved trucks for military purposes and
construction equipment to rehabilitate WMD-affiliated facilities, even
though these items were approved only to help the civilian population.
The report said UN monitors at Iraq's borders do not inspect the
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo that enter the country
annually outside of the Oil-for-Food Program. Iraq is said to be importing
goods via planes, trains, trucks and ships without any international
inspections. These included the import of fiber-optic communication used to
bolster Iraq's air defense network.
The CIA said Iraq might have acquired uranium enrichment capabilities
that could substantially decrease the amount of time required to make a
nuclear weapon. The report cited Iraqi attempts to procure tens of thousands
of high-strength aluminum tubes, which could be used in a centrifuge
enrichment program. These tubes could produce enough weapons-grade uranium
for several weapons a year.
The intelligence agency assessed that Iraq could produce a nuclear
weapon within a year if it succeeds in procuring weapons-grade fissile
material abroad.
"The acquisition of sufficient fissile material is Iraq's principal
hurdle in developing a nuclear weapon," the report said.
"Without such material from abroad, Iraq probably would not be able to make
a weapon until the last half of the decade."
