Dissecting The Case

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Powell may make more of an impact on the Security Council by emphasizing another kind of evidence that may sound dryly technical but that cuts to the heart of the U.N.'s authority: he'll detail the ways Washington believes Iraq is cheating on inspections. For the Administration's case, the great value of Resolution 1441, authorizing the inspections, is the clarity with which it states that obstructing its terms constitutes a material breach that would provoke "serious consequences." The Administration feels that if the U.S. can showcase invidious, systematic defiance of inspections, the Council--including skeptical nations like France and Russia--will be obliged to take action if only to preserve its authority.

So the Administration intends to pile up as many instances of obstruction as possible. Iraq has thumbed its nose at high-altitude U-2 surveillance flights, refusing to guarantee their safety unless the U.S. and Britain stop patrolling the no-fly zones. The discovery a few weeks ago of Iraq's illicit acquisition of missile engines and purchases of barred chemical explosives indicates concrete violations of resolution terms. British officials have also compiled a list indicting Iraq for deliberately hampering inspectors during the past two months. They say Iraq has 20,000 intelligence officers engaged in disrupting inspections and concealing weapons. They hide the documents, equipment and materials a step ahead of the inspectors, stuffing prohibited material in farmyards, beneath hospitals, inside mosques.

Iraqi security, says the British file, has completely blocked all attempts to interview scientists. Iraqi agents choose the venues for such talks, then listen in and even videotape the proceedings. Secret police hang around the scene to observe any covert behavior, like whispered conversations or note passing. Inspectors have been reluctant to ask any scientist to be interviewed outside the country because the security forces brandish lists of relatives whom they are ready to punish if the scientists give anything away. Thus far none have agreed to leave Iraq.

How does Britain know all this? Classified intelligence. But now Bush officials say they're ready to show satellite photos of Iraqis sneaking suspicious materials out the back door of facilities right before inspectors come in the front. They have overhead shots of Iraqis "sanitizing" suspect sites a few days before inspectors turn up: bulldozers cleaning up traces of activity, trucks hauling away material. They would love to play intercepts of communications from Iraqi officials ordering the clearances--or the tapes they have recorded of Iraqi security men conspiring to plant their agents as phony scientists. They say U.S. intelligence reports show that several dozen scientists have been spirited out of Iraq to Syria and Jordan.