Weapons inspectors begin hunt in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Inspections have been conducted at only a fraction of the sites to be searched in the hunt for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq, and the process is expected to continue for some time.

So far, no weapons of mass destruction have been found, according to officials. But top U.S. and British leaders remain certain the weapons exist and will be located.

"We are absolutely convinced they are there," British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said at a press conference yesterday, echoing statements made a day earlier by his U.S. counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld.

Inspectors are concentrating initially on about 40 sites culled from a massive list compiled over more than a decade, said David Kay, the former chief U.N. nuclear weapons inspector who served after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and helped the United States set up the current task force.

At a Pentagon press briefing yesterday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not provide the number of sites that had been visited, saying only that it encompassed "a very small percentage of a very extensive list of known locations."

The speed with which the work can be done, Kay said, depends on a number of factors that range from manpower and laboratory testing to the size and condition of the sites. Those that have been bombed, for example, might have to be checked first for unexploded ordnance or shored up for safety.

Also, he said newly identified sites -- particularly those pinpointed by Iraqis on the scene -- would likely jump to the top of the list.

"To do the first 40 sites," said Kay, now a senior research fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, "you're probably talking at least a month and maybe longer, maybe six weeks."

McChrystal said the process likely will speed up as fighting decreases and there is a "more secure environment in which we can get to these locations more easily."

Also at the Pentagon briefing, chief spokeswoman Victoria Clarke noted that searches involve more than laboratories or factories. There are documents to be reviewed and individuals to be questioned, she said. "It is a very complex system."

Sites being inspected for possible chemical or biological materials, Kay said, resemble a crime scene.

"You cordon off the site. You look at it, you interview people, you sample. And you obviously have to wait for the results at times," he said. Inspections in offices, where the search would focus heavily on people, paperwork and computer data, would look more like white-collar crime scenes, he added.

The U.S. Army 75th Intelligence Exploitation Task Force, now headquartered in Kuwait, was set up to handle the inspections. Its staff includes experts from the military and from government labs as well as civilians, according to officials.

Kay said there's no shortage of people qualified to do the inspecting -- the United Nations, for example, said it has a worldwide roster of 320 trained experts -- but that the process for details such as clearances and insurance can be time consuming.

Task force teams are now working in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Dave Lapan at the Pentagon.

The task force has two mobile testing labs and can utilize U.S. and British laboratories when necessary, Kay said.

Kay said it can be tricky to distinguish between nerve agents and pesticides, for instance, and biological agents may be difficult to pin down.

U.S. officials have downplayed initial finds related to possible weapons of mass destruction, as McChrystal did yesterday when asked about reports of possible mobile labs being uncovered in southern Iraq. He said the find would be treated "very seriously" but added that he was aware of "no official estimation at this point" about the discovery.