Iraq disarmament crisis timeline

Timeline of events related to the Iraq disarmament crisis

January 18, 2003

• Global protests against war on Iraq in cities around the world, including Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Cologne, Bonn, Goteborg, Istanbul, and Cairo. NION and ANSWER hold protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco, California.

February 5

• At the United Nations US Secretary of State Colin Powell presents the US government's case against the Saddam Hussein government of Iraq, as part of the diplomatic side of the U.S. plan to invade Iraq. The presentation includes tape recordings, satellite photographs and other intelligence data, and aims to prove WMD production, evasion of weapons inspections and a link to Al-Qaida.

February 7

• The chief United Nations arms inspector Hans Blix said Iraq appeared to be making fresh efforts to cooperate with U.N. teams hunting weapons of mass destruction, as Washington said the "momentum is building" for war with Iraq.

February 8

• Sections of a 'dossier' issued by the UK government, which purported to present the latest British intelligence about Iraq, and which had been cited by Tony Blair and Colin Powell as evidence for the need for war, were criticized as plagiarisms. They had been copied without permission from a number of sources including Jane's Intelligence Review and a 12-year-old doctoral thesis of a Californian student that had been published in the US journal Middle East Review of International Affairs. Some sentences were copied word-for-word, and spelling mistakes had been reproduced from the original articles. Downing Street responded by saying that the government had never claimed exclusive authorship and that the information was accurate.

February 10

• France and Belgium broke the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq. Germany said it supports this veto. The procedure was put into operation on February 6 by secretary general George Robertson. In response Turkey called upon Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which stipulates that member states must deliberate when asked to do so by another member state if it feels threatened.

February 12

• An audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden is released by al-Jazeera television. It recounts the battle of Tora Bora and urges Muslims to fight the United States and to overthrow the Iraq regime of Saddam Hussein.
• February 13: A UN panel reports that Iraq's al-Samoud 2 missiles, disclosed by Iraq to weapons inspectors in December, have a range of 180 km (above the 150 km limit allowed by the UN), splitting opinion over whether they breach UNSCR 1441.
• Austria bars USA military units involved in the attack on Iraq from entering into or flying over its territories without a UN mandate to attack Iraq.
• The Washington Post claims that anonymous sources confirm that two Special Forces units have been operating on the ground inside Iraq for over a month, making preliminary preparations for a large-scale invasion.

February 14

• A very large demonstration was held in Melbourne to protest against the Australian government's support for the USA's policy on Iraq. Organisers estimated that 200,000 people came out on to the streets, while some news sources put the number at "up to 150,000". [1]
• UNMOVIC chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei presented a report to the United Nations Security Council. They stated that the Iraqis had been co-operating well with the inspectors and that no weapons of mass destruction had been found, but that the Saddam Hussein regime had still to account for many banned weapons believed to have been in his arsenal. Mr Blix also expressed doubts about some of the conclusions in Colin Powell's Security Council presentation of February 5, and specifically questioned the significance of some of the photographic evidence that Mr Powell had presented.

February 15

• Global protests against war on Iraq: People around the world demonstrated against the planning of war against Iraq. In Rome one million people were on the streets, in London one million. In Berlin there were half a million in the largest demonstration for some decades. There were also protest marches all over France as well as in many other smaller European cities. Protests were also held in South Africa, Syria, India, Russia, Canada and in the USA, in around 600 cities in total.

February 18

• *Hours before the first ships transporting heavy United States military equipment to Turkey were supposed to reach port, the Turkish government announces that it will withhold approval to dock unless the United States increases a reciprocal $6 billion foreign aid grant to $10 billion. The Bush administration indicated that no substantial changes will be made to the proposed aid package. [2]

February 24

• Secretary of State Colin Powell states at a meeting in Beijing that "It is time to take action. The evidence is clear ... We are reaching that point where serious consequences must flow." His speech appears to imply that military action is likely to follow within three weeks, based on previous Pentagon briefings.

February 25

• The United States, Britain and Spain present to the UN Security Council a much-anticipated second resolution stating that Iraq "has failed to take the final opportunity" to disarm, but does not include deadlines or an explicit threat of military force. Meanwhile, France, Germany, and Russia offer a counter-proposal calling for peaceful disarmament through further inspections.
• Both major parties of Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, vow to fight Turkish troops if they enter Kurdistan to capture Mosul or interfere in Kurdish self-rule. Between them the two parties can mobilize up to 80,000 guerillas - most likely no match for the modern Turkish army, but a severe blow to the unity of U.S. allies on the Northern front expected in the U.S. plan to invade Iraq.

February 26

• Hans Blix stated that Iraq still has not made a "fundamental decision" to disarm, despite recent signs of increased cooperation. Specifically, Iraq has refused to destroy it's al-Samoud 2 long range missiles - a weapon system that was in violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions and the US treaty with Iraq. These missiles are deployed and mobile. Also, an R-400 aerial bomb was found that could possibly contain biological agents. Given this find, the UN Inspectors have requested access to the Al-Aziziyah weapons range to verify that all 155 R-400 bombs can be accounted for and proven destroyed. Blix also expressed skepticism over Iraq's claims to have destroyed its stockpiles of anthrax and VX nerve agent in Time magazine. Blix said he found it "a bit odd" that Iraq, with "one of the best-organized regimes in the Arab world," would claim to have no records of the destruction of these illegal substances. "I don't see that they have acquired any credibility," Blix said
• Gerorge Bush commits publicly to a post-invasion democracy in Iraq, says it will be "an example" to other nations in Arabia
• Tony Blair passes a motion in the UK House of Commons supporting a new resolution at the UN Security Council and presumably authorizing a war (although the motion carefully avoids saying so). 120 UK Labour Party MPs dissent and vote against it - double the number who opposed the previous such motion - but the UK Conservative Party backs the government's motion.
• Saddam Hussein, in an interview with Dan Rather, rules out exile as an option.

February 27

• UN Security Council meeting on Iraq ended without forming an agreement on timeline for further weapons inspections or future reports.

February 28

• Iraq is expected to begin the process of destroying Al Samoud two missiles on Saturday. Hans Blix, U.N. chief weapons inspector said "It is a very significant piece of real disarmament". However, the spokesman of the White House, Ari Fleischer declared that the Iraq commitment to destroy these missiles is a fraud that President George W. Bush had predicted, and indicated that the United States wanted a total and complete disarmament of Iraq. He also repeated that if the United Nations did not act to disarm Baghdad, the United States would lead a coalition of voluntary countries to disarm Saddam Hussein.

March 1

• Under UN supervision, Iraq begins destroying four of its Al Samoud missiles.
• The Turkish speaker of Parliament voids the vote accepting U.S. troops involved in the planned invasion of Iraq into Turkey on constitutional grounds. 264 votes for and 250 against accepting 62,000 US military personnel do not constitute the necessary majority under the Turkish constitution, due to 19 abstentions. [3]
• The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war. The sentiment is later echoed by Kuwait.

March 2

• The country of Bahrain becomes the third Arab country to call for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down. Kuwait and the United Arab Emerites had previously made similiar announcements.
• The libral newspaper The Observer publishes what is purported to be a leaked memo dated January 31, 2003 showing the U.S.' intent to spy on UN Security Council members from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea, and Pakistan to try to determine how they will vote. The memo's authenticity was questioned by the conservative pundit Matt Drudge, whose critique was also cited by others, such as the Unification Church owned newspaper the Washington Times [4]. Drudge pointed out that website's transcription of the memo contained several errors, namely a misspelling of the name of the memo's author (Kozu instead of Koza), an misspelling of the NSA's "top secret" stamp (with a "1" instead of an "L"), and several words written with a non-US spelling, as well as a date-stamp in the European format. The Observer said that it altered the memo to include British spellings so that its readers were not confused, but did not address the other inaccuracies. The Observer also corrected the spelling of the author's name on their website after the problem was pointed out, and stands by its story. Wayne Madsen, who had been a communications security analyst with the NSA in the mid-1980s, has been quoted as saying that that he believes the memo is authentic. He speculates that the memo was directed at the security agencies of the other nations that constitute the Echelon network, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This news story was picked up by newspapers in Europe and Canada, but initially ignored by the American press.
• Iraq destroys six more Al Samoud missiles, bringing the total destroyed to 10 out of an estimated 100 missiles ordered eliminated by the UN. The White House continues to dismiss Iraq's actions as "part of its game of deception." Iraq indicates that it may halt destruction of the missiles if the U.S. indicates it will go to war anyway.
• The Sun reports that military action against Iraq could begin as soon as March 13, hours after the UN is likely to vote on the proposed second resolution put forth by the United States, Britain, and Spain.

March 3

• Under intense American pressure, Turkey indicates that its Parliament will consider a second vote on whether to allow U.S. troops to use Turkish bases for a military attack on Iraq.
• Iraqi technicians use bulldozers to crush six more of the banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, bringing to 16 the number destroyed in three days.

March 4

• Iraq destroys three more Al Samoud 2 missiles, bringing to 19 the number Baghdad has crushed out of 100 ordered destroyed by the UN. Iraq also destroyed a launcher and five engines in a rush to prove it is disarming before a crucial U.N. report on March 7. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the new actions "a positive development" while the White House remained unconvinced saying, "Despite whatever limited head-fakes Iraq has engaged in, they continue to fundamentally not disarm."

March 5

• Pope John Paul II called on Catholics to commemorate Ash Wednesday by fasting and praying for peace. He sent an envoy, Cardinal Pio Laghi, to President Bush, to urge him not to go to war. Laghi told Bush that the Pope believed that a war would be a "defeat for humanity" and would be neither morally nor legally justified.
• Two days before his scheduled update to the United Nations on Iraqi cooperation with inspection, Hans Blix credited Iraq with "a great deal more of cooperation now", although still expressed some skepticism as to whether or not the cooperation would continue. Among the examples of cooperation that he cited were Iraq's destruction of Samoud 2 missiles, which he called "the most spectacular and the most important and tangible". He added that "here weapons that can be used in war are being destroyed in fairly large quantities." In general, he stated, "you have a greater measure of cooperation on interviews in general." These statements have helped to harden the opposition to the US-led war by several other Security Council members.
• Secretary of State Colin Powell said that US intelligence has indicated that Hussein has ordered the production of more Al Samoud 2 missiles parts and engines. The Iraqi government did not deny the claim but simply said once again that they considered the missiles to be legal. He also pointed out that Iraq had delivered "some documents that have not been found before"

March 6

• United States intelligence reports that the Iraqi government has ordered US military uniforms with plans of carrying out attacks on Iraqi citizens which would then be blamed on US soldiers. (Reuters) [5]
• Iraqi exiles testify in Washington about the brutal crimes commited against Iraqi citizens by the Hussein regime. One Iraqi woman said that the Iraqi people are "patiently waiting" for the US to liberate the country. Another woman said that war protestors are ignorant and misinformed. [6] There was no corresponding testimony from the victims of brutal crimes commited by US allies, such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, and although the US has claimed that human rights has been a motivation for its proposed war against Iraq, there have been no publically announced plans for "regime change" against those dictatorships that support the US-led invasion.
• China joined France, Russia, and Germany in putting itself officially on record as opposing a US-led war. Jiang Zemin was quoted as saying, "The door of peace should not be closed."
• US President George W. Bush holds a live, televised press conference on the latest developments in the War on Terrorism, the situation with North Korea and the standoff with Iraq. [7]

March 7

• The Washington Times publishes a report detailing recent US intelligence showing that France has been secretly selling spare parts to Iraq for its fighter jets and military helicopters during the past several months. Other intelligence reports indicate that Iraq had succeeded in acquiring French weaponry illegally for years. [8] Western supplies of Iraqi arms had been known for some time. At the request of the United States, the 12,000 page Iraqi weapons declaration was largely censored before being submitted to the UN, in order to remove references to Western countries that supplied arms to Iraq. Only some 3,000 pages were left after the censorship; The German newspapger Die Tageszeitung had obtained copies of the censored report, which references such companies as Honeywell among a chief supplier of Iraqi arms. The list of American companies can be found at [9]
• Hans Blix reports to the UN Security Council