Scott Ritter Denounces "Iraqi Liberation Act"

[John F McCarthy]

In "The Case for Iraq's Qualitative Disarmament." found on the Web at:
http://www.armscontrol.org/ACT/june00/iraqjun.htm former UN arms inspector
Scott Ritter says the following:

"One serious obstacle to the reformulation of Iraq's disarmament
obligation by the Security Council is the current U.S. policy of removing
Saddam Hussein from power, codified in the Iraqi Liberation Act of
1998. That law has so far failed to threaten Saddam Hussein in any
meaningful way, but it has succeeded in precluding any meaningful
diplomatic initiative by locking the United States into a unilateral
policy that makes cooperation with Iraq impossible. If the United States
is serious about disarming Iraq, it should repeal the Iraqi Liberation Act
and work within the framework of the Security Council to formulate a
policy that results in the rapid reintroduction of meaningful,
monitoring-based weapons inspections into Iraq. That will require the
lifting, not simply the suspension, of sanctions. While it is true that
the sanctions have retarded Iraq's ability to acquire technology that
could aid any WMD reconstitution effort, Resolution 687 stated that a
finding of compliance would trigger the lifting of sanctions. Sanctions
are thus not an open-ended option. At some point, they will need to be
lifted, and if a finding of qualitative disarmament backed with the
implementation of viable monitoring-based inspections can be had, then
there is no reason to keep sanctions in place. The Security Council must
also follow through on the promise it made in paragraph 14 of Resolution
687, which speaks of regional disarmament. While monitoring-based
inspections in Iraq must be expected to last indefinitely, they cannot be
expected to last in a vacuum. Unless arrangements are made to address WMD
programs in Iran and Israel, as well as the regional proliferation of
advanced conventional weaponry, Iraq will never accept perpetual
disarmament. What is needed is a Security Council resolution that
concludes Resolution 687, supercedes Resolution 1284, and redefines the
disarmament obligations of Iraq to meet more realistic qualitative
benchmarks. In addition to verifying Iraqi compliance with these new
benchmarks, the resulting inspectorate, whether a revamped UNMOVIC or a
new agency, would be tasked with implementing a monitoring regime similar
to the one UNSCOM had in place prior to its withdrawal from Iraq. Once
Iraq's disarmament along clearly defined qualitative standards had been
verified by weapons inspectors, and after a viable monitoring regime was
in place to detect and deter any attempt at reconstituting its WMD
programs, the Security Council would lift, not suspend, economic
sanctions."