Iraq: Spiking the Big Guns

Although Iraq agreed last April to relinquish any nuclear, chemical, biological or ballistic weapons in its possession as a condition for a cease- fire in the Persian Gulf war, it probably never envisioned the scene that took place in the mountains north of Baghdad last week. While United Nations experts looked on, Iraqi workers slit holes in the barrels of five “superguns” that Baghdad could have used to hurl shells at neighbors 400 miles away.

At the same time, concern about the scope of President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program increased when U.N. officials disclosed that secret documents seized by an inspection team last month showed Iraq had produced small amounts of lithium-6, a chemical used only in hydrogen bombs. The substance was kept at the Al-Atheer weapons center 40 miles south of Baghdad, a facility virtually unscathed by the war. While a team of experts flew to Iraq to begin searching for evidence of a potential H-bomb, the U.N. Security Council drafted a resolution aimed at preventing Iraq from ever regaining a nuclear capability. The provisions for mandatory reporting by Baghdad sound overly optimistic, given Saddam’s past deceptions.