U.S. Readies Plan to Raid Iraqi A-Sites

The Bush Administration, responding to charges that Iraq is hiding significant amounts of nuclear weapons material, has ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for military strikes on possible nuclear caches throughout Iraq, Administration officials said Thursday.

The officials confirmed reports of the military planning just a day after a senior U.S. diplomat at the United Nations charged publicly that Iraq was hiding what remains of its nuclear weapons program.

The Pentagon officially refused to say whether it is considering such a strike against the remnants of Iraq’s nuclear facilities. But Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams launched some of the strongest rhetoric that U.S. officials have aimed at Baghdad since the end of the Persian Gulf War.

“They’re clearly trying to hide something,” said Williams. “That is intolerable under the terms of the U.N. Security Council resolutions (to which Iraq agreed after the war), and we have made our point very clear on that.”

Secretary of State James A. Baker III on Thursday called Iraq’s alleged concealment “extraordinarily serious.” Asked what the United States could do beyond maintaining economic sanctions against Iraq, Baker would only say to reporters, “Stay tuned.”

At the United Nations, the president of the Security Council met with Iraq’s Ambassador Abdul Amir Anbari and demanded that Iraq immediately turn over to international nuclear inspectors equipment to enrich uranium that allegedly was moved from a Baghdad base to avoid confiscation.

U.S. officials on Wednesday had taken the unusual step of providing the Security Council with surveillance photographs to support its claim that Iraq removed uranium-enrichment equipment from the military base after being surprised by a snap inspection.

“The Bush Administration at the very highest levels has reacted violently to what’s happened with Iraqi nuclear capability,” said one knowledgeable official. “The Administration takes this all very seriously.”

Pentagon officials said the United States has two aircraft carriers, bearing more than 100 combat aircraft, within striking range of Iraq. The carrier Nimitz has been operating inside the Persian Gulf for several months, and the carrier Forrestal on Thursday was docked in Haifa, Israel. The Forrestal has been supporting Kurdish refugee relief operations.

American troops in the region have dwindled to 65,000--roughly 12% of their peak presence during the war--making a resumption of ground operations against Iraq improbable.

Officials said the Bush Administration’s concern over Iraq’s remaining nuclear capability has reached feverish levels since early June, when a defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist began detailing what he said were Baghdad’s efforts to conceal its undamaged nuclear stockpile. The defector described elaborate shifting of nuclear materials, such as enriched uranium, so that they would elude notice by U.N. inspectors monitoring Iraq’s adherence to cease-fire terms.

Many of the defector’s claims have been corroborated by U.N. investigators and inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, officials said.

At an urgently called Security Council session Wednesday, Alexander F. Watson, the second-ranking official in the U.S. delegation, accused Iraq of attempting to hide much of its nuclear program, which is aimed at the development of weapons.

On two occasions, U.N. nuclear inspectors were blocked from entering an army base in Baghdad believed to have served as a temporary hiding place for equipment to enrich uranium. The inspectors observed cranes, trucks and fork lifts hurriedly moving materials from the site. When they finally gained access to the facility, the inspectors were reported to have found high levels of radioactivity.

“Only after frenetic activity to move things out of there did (Iraqi officials) finally let the IAEA inspection team in--not exactly the kind of open access to facilities that we need to satisfy ourselves, that the IAEA and the U.N. need to satisfy themselves, about Iraq’s compliance with the Security Council resolutions,” Williams said Thursday.

At Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, the Iraqi U.N. ambassador repeatedly denied that his government was seeking to hide nuclear materials from inspectors.

Western diplomats have said that Iraq’s response to new requests for access could be a barometer of its intentions to comply with the peace terms. Iraq is desperate to sell oil on world markets, which would allow it to fund its reconstruction. That may provide the U.N. Sanctions Committee with leverage to help bring about Iraq’s agreement on the inspections.

Still, the Bush Administration gave Iraq little reason to believe that it will soon back a lifting of trade sanctions that, among other things, bar the country from selling its oil. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Thursday that Iraq’s current government is “someone that we will find it next to impossible to do business with.”

John J. Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this report.