Iraq Reportedly Taps Black Market to Rebuild Banned Arms Programs

Iraq is trying to buy weapons and materials from international arms dealers on the black market to rebuild its nuclear and chemical weapons programs, according to a senior State Department official.

The official, in an interview Tuesday given on condition that he remain anonymous, also said Iraq has so far disclosed only about a quarter of its chemical weapons stocks and probably still has several hundred Scud missiles hidden around the country.

“We know for a fact that they’re out on the black market looking to pick back up some of the weapons that were destroyed during the war,” said the official.

However, the official added that these efforts have so far been unsuccessful because arms dealers are insisting on payment in cash, and Iraq has an acute shortage of hard currency.

Under terms of the cease-fire in the Gulf War, Iraq must declare and scrap all its weapons of mass destruction.

The Washington Post reported today that international inspectors probing Iraq’s nuclear program have discovered a sophisticated, previously secret factory designed to churn out hundreds of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium for a bomb, according to senior diplomatic and U.S. officials.

The inspectors who visited the factory within the last week concluded that it could have been fully operational within a year or so, and that the centrifuges produced there could have generated enough enriched uranium for several nuclear bombs within a few years after that, the officials said.