Saddam sought missile factory, Iraqi files show

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
New York Times


WASHINGTON -- It was Saddam Hussein's last weapons deal -- and it did not go
exactly as he and his generals imagined.

For two years before the American invasion of Iraq, Saddam's sons, generals
and front companies were engaged in lengthy negotiations with North Korea,
according to computer files discovered by international inspectors and the
accounts of Bush administration officials. The officials now say they
believe that those negotiations -- mostly conducted in neighboring Syria,
apparently with the knowledge of the Syrian government -- were not merely to
buy a few North Korean missiles.

Instead, the goal was to obtain a full production line to manufacture, under
an Iraqi flag, the North Korean missile system, which would be capable of
hitting American allies and bases around the region, according to the Bush
administration officials.

As war with the United States approached, though, the Iraqi files show that
Saddam discovered what American officials say they have known for nearly a
decade now: that Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is less than a fully
reliable negotiating partner.

In return for a $10 million down payment, Saddam appears to have gotten
nothing.

The trail that investigators have uncovered, partly from reading computer
hard drives found in Baghdad and partly from interviews with captured
members of Saddam's inner circle, shows that a month before the American
invasion, Iraqi officials traveled to Syria to demand that North Korea
refund $1.9 million because it had failed to meet deadlines for delivering
its first shipment of goods.

North Korea deflected the request, telling Saddam's representatives, in the
words of one investigator, that "things were too hot" to begin delivering
missile technology through Syria.

The transaction provides an interesting glimpse into the last days of the
Saddam government, and what administration officials say were Iraq's desires
for a long-term business deal for missiles and a missile production plant.

Bush administration officials have seized on the attempted purchase of the
North Korean missiles, known as the Rodong, and a missile assembly line to
buttress their case that Saddam was violating U.N. resolutions, which
clearly prohibited missiles of the range of the North Korean Rodong.

It also establishes that Syria was a major arms-trading bazaar for the
Saddam government, in this case hiding an Iraqi effort to obtain missiles,
they say. Investigators say Syria had probably offered its ports and
territory as the surreptitious transit route for the North Korea-Iraq
missile deal, although it remains unclear what demands the government in
Damascus might have made in return. Further, according to U.S. government
officials and international investigators, the Iraqi official who brokered
the deal, Munir Awad, is now in Syria, apparently living under government
protection.

If it served as a middleman in this deal, as the documents suggest, Syria
was acting in violation of Security Council resolutions even as it served on
the council and voted with the United States on the most important
resolution before the war.

In an interview in Damascus on Sunday with The New York Times, Bashar Assad,
the Syrian president, was asked about the deal described in the Iraqi
computer files and said, "This is the first time I have heard this story."

He said Saddam "was never able to trust Syria, and he never tried and we
never tried to make any relation between him and any other country because
he did not trust us in the first place." For all its complaints about arms
smuggling across the Syrian-Iraq border, Assad said, the United States had
never cited specific cases, adding, "I told the Americans if you have any
evidence that there is smuggling of weapons into Iraq, please let us know."

International inspectors note that the missile deal gone bad appears to be
the most serious violation that has been found so far.

The investigators say they tripped over it while looking for something far
more nefarious -- evidence of a continuing nuclear program, or an active
effort to accumulate more biological or chemical weapons.

"So far, there's really not much in that arena," said one official who has
monitored the continuing search for weapons led by David Kay, a former
weapons inspector who is now conducting the search for the CIA.

After spending tens of millions of dollars in a search that continues on the
ground in Iraq to this day, the official noted, "We've learned this much:
that Kim Jong Il took Saddam to the cleaners."

The first clue of the North Korea-Iraq deal surfaced in public in October
when Kay released preliminary findings of his inquiry into Saddam's program
for developing unconventional weapons.

Kay said his team had uncovered evidence that Iraq had negotiated a deal
with North Korea to acquire missiles, a transaction that a senior
administration official said was apparently never detected by American
intelligence agencies.

But when it came time for the North Koreans to deliver on the deal, the
North Koreans demurred, according to an Iraqi account of the meeting in
Syria that international inspectors found on an Iraqi computer hard drive.
According to the files, the North Koreans said Iraq was under too much
American scrutiny. And evidence amassed since the invasion of Iraq indicates
the deal was for more than just missiles.

"This $10 million was a down payment, and not just a straight purchase for
Rodong missiles, but for Rodong technology," said one American official who
has read documentation on the deal. "Saddam's intent was to get the
expertise from the North Koreans and, potentially, open his own production
line." If the American interpretation is right, it is unclear where Saddam
might have built the production line or how it could have avoided detection
by American satellites.

The exact outlines of the deal remain unclear, the official said, "since the
North Koreans ended up stiffing the Iraqis." The Iraqis were demanding their
money back, "right up to the end," the official said.

American investigators say they have been able to discern outlines of the
murky deal. The $10 million was too much to buy simply a missile or two,
American and international experts say, and too little for an entire
production line, leading to the conclusion that it was a down payment.

Investigators said information downloaded from Iraqi computer hard drives,
at least one of which was obtained before the invasion of Iraq, allowed them
to more specifically interrogate detained members of Saddam's inner circle.
They, in turn, guided investigators deeper into the mountain of official
documents seized during the war.

"You do that, sort of a back-and-forth process," said one American official.
"You find something on a computer disk or in the pile of documents slowly
being translated. That makes you ask questions of the detainees. Then you
bounce back to the documents and so forth. That's how you get the bigger
picture."

Administration officials say investigators uncovered evidence of meetings
between the Iraqis and North Koreans as least as far back as late 2001.

One administration official said American intelligence had evidence that
"the agents from North Korea flew into Syria -- that's where the first
meeting took place." Other officials said at least one round of talks was
held in North Korea.

The final session was held in Syria in February of this year, just before
the war began, officials said. On that trip, according to the Iraqi account
of the meeting in Syria , the Iraqis were also seeking night-vision goggles,
ammunition and gun barrels -- mostly through European middlemen. At that
point, a huge American-British force had been built up on Iraq's southern
borders, and it was clear that war was coming.

What is also interesting about the shopping list, however, is "what's not on
it," said one investigator. "Nothing nuclear, no dual-use items, nothing
about weapons of mass destruction."

American officials said the failed missile deal was brokered by an Iraqi
firm called Al Bashair Trading Co., also spelled Al Bashir in some
documents, which has been identified by American investigators as having had
past involvement in arms trade for Iraq conducted with Yugoslavia.

The company reported directly to the Iraqi military command, investigators
said, and had close ties to one of Saddam's sons, Qusai, who was killed in a
battle with American troops in July.

The negotiations with the North Koreans were conducted by Munir Awad, the
senior officer of Al Bashair, American and international investigators said.

"Munir Awad is one of three men who personally oversaw the most sensitive
transfers of money from Al Bashair to other front companies and governments
and worked directly for Qusai Hussein," said one American official. "Awad is
believed to be in Syria under the protection of the Syrian government."