Editorial: Burden of proof lies with US

President George W. Bush would have the world disregard Iraq's disclosure of its nuclear, chemical and biological programmes. He has already decided the contents are bogus. Repeatedly, he has insisted that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction, contrary to the Iraqi leader's strategy of denial. And repeatedly he has sought to devalue the work of United Nations weapons inspectors, saying they are not being aggressive enough. Meanwhile, Britain, Washington's chief ally, has released a dossier of Saddam's brutal human rights record. The agenda is clear: Americans and Britons are being prepared for military action against Iraq to enforce disarmament.

Mr Bush will be less than enamoured that Iraq's voluminous weapons programme declaration, submitted before a UN deadline, will take several weeks to analyse. UN experts must check it against a data base comprising earlier declarations, inspection reports, information from supplier Governments and intelligence information. During that time, Saddam will continue to try to confuse and divide international opinion. Already, he has curried favour by co-operating with the weapons inspections, even as, for domestic consumption, his vice-president accused the inspectors of being American and Israeli spies. Additionally, he is courting popular opinion in the Arab world, through an apology to the Kuwaiti people for Iraq's 1990-91 occupation.

If this obfuscation is immensely annoying to the White House, so is the ticking of the clock. Optimal conditions for a military assault on Iraq run from now until the end of February. The deadline for the arms inspectors to report back to the Security Council is January 26. They can, however, advise of violations earlier. That places the onus squarely on the United States. The Bush Administration says its assertion that Iraq is lying when it denies having weapons of mass destruction has a "solid basis". Yet, starved of intelligence from the Americans, the weapons inspectors have found no banned weapons after more than a week of work.

This is embarrassing for Britain, which in September released a 50-page dossier entitled Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. It amounted to a rudimentary checklist for an inspection team. Clearly it is now up to the US to furnish the inspectors with more substantial backing for its claim that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Yet so far, the White House is demurring, saying it will share some but not all of its evidence. Quite illogically, it says "the burden of proof lies with Saddam".

The US seems, in fact, more intent on pressuring the weapons inspectors. It has now called for them to spirit key Iraqi scientists out of Iraq and offer them asylum in exchange for telling what they know. Under a UN resolution, the inspectors can take scientists out of Iraq and, in theory, could achieve what the Americans seek. But the act would be hugely provocative. As the White House knows, and perhaps anticipates, it could destroy an inspection process that, contrary to US claims, has already shown its teeth by demanding access to one of Saddam's palaces.

The Iraqi declaration must be fully assessed and the inspectors given time to uphold or refute its accuracy. As much as that may agitate the Americans, they have it in their own hands to accelerate the process. Their "proof" would lead the inspectors to Iraqi weapons, and confirmation of Saddam's deceit. Only then would the more sceptical of America's allies be won over - and only then could military action be justified.

Herald feature: Iraq