Spy device planted on Butler8217;s orders

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD, JAN 10: Former US weapons inspector in Iraq says he was told to install a US intelligence gathering device in Baghdad...

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD, JAN 10: Former US weapons inspector in Iraq says he was told to install a US intelligence gathering device in Baghdad that allowed Washington to spy on Iraq8217;s leadership, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In an interview with the Tribune to be published tomorrow, Ritter said top UN arms inspector Richard Butler gave him the order in July last year.

Ritter, who resigned last August from the UNSCOM in charge of finding Iraq8217;s weapons of mass destruction, said the device had the appearance of an office safe and sat in his work area in Baghdad.

Ritter told the Tribune that Washington had complete control of the device while it functioned between July and December last year, when UN inspectors took it with them on their way out of Iraq.

He said it allowed Washington to listen in on conversations between Iraqi leaders and was not used to unearth weapons.

8220;What Butler did was allow the US to take over,8221; Ritter is quoted as saying.

8220;I wrote him a memo objection,8221;Ritter said. 8220;He told me that he respected what I was saying, but that he had received assurances from the US that they would not misuse the information.8221;

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The Tribune said Butler declined to comment directly on Ritter8217;s allegations.

Reports from Baghdad speak a spying programme far wider in scope than reported in US dailies, according to an Iraqi spokesman.

Washington 8220;is seeking to diminish its spying activities under the cover of the special commission by limiting it to one member,8221; the information ministry spokesman said.

8220;By limiting the spying to one member, this government wants to suggest the innocence of the other spies in UNSCOM,8221; he said.

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8220;Iraq will never accept threats to its security and to the interests of its people,8221; the spokesman said, according to official INA news agency.

8220;Iraq believes the US intelligence in Iraq long ago dug its own grave and that the US-British aggression was the last nail in the coffin8221;.

This aggression8217; was a reference to the four-daycampaign of US and British missile strikes on Iraq last month, dubbed Operation Desert Fox.

The Washington Post and Boston Globe on Wednesday reported that UN chief Kofi Annan had received credible evidence8217; showing Washington used UNSCOM8217;s eavesdropping intelligence in its effort to undermine Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.