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Show DAILY September. 2003 Sunday. AS HERALD In search for weapo ns, evidence pr oving elusive Thousands to get paid for WWfl'Nazi John J. Lumpkin ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON Weapons hunters in Iraq have found what they interpret as evidence of Iraqi preparations to secretly produce chemical and biological weapons, some Pentagon (Olficials say. But as the postwar weapons hunt enters its sixth month, it remains unclear whether they have found or ever will any evidence that Iraq had actually made such weapons or whether it simply was prepared to do so. So far, the Bush administration has not announced anything that would validate the , bulk of its prewar assertions about Iraq. "What we have not yet shown, and what really counts, was that there were major, on It Avail am uoruariiy John Leicester ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER PARIS France will compensate thousands of people whose parents were victims of "Nazi barbarity" in World War II, including those killed in massacres or for resisting the German occupation, the govern-roesaid Saturday. Between 5,000 and 8,000 people will likely be eligible and wfll have the choice of either a $30,400 rump sum or monthly payments, said Pierre Mayaudon of the Defense Ministry's office for war veterans. The compensation matches that awarded three years ago to 12,600 Jewish orphans whose parents were deported to Nazi extermination camps during the 5 a dark occupation chapter in French history because wartime France's Vichy regime collaborated with the nt going programs at the time we invaded Iraq," said Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washing-to- a ' The evidence of Iraqi preparations that the teams have found so far points to plans for weapons production that was to take place primarily at "dual-use- " manufacturing facilities inside Iraq, the U.S. officials said These are buildings with an overt, legitimate purpose, such as making pesticides or pharmaceuticals, but their equipment also can be Used to make weapons. No weapons have been reported found. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not know whether any evidence showed that Iraq had actually produced weapons or whether it simply But Democrats on the same had plans to do so. Last week, David Kay, the CIA adviser heading up the search, told several members , of Congress that he expects to find weapons of mass destruction but that there also is the remote possibility that he would ties of chemicals and sub- stances that can be used to make both weapons and legitimate civilian items, the officials said. Castor beans, for example, can be used to make brake fluid for cars and the poison ricin. net. Reaching indisputable conDefense Secretary Donald H. elusions about the intended pur- Rumsfeld, who met with Kay in pose of these items and sites can be difficult. Unless some-Iraq on Saturday, said at a news conference in Baghdad thing else proves a particular that weapons hunters are batch of castor beans was inand tended for ricin production, profes"working diligently 4 searchers will lack solid proof sionally , and we all look for- of a weapons effort. ward to hearing what they have to say." Q A officials declined to comUncovered plans and interment on any discoveries. Offi-rials say there is no timetable views with Iraqis.suggested certain sites were prepared to for Kay to report his findings. Two months ago, after a visit make weapons, the defense officials said. Many of the susto Iraq, Republican senators pect facilities were looted in the said US. searchers had uncov- chaos after the war. ered solid evidence of weapons . Searchers have found quanti programs. trip said the evklence was not - -- Hof inithA Nn raw nrmriHpd dft.. tails. I In August, the leader of the weapons hunt, Kay, suggested a breakthrough was close. But I Kay said the US. government would proceed siowiy Dei ore going public with any discover ies, to make sure its analysis ; was sound That has left critics suggest- itic the administration either mishandled or exaggerated its prewar intelligence on Iraq's 1 weapons programs. "To date there has been no discovery that does not look t like a residual or low level ef- - ; fort growing out of what went on during the time before the Gulf War or when (pre-199-8 UN. inspectors) were still in-specting Iraq," Cordesman -- said . ..' 7', ' v 1940-194- Nazis. The July 2000 compensation came five years after President Jacques Chirac acknowledged in a speech that Vichy had represented the French state and seconded the Nazi occupiers' "criminal foDy." Orphans of deported resistance figures and other victims of Nazi atrocities "considered it unjust" that they were not covered by the same package, Mayaudon said in a telephone interview. In a statement Saturday first announcing the new compensation, Prime Minister Jean-PierRaff arin said that "in the interests of justice and fairness" the package was being extended to "orphans of victims of Nazi barbarity." Compensation will be paid after Hamlaoui Mekachera, secretary for war veterans, determines exactly how many people are eligible, Raffarin said. That process will likely take several months, said Mayaudon, Mekachera's office director. Those eligible wfll include not only people whose parents were killed or deported to death camps for resisting the occupation but also those murdered in massacres of innocent civilians by Nazi troops, he said. Also eligible wfll likely be those whose parents were rounded up and shot. In one of the most notorious killings, German troops hanged 99 people in the town of Tulle, central France, three days after landthe June 6, 1944, Allied in by ings Normandy forces. "There were many massacres after the landings because resistance fighters were attacking . German forces and the Ger- mans exacted revenge," said Mayaudon. To qualify, people must have lost one or both parents and been minors at the time in keeping with the package offered to Jewish orphans. Families of resistance fighters kifled in combat against German forces will not be covered because they receive war pensions, said Mayaudon. Nor wfll compensation be offered to families of civilians killed in the general course of the war, such as victims of aerial bombardments. non-Jewi- v V J re 4 3L f j D-D-ay ' I tf Jf . k. 1 I ri Z4 gi NjuXljJ r i MOT mi MOtf in a ia. I lUtmllil .T.m, ..injjiri. ii . .n f ... L r7 -- i WiTU tTCf2ST QATEG COIiID UP. THIS, t'AY Cc VCU.i LAST CIL ... J TO SAVS CI3 OH LOAflS. SO VV'HE CFrSPaO'PuCSAL RATES CII C2LCCT LOAM PHCS'JCTS WHILE THE HATES ARE GTILL CQGD. 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