U.S. releases ship carrying Scud missiles

U.S. officials allowed a freighter with 15 Scud missiles on board to continue on its way to Yemen Wednesday. The Yemeni government said it had bought the missiles from North Korea and promised that the weapons would not fall into anyone else's hands.

U.S. and Spanish forces had searched the freighter, named the So San, on Monday, after they stopped it about 600 miles south of Yemen. Questions about the ship's nationality and its cargo led to the discovery of the Scud missiles.

According to a Spanish official, the Spanish crew that boarded the ship found a 25-page declaration of cargo on board that did not list Yemen as a destination and did not list Scud missiles as among its cargo. In fact, the cargo declaration mentions only 2,000 tons of cement, which was to be delivered to the African country of Djibouti. Apparently, the cement had been ordered by Djibouti's Ministry Of Mining, the official said. But when he was asked why Yemen's name does not show up on the declaration of the ship's cargo, the official replied, "We can't explain it."

RESOURCES • CNN.com: U.S. warns of Yemen terror threat  • Yemen - Relations with U.S.  • Arab Net: Yemen  • World Factbook 2002: Yemen

Spanish officials, who stopped the ship in the Indian Ocean, questioned why the U.S. would allow it to continue on its way. But U.S. officials defended their decision. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that there is no international law that does not allow Yemen "from accepting delivery of missiles from North Korea." And Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the U.S. was assured that the missiles "were for Yemeni defensive purposes," and that the weapons would not be going anywhere else under any circumstances. The U.S. was also assured that this shipment of Scud missiles was the last in a group of such shipments that dates back several years.

However, a senior White House official said that the Bush administration made it clear that it did not believe Yemen had any strategic need for the weapons. And though U.S. military officials praised Yemen's cooperation in the War on Terror, they also expressed concern over the idea of additional Scud missiles being sent to the Persian Gulf region.

The White House also protested any weapons deals involving North Korea, a country that has admitted to developing nuclear weapons despite an agreement the country made in 1994 to stop doing so.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that such interdictions, or acts of stopping suspicious vehicles, would continue. Regarding this operation, Rumsfeld said that it had been "conducted peacefully," which suggests that there were no problems as officials searched the ship.

U.S. officials pointed out that this interdiction shows how effective its new, more aggressive policy is to stop the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. However, some are questioning how much right the U.S. coalition had to stop the ship in the first place.