No WMDs in Iraq
No weapons of mass destruction have yet been found in Iraq, according to an interim report from the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group.
The large group of inspectors, set up by the Bush administration to comb Iraq for firm evidence pointing to the physical existence of WMDs, said Saddam Hussein wanted to acquire nuclear weapons but none of his assumed arsenal had been located.
The ISG, which has a budget of 300 million pounds and has hundreds of intelligence and weapons experts at its disposal, said Iraq lacked a centrally organised chemical weapons programme.
Though 120 ammunition sites had yet to be searched, the quantity of chemical and biological materials would be minimal.
But the report also said Iraq was developing missiles with a range of 1,000km, a range outside the 150km permitted by the UN.
Despite the embarrassment for the Blair government, which staked its politically future in backing the US decision to launch unilateral action against Iraq, in the belief that Saddam’s WMDs presented a real and credible threat, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday there was ‘clear evidence’ to show that Iraq desired to rebuild its WMD programme.
Mr Straw remained convinced Saddam was in material breach of UN resolutions on WMDs.
“The deceit, deception and unwillingness to comply with clear Security Council obligations, I believe then and I believe now that we action we took was fully justified and fully justifiable,” he said.
The evidence suggesting Saddam Hussein had had chemical and biological weapons programmes, he said, was “completely incontrovertible”
Robin Cook, former foreign secretary, said in light of the report, Mr Blair and Mr Bush ought to do the right thing and admit there were no WMDs.
Moreover, he called on London and Washington to plough more money into reconstruction of Iraq and away from the “vanishing possibility” that weapons would be found.
David Kay, head of the ISG, said: “We have not yet found stocks of weapons, but we are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapon stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war.”
