Fresh pressure for coalition over WMD claims
US president George W Bush is facing a fresh attack over deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Democratic Senator John Kerry has accused Mr Bush and his administration of misleading the people over the issue of banned weapons.
Mr Kerry is a leading Democrat and has promised Congress that he intends to get to the bottom of the matter. Both houses in Congress are considering holding inquiries into the matter.
No conclusive evidence of Saddam Hussein’s alleged biological and chemical weapons has yet been found by the coalition despite the case for war, on both sides of the Atlantic, having been built on the immediate threat posed by Iraq’s WMD capabilities.
And in a related development, Mr Bush has spoken out in defence of Tony Blair’s so-called ‘dodgy dossier’ on Iraqi weapons, which is causing the British Prime Minister significant problems with MPs in the House of Commons.
Earlier this week, former Cabinet ministers Clare Short and Robin Cook gave evidence to a committee of MPs in which they both accused the Government of exaggerating evidence relating to weapons of mass destruction.
The US President insisted: ‘(Blair) operated on very sound intelligence, and those accusations are simply not true.’
US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that Washington is willing to consider making deals with captured senior members of Saddam Hussein’s deposed government, to help with the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
