Claim that no WMD found in Iraq
The BBC journalist Andrew Neil has reported a source’s claim that no weapons of mass destruction have yet been discovered in Iraq.
A Bush administration source reportedly said that the draft of the interim report of the Iraq Survey Group will say that no weapons of mass destruction, or facilities to build or launch them, have been found in Iraq, according to Mr Neil.
The Iraq Survey Group has been present in Iraq since June with 14,000 members to look for evidence of WMD.
As to what they have found, Andrew Neil said: ‘They have got computer files, they have got paperwork.which they will say strongly suggests that Saddam Hussein’s regime was continuing to develop programme of weapons of mass destruction. My understanding is that it refers largely to chemical and biological, not nuclear.’
‘One thing that the Iraq Survey Group has been quite amazed at is the extent to which the Saddam regime went to try and deceive the UN inspectors.’
‘Saddam even built facilities, infrastructure that were false simply to try and mislead the UN inspectors that some WMDs could be in there.’
‘The question that the report raises, but doesn’t answer, is if you have got nothing to hide, why all of this deception?’
The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has refused to respond directly to the leak, saying that he is awaiting the proper publication.
Straw though left nobody in doubt of his belief that war was the right decision. Speaking from New York, he said: ‘The whole of the international community came to an unanimous agreement that Iraq posed a threat to international peace and security because of its development of weapons of mass destruction and its unlawful missile systems.’
‘If people want evidence they don’t have to wait for Dr Kay’s report, what they can do is look at the volumes of reports from the weapons inspectors going back over a dozen years.’
