[Mb-civic] Report concludes no WMD in Iraq BBC

[Michael Butler]

 Report concludes no WMD in Iraq
 Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons before
the US-led invasion, the group hunting for such weapons is set to report.

 But the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is expected to suggest that Saddam Hussein
intended to resume production of banned weapons when he could.

 US President George W Bush has again defended last year's invasion of Iraq.

 He said the risk of Saddam Hussein passing WMD to terror groups was "a risk
we could not afford to take".

 Addressing supporters in Pennsylvania, Mr Bush said that after the 11
September 2001 attacks, the US had to look for sources of WMD (weapons of
mass destruction) available to terrorists.

 "We had to take a hard look at every place where terrorists might get those
weapons," he said.

 "One regime stood out. The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein."

 HAVE YOUR SAY
 Saddam Hussein may be guilty of a number of dreadful things, but thought
crime - is this a new legal precedent?
  Cameron Haig, New York
 
 Before the March 2003 invasion, the Bush administration cited WMD as the
main reason for overthrowing the Iraqi regime, asserting that Saddam Hussein
posed a serious and immediate threat.

 But later on Wednesday, chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer is
expected to tell the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq did not
possess WMD at the time of the invasion.

 "I still do not expect that militarily significant WMD stocks are cached in
Iraq," Mr Duelfer is expected to say according to prepared testimony
obtained by Reuters news agency.

 That verdict has been widely anticipated since the former head of the ISG,
David Kay, resigned in January, and following the leaking of a draft copy of
the report last month.

 'Clandestine schemes'

 British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the report would show that Saddam
Hussein had posed a more serious threat than previously imagined.

 Speaking in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mr Straw said "the threat from
Saddam Hussein in terms of his intentions" was "even starker than we have
seen before".

 We know Saddam had weapons of mass destruction - he used them
  Barhem Saleh 
 Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister

 Saddam Hussein would have built up his WMDs had he been left in power, Mr
Straw added.

 Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Barhem Saleh, said anyone who doubted that
Saddam Hussein had WMDs only needed to visit Halabja - where the former Iraq
dictator had gassed thousands of Kurds.

 "We know Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He used them," Dr Saleh
said, adding that in his view Saddam Hussein was himself a weapon of mass
destruction.

 'Definitive' 

 US government officials told the New York Times that the report would
include new evidence that Saddam Hussein had planned to break UN-imposed
sanctions and renew the production of banned weapons.

 IRAQ SURVEY GROUP
 Set up in May 2003
 First leader, David Kay, quit in Jan 2004 stating WMD would not be found in
Iraq
 New head, Charles Duelfer appointed by CIA
 1,200 experts from the US, Britain and Australia
 HQ in Washington, offices in Baghdad and Qatar
 The officials, speaking anonymously, said the report would detail efforts
by Iraq to bypass sanctions while they were still in place, and to undermine
international support for them.

 Those efforts were reported to include the use of clandestine laboratories
to manufacture small quantities of chemical and biological weapons for use
in assassinations.

 BBC Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says the report, which runs to more
than 1,000 pages, is being billed as the most definitive account yet of
Iraq's weapons programmes.

 Our correspondent says that with the political stakes in the US so high and
Iraq so central to the debate, Republican and Democratic camps in the
presidential race will seize on the different elements of the report to
argue that it bolsters their case for or against the Iraq war.

 However, the document will stop short of offering a final judgement about
the situation before the war.

 Instead, the ISG is expected to continue translating and evaluating an
estimated 10,000 boxes of documents seized in Iraq.

 Story from BBC NEWS:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3718150.stm

 Published: 2004/10/06 18:17:21 GMT

 © BBC MMIV