Doubts Grow Over Iraq 'Smoking Gun'
By Guy Dinmore and James Harding
Financial Times

Saturday 3 May 2003

Saddam Hussein appears to have shut down or destroyed large parts of 
his unconventional weapons programmes before the war in Iraq, a senior 
Bush administration official who has been closely involved in the quest 
to purge Iraq of weapons of mass destruction said this week.  

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he would 
be "amazed if we found weapons-grade plutonium or uranium" and it was 
unlikely large volumes of biological or chemical material would be 
discovered. He suggested that the sanctions and UN inspections 
probably prompted Mr Hussein to dispose of much of his stockpile.  

"The biological weapons stuff is easy to destroy," he said, adding 
that chemical agents might have been dumped in the desert.  

The disclosure will fuel criticism in Britain - and particularly 
among Tony Blair's backbenchers - about the failure to unearth a 
"smoking gun". The prime minister made the need to find and destroy 
Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction the central justification 
for war.  

President George W. Bush also repeatedly justified the use of 
force against Iraq by arguing that Mr Hussein's deadly weapons 
could threaten its neighbours and fall into the hands of terrorists 
who might strike the US. The failure so far to find evidence of 
an Iraqi weapons programme has led to speculation that no such 
programme existed.  

However, the senior administration official insisted the US never 
expected to find a huge arsenal. He said the US was more concerned 
by Mr Hussein's team of 1,000 scientists, whom he termed "nuclear 
mujahadeen". These scientists, he argued, could have restarted Iraq's 
weapons programme once the crisis passed. A primary concern was 
dual-use "factories and breweries" which could be converted into 
weapons plants but were allowed under UN sanctions.  

"He kept them together in the expectation that one day the sanctions 
would disappear and the inspections would disappear and he would fire 
up that nuclear capability," the official said.  

The comments mark a refinement in the controversial concept of a 
"preventive war", according to which the Bush administration is willing 
to take pre-emptive military action against a country that has deadly 
weapons in mass quantities. It suggests instead that the administration 
will act against a hostile regime that has nothing more than the intent 
and ability to develop weapons of mass destruction.  

The official's claims come even as US and UK officials have insisted in 
recent days that the US will ultimately find stashes of deadly weapons.  

Mr Blair said this week he had "no doubt" that the allies would find 
them, while Richard Armitage, US deputy secretary of state, said on 
Wednesday: "We will find evidence of Iraq's weapons soon."  

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is 
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest 
in receiving the included information for research and educational 
purposes.)  

(c): t r u t h o u t 2003

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Source: Truthout - http://truthout.org/docs_03/050403G.shtml


Cheers, Steve..

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