Iraq had no WMDs, says US Inspector by Reuters / ABC News / Agence France Presse.. 10:01am 7th Oct, 2004   October 7, 2004. (Reuters)    Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons before last year's US-led invasion and its nuclear program had decayed since the 1991 Gulf War, the chief United States weapons inspector has said.    The assessment contrasted with statements by President George W Bush before the invasion, when he cited a growing threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as the reason for overthrowing President Saddam Hussein.    "I still do not expect that militarily significant WMD stocks are cached in Iraq," Charles Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who led the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, said in testimony prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee obtained by Reuters.    Iraq's nuclear weapons program had deteriorated since the 1991 Gulf War, but Saddam did not abandon his nuclear ambitions, he said.    "The analysis shows that despite Saddam's expressed desire to retain the knowledge of his nuclear team, and his attempts to retain some key parts of the program, during the course of the following 12 years [after 1991] Iraq's ability to produce a weapon decayed," Mr Duelfer said.    The issue has figured prominently in the campaign for the November 2 US presidential election, with Democratic challenger John Kerry saying Mr Bush rushed to war without allowing United Nations inspections enough time to investigate Iraq's armaments.    Mr Bush, who has given varying justifications for the war, said in a speech on Wednesday that the concern was that terrorists would get banned weapons from Saddam.    "There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks," Mr Bush said. "In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take," he said, referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States attributed to Al Qaeda.    Mr Duelfer said a risk that has emerged since he last briefed the US Congress on the status of the WMD hunt was a connection between chemical weapons experts from Saddam's former regime with insurgents fighting the US-led forces now in Iraq.    "I believe we got ahead of this problem through a series of raids throughout the spring and summer. I am convinced we successfully contained a problem before it matured into a major threat," Mr Duelfer said. "Nevertheless, it points to the problem that the dangerous expertise developed by the previous regime could be transferred to other hands," he said. Some chemical weapons that have been uncovered were all old and predated the first Gulf war, Mr Duelfer said.    By the time of the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq would have been able to produce mustard agent in months and nerve agent in less than a year, he said.    But on its nuclear program, Iraq at the time of the invasion was "years" from developing a nuclear weapon, a US official familiar with the Duelfer report said.    In 2002 White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice evoked a potential nuclear threat when she said: "We don't want 'the smoking gun' to be a mushroom cloud". A key pre-war discovery that US officials cited as evidence that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program was a shipment of aluminium tubes seized in 2001.    But the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tubes appeared to have been for use in rockets as Iraq had declared, rather than for a nuclear weapons program. "By the end of 1991 they had gotten rid of just about everything including missiles," the official said. "We found nothing which reflected production after 1991."    October 08, 2004    John Kerry blasts Bush 'deception'. (The Australian)    Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, stepping up his attacks on George W. Bush, accused him today of serious errors and a "pattern of deception" on Iraq that has undermined the overall war on terror.    "The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States may well be the last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq," Mr Kerry told a news conference on the eve of his second debate with Mr Bush. The Massachusetts senator, running neck and neck with the Republican less than four weeks before the November 2 election, ran down a litany of criticisms of Mr Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq that came out this week.    "The result is that President Bush's serious errors in judgment have left us more vulnerable and less safe as the terrorists continue to murder school children and target our brave soldiers," he said. Mr Kerry accused Mr Bush of a "pattern of deception" on Iraq and other issues, and of ignoring criticism such as a new official report that said Saddam Hussein had years ago gotten rid of the weapons of mass destruction used to justify the war.    He also picked up again on comments Tuesday by Paul Bremer, the former US civilian overseer in Iraq, that the administration had not deployed an adequate number of troops to keep order after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.The Democrat said Mr Bush "left our troops more vulnerable, left situation on the ground in chaos, and made the mission in Iraq much more difficult to accomplish. That is the truth".    Mr Kerry again accused Mr Bush of "not being straight with Americans", diverting attention from al-Qaeda terrorists to Iraq, ducking responsibility and launching "dishonest" attacks on his White House rival's positions. "For President Bush, it's always someone else's fault, denial, and blaming someone else," the senator said. "The truth is, the responsibility lies with the commander in chief."    7 October , 2004     "Search for WMDs in Iraq ends". (ABC News: AM-Reporter: John Shovelan)    TONY EASTLEY: After about seventeen months of searching the Bush administration's chief weapons inspector has concluded there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the time of the invasion. Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, was the major justification for going to war, given by the leaders of the coalition countries. From Washington John Shovelan reports.    JOHN SHOVELAN: Before the Senate armed services committee, the chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfers' one thousand page report landed with a bang.    CHARLES DUELFERS: I still do not expect that militarily significant WMD stocks are hidden in Iraq.    JOHN SHOVELAN: The report – the most comprehensive on the subject - undermines the central reason for going to war.    GEORGE BUSH: It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.    JOHN SHOVELAN: Mr Duelfers' final report made clear Iraq did not possess stockpiles of unconventional weapons at the time of the American led invasion in March 2003. Senator Carl Levin – the ranking democrat on the committee - says the report's conclusion, discredits President Bush.    CARL LEVIN: In addition to having no WMD stocks before the war, for the reasons you gave, Saddam chose not to have those weapons. Is that correct?    CHARLES DUELFERS: That is correct.    CARL LEVIN: Those are stunning statements. Not only did he not have weapons of mass destruction and for the reasons you gave, he chose not to have weapons of mass destruction. That is a hundred and eighty degrees different from what the administration was saying prior to the war.    JOHN SHOVELAN: With a little over three weeks until Americans choose a President, Republicans and Democrats sought to elicit answers that suit their campaign messages.    REPUBLICAN: Do you think that since the world is better off, that that situation could have been achieved without the intervention of the coalition forces, and the active use of military force, in what appeared to be a complete and utter breakdown of diplomacy?    JOHN SHOVELAN: The US weapons inspectors found that Saddam's weapons capabilities had weakened through the years of UN sanctions. But in a speech timed ahead of the report's release, President Bush diminished the importance of the Iraq survey group's findings.    GEORGE BUSH: The prospect that terrorists who kill thousands with hijacked airplanes would kill many more, with weapons of mass murder. We had to take a hard look at every place where terrorists might get those weapons, and on regime stood out – the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.    JOHN SHOVELAN: The Bush administration pointed to Mr Duelfer's belief that Saddam Hussein intended to rebuild weapons of mass destruction programs if UN sanctions were lifted.    CHARLES DUELFER: Saddam observed that India and Pakistan had slipped across the nuclear weapons boundary quite successfully. Those around Saddam seemed quite convinced that once sanctions were ended, and all other things being equal, Saddam would renew his efforts in this field.    JOHN SHOVELAN: The cost of the hunt for the non-existent weapons of mass destruction is enormous, and Senator Ted Kennedy called for and end to it.    TED KENNEDY: We've spent more than $900 million on the search for the weapons of mass destruction. Isn't this a total, total waste of money? I mean why does the search keep going on, and on, and on and aren't we at the point where we have to admit the stockpiles don't exist and then what's obviously become a wild goose chase.    JOHN SHOVELAN: The hunt still involves 1750 people with 1000 linguists examining Iraqi government documents.    TONY EASTLEY: Australian Opposition Leader Mark Latham says the Prime Minister now has to admit he made a mistake on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Speaking to Mike Carlton on Southern Cross Radio just a short time ago, Mark Latham said the latest report from the UN weapons inspectors and the Bush administrations latest inspection report, demands a response from the Prime Minister.    MARK LATHAM: Unfortunately Mr Howard took Australia to war for a purpose that wasn't true. He's made us a bigger target in the war against terror. He diverted resources from the real security of the Australian people – on the home front, and getting it right in Asia. So, it's a terrible decision from a Prime Minister. I think you're first responsibility is to keep the people safe and secure and he's made us less safe. And on the front of honesty and integrity in government he should today, at long last, fess up to the fact – the fundamental truth – that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq..    October 7, 2004    " Bush Administration in Denial about lack of Iraq WMD: Kay (Agence France Presse)    President George W. Bush's administration is in denial over the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003, ex-chief US arms inspector David Kay said. A report by the Iraq Survey Group that Kay ran until he quit at the start of the year found Iraq had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons when Bush was saying that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a growing threat. The White House has insisted Saddam was a threat to the United States and had weapons of mass destruction capability, but Kay told NBC television: "All I can say is 'denial' is not just a river in Egypt."    "The report is scary enough without misrepresenting what it says," he added. Iraq "was not an imminent and growing threat because of its own weapons of mass destruction," he added. Bush said Wednesday there was a risk that Iraq could have transferred weapons to terrorist groups.    But Kay told CNN television "Right now we have a lot of people who are desperate to justify the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq."They will focus on issues such as intent. You will also hear that although we haven't found the weapons or manufacturing capability, they could have been shipped across the border. You can't ship that which you haven't produced. You can't bury that which you haven't obtained or produced."    "Look, Saddam was delusional. He had a lot of intent. He wanted to be Saladin the Great, of the Middle East yet again. He wanted to put Iraq in a preeminent position to remove the US from the region," Kay added. "He had a lot of intent. He didn't have capabilities. Intent without capabilities is not an imminent threat."    "There is the issue that remains as to whether the scientists and engineers living in the chaotic, corrupt situation in Iraq might have transferred individually technology to terrorists," he said. But "that was not the case the administration made."    Saddam gave some information to US interrogators which was used for the report, but Kay said "it's not very credible without further collaboration." Kay said there was less chance that assessments of Iran's and North Korea's weapons programmes were wrong. "We in fact have international action and international inspectors confirming the major details of both the Iranian and the North Korean capability.    "In the case of North Korea, we have them practically bragging about it." Kay said the United States would now face a credibility problem because of the Iraq episode."The point is not whether we are wrong, but whether anyone will believe us. And indeed, that is the burden we are going to carry forward because of the intelligence failure of Iraq," he said calling for major intelligence reform. "No one will believe us as long as we haven't changed the system."    © 2004 Copyright AFP
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