Thursday, Oct 07, 2004
Saddam Hussein's regime had no weapons of mass destruction since 1991 and no active programmes to produce them, the US's top weapons inspector concluded on Wednesday in a long-awaited report likely to be cited by both sides in next month's US presidential election.
The report from Charles Duelfer, appointed by the Bush administration to lead the hunt for banned weapons, said Iraq had preserved the "intellectual capital" to restart chemical or biological weapons programmes if international sanctions were lifted.
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.
The Duelfer report is the most comprehensive update on the work of the Iraq Survey Group, established in June 2003 by the US, Britain and Australia.
It was immediately seized upon by the campaign of John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, who has accused the US administration of lying about the threat to justify the invasion.
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.
Noting Mr Duelfer's findings, John Edwards, the vice-presidential candidate told a rally in Florida that the Bush administration was "in a complete state of denial about Iraq".
Mr Bush on Wednesday defended his decision to go to war, insisting that "there was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks".
Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, welcomed the report. He said: "Just as I accept that the evidence now is that there were no stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed . . I hope others can be honest and accept that the report also shows that sanctions were not working."
However, the more than 1,000 page report also highlights the effectiveness of the UN sanctions in disarming Mr Hussein and preventing him from developing new arms.
The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.
Mr Duelfer found that Iraq destroyed its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons shortly after the first Gulf War in an effort to have sanctions lifted.
Though he tried to keep hold of the WMD expertise that he had acquired, he did not have any active programme that "risked undoing the progress achieved in eroding sanctions", Mr Duelfer said.
The report said that Iraq's nuclear programme had largely decayed and would have taken several years to reconstitute. Iraq "ended the nuclear programme in 1991," the report said, adding that investigators had "found no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart the programme".
Additional reporting by Christopher Adams in Addis Ababa
Thomas Catan and Mark Huband in Washington, and Stephen Fidler in London
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004. Privacy policy.
