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guardian
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Saddam 'has plans to use chemical weapons'
・ Iraq 'sought uranium' from Africa
・ 45 minutes notice for attack
・ Blair: Saddam must be stopped
Staff and agencies
Tuesday September 24, 2002
Iraq has "military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons", according to the government's long-awaited 50-page dossier on Saddam Hussein's regime, which was published today.
The document says Saddam has plans to use the weapons even against his own population and some are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them.
The dossier, distributed hours before the House of Commons begins an emergency debate on Iraq, also says Saddam has retained command and control authority over the weapons and has sought to acquire "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa, despite having no civil nuclear programme that could require it.
The document also claims Iraq has "tried covertly to acquire technology and materials which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons".
It says specialists have been recalled to work on a nuclear programme.
The dossier alleges that Iraq has retained up to 20 al-Hussein missiles, with a range of 650km, capable of carrying chemical or biological warheads and has developed mobile laboratories for military use "corroborating earlier reports about the mobile production of biological warfare agents".
The report states: "Intelligence also shows that Iraq is preparing to conceal evidence of these weapons, including incriminating documents, from renewed inspections."
In a foreword to the report, the prime minister, Tony Blair, says the dossier had been compiled using evidence from the government's joint intelligence committee.
On Saddam, he says: "I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that he has made progress on weapons of mass destruction and that he has to be stopped."
Mr Blair acknowledges that "gathering intelligence inside Iraq is not easy". But says that he and other ministers are satisfied with the authority of the information in the document, called Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction - the Assessment of the British Government.
The prime minister says it is "unprecedented for the government to publish a document of this kind".
He continues: "In recent months I have been increasingly alarmed by the evidence from inside Iraq that despite sanction, despite the damage done to his capability in the past, despite the United Nations security council resolutions expressly outlawing it, and despite his denials, Saddam Hussein is continuing to develop WMD [weapons of mass destruction], and with them the ability to inflict real damage upon the region and the stability of the world."
Mr Blair adds: "I am quite clear that Saddam will go to extreme lengths, indeed has already done so, to hide these weapons and avoid giving them up."
Special reports
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Also on Guardian Unlimited
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Interactive guides
Iraq under threat - how the US might attack
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Weblog special: Iraq
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20.12.2001: Iraq
In pictures
Saddam Hussein's inner circle
10 years after the Gulf war
Useful links
Arab Gateway: Iraq briefing
Middle East Daily
Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq
Iraq sanctions - UN security council
UN special commission on Iraq
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