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Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002

In the report, Prime Minister Tony Blair said British intelligence had compiled evidence that Iraqi leader 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."

Blair released the 55-page dossier some three hours before Parliament, recalled from its summer vacation, began an emergency debate on the Iraqi situation and what role Britain should play in bringing Saddam and his "violent and aggressive" regime to book for their perceived threat to the rest of the globe.

"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," said Blair, even as opposition grows in Parliament - much of it in his own Labor Party - to any military action alongside the United States against Baghdad.

The dossier, which the prime minister said as far back as last March was in the works, flatly claims that Iraq has "military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons," some of which could be deployed within 45 minutes of Iraqi troops getting orders to go to war.

It said that Baghdad is perhaps five years away from producing nuclear weapons on its own but that this could be shortened to one to two years if it could procure the necessary enriched uranium or plutonium from abroad.

Seeking Uranium

Intelligence reports included in the report said Iraq has already "sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, even though it has no active civil nuclear power program under way that would require it, and that Saddam has recalled nuclear arms experts to work on a military program."

The British government's dossier is not as hard-hitting on Iraq's nuclear threat as a recent report by the independent International Institute of Strategic Studies, which concluded that Baghdad could produce nuclear weapons "within months" if it could lay its hands on enough uranium.

Blair's report said Iraq has developed weapons to deliver chemical and biological destruction, including up to 20 al-Hussein missiles with a range of 400 miles - bringing Israel, Turkey and British bases on Cyprus within striking distance - in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Other delivery systems include the al-Samoud liquid-propellant rocket and the solid-fueled Ababil-100, each with a range of up to 120 miles, it said.

The dossier's release came amid pressure on Iraq to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country to investigate claims of chemical and biological weapons stockpiles and any evidence of a nuclear weapons program.

How useful the weapons inspectors would be, even if allowed to work unhindered, may not be enough to convince the British and U.S. governments. The British report said "intelligence also shows that Iraq is prepared to conceal evidence of these weapons, including incriminating documents, from renewed inspections."

Blair conceded that "gathering intelligence information inside Iraq is not easy" but that he and his Cabinet were "satisfied" with the quality of the information that went into the dossier, officially entitled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction - the Assessment of the British Government."

Defense expert Paul Beaver told Britain's Independent Television News that "this is a very good document, with good intelligence information," but that "the one thing it does not have is a 'killer-fact,' such as that Saddam has a bomb already."

Meanwhile, doubts about the validity of any use of strikes against Iraq remained rife in Parliament, where 133 members of Blair's Labor Party are among the more than 160 MPs who have signed a motion opposing military action.

Despite claims of unity among his ministers, news reports quoting key government sources said Blair runs the risk of having as many as three and possibly more members of his Cabinet resign in protest if Britain goes to war against Iraq alongside the United States.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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Saddam Hussein’s race to make a nuclear bomb