PROVING THE CASE FOR WAR:

Report Discounts Iraqi Arms Threat: U.S. Inspector Says Hussein Lacked Means (Mike Allen and Dana Priest, October 6, 2004, Washington Post)

The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday. [...]

A senior U.S. government official said that the report includes comments Hussein made to debriefers after his capture that bolster administration assertions, including his statement that his past possession of weapons of mass destruction "was one of the reasons he had survived so long." He also maintained such weapons saved his government by halting Iranian ground offensives during the Iran-Iraq war and deterred coalition forces from pressing on to Baghdad during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the official said.

The official also said that Duelfer's Iraq Survey Group had uncovered Iraqi plans for ballistic missiles with ranges from 400 to 1,000 kilometers and for a 1,000-kilometer-range cruise missile, farther than the 150-kilometer range permitted by the United Nations, the senior official said.

The official said Duelfer will tell Congress in the report and in testimony today that Hussein intended to reconstitute weapons of mass destruction programs if he were freed of the U.N. sanctions that prevented him from getting needed materials.

Duelfer's report said Hussein was pursuing an aggressive effort to subvert the international sanctions through illegal financing and procurement efforts, officials said. The official said the report states that Hussein had the intent to resume full-scale weapons of mass destruction efforts after the sanctions were eliminated, and details Hussein's efforts to hinder international inspectors and preserve his weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

Remarkably enough, John Kerry and company are citing this report for the proposition that Saddam wasn't a threat. As soon as a sanctions policy that even the U.S. recognized was too onerous on the Iraqi people and which Saddam was getting rich off of anyway--then using the loot to get rid of the sanctions--was lifted he intended to buy back his WMD program. How could any responsible American leader afford not top depose him?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2004 9:56 AM