no surprise, i guess that hans blix guy was right so many months ago. no WMD in Iraq since '91, but Saddam tells us he wanted some (if sanctions were ever lifted). however, we weren't his chief concern...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...321563,00.html
Quote:
Iraq kept up WMD pretence 'to deter Iran'
Saddam Hussein refrained from using weapons of mass destruction during the first Gulf war because of the effect it would have had on world opinion, according to the Iraq Survey Group report.
The former Iraqi president was interviewed by interrogators compiling the report into the country's WMD, which paints a picture of a man obsessed with his own place in history as well as his own security. Asked by a US interviewer in 2004 why he had not used WMD against the coalition during Desert Storm in 1991, Saddam replied: "Do you think we are mad? What would the world have thought about us? We would have completely discredited those who had supported us."
....
The report said that he thought WMD saved the regime many times. He believed that during the Iran-Iraq war chemical weapons had halted Iranian ground offensives and that ballistic mis sile attacks on Tehran had broken its political will. Similarly, during Desert Storm Saddam believed WMD had deterred coalition forces from pressing their attack beyond the goal of freeing Kuwait.
When asked, during a custodial interview, whether he would have reinstituted a WMD programme after sanctions were lifted, his answer implied that Iraq would have done what was necessary.
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Russia and France didn't fare too well in the report, as it alleges that Saddam bribed them for support
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html
Quote:
Saddam Hussein bribed senior politicians and businessmen around the world to secure an early lifting of sanctions, according to the Iraq Survey Report.
Focusing his attention in particular on France and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, Saddam awarded oil exploration contracts and financial inducements to individuals.
The bribes were at first funded by the Iraqi government, but later derived from Saddam's illegal misuse of the oil-for-food programme, which was supposed to provide food for the poor and medicine for the sick.
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also i heard that the US forces found some of Saddam's old scientists working with insurgents to develop ricin/chemical weapons. scary.
and Senator Ted Stevens indicated that he thought there still may be WMDs in Iraq, perhaps buried in the desert. molto optomistic.
either way, this report is sure to be fodder for the debate Friday