"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
Saddam had at least five months to convince people that he had no such
weapons. That he made no such effort (the efforts that he did make
were along the lines of obfuscating the issue, thus helping convince
everyone that the weapons did exist) can only mean that he was
convinced that he had them and couldn't conceal them.

The situation could be read that way, but Iraq had been maintaining publicly
that they had no such weapons, and in the end they didn't. Saddam
manouvered himself into a corner, for sure. On the one hand complying with
the UN and (apparently) disposing of all his remaining materials yet
muddying the waters enough to let his neighbours know he might still have
some. A gamble on his part that didn't pay off. Obviously much of the
quantity Iraq admitted to having at the end of '91 hasn't been found, but
whether it was down to bad accounting, poor stock-taking, saber-rattling or
conceilment isn't clear. However, I agree that considering it appears
Hussein was largely kept in the dark regarding a lot of other issues in fear
of him, it's certainly a possibility he wasn't in the picture regarding his
WMD capability either.

Si