On Nov 29, 9:22*am, "Steven P. McNicoll"
wrote:
Eunometic wrote:

Which of these men lied and which told the truth on WMD: *Saddam
Hussein, Tony Blair or George Bush?

Hussein lied, Blair and Bush did not.

Ah, so, desuka

Blair told Iraq had no WMD
GORDON RAYNER, LONDON
November 27, 2009

FORMER British prime minister Tony Blair received intelligence that
Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction had been ''dismantled''
10 days before Britain invaded Iraq, the Chilcot inquiry has been
told.

The British Foreign Office did not believe Iraq had nuclear missiles,
but Mr Blair told Parliament Saddam was still a threat to the Middle
East with chemical and biological weapons that could be launched at 45
minutes' notice.

But Sir William Ehrman, the director of international security at the
Foreign Office from 2000 to 2002, told the inquiry into the Iraq war:
''We were getting, in the very final days before military action, some
[intelligence] on chemical and biological weapons that they were
dismantled and [Saddam] might not have the munitions to deliver it.

''On March 10 [2003] we got a report saying the chemical weapons might
have remained disassembled and that Saddam hadn't yet ordered their
reassembly, and he might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal
of agents.''

Despite the information, coalition forces invaded Iraq on March 20,
2003.

The issue of Iraq's ability to produce or use weapons of mass
destruction is central to the inquiry, which must determine whether Mr
Blair misled Parliament over reasons for going to war.

Tim Dowse, the head of counter-proliferation at the Foreign Office
between 2001 and 2003, told the inquiry Iraq had not been "top of the
list" for nations causing concern about the spread of weapons of mass
destruction in the two years before the invasion.

Mr Dowse said Iran, North Korea and Libya had caused far greater alarm
than Saddam's regime. He said that when he came to the job in 2001,
both Libya and Iran had been placed ahead of Iraq.

And while Saddam had supported Palestinian terrorist groups, the
assessments worked on by his officials described the regime's contacts
with al-Qaeda as "quite sporadic".

"After 9/11, we concluded Iraq actually stepped further back. They did
not want to be associated with al-Qaeda. They weren't natural
allies,'' he said.

The Foreign Office ranked Iraq only the fourth most dangerous rogue
state trying to develop WMD in 2001.

Sanctions made it virtually impossible for Saddam to restart his
nuclear program, the inquiry heard, and even without sanctions it
would likely have taken five years for it to build a nuclear weapon.
The hearing continues.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/blair...1126-juj4.html