No proof of Iraqi WMD transfer
The US Central Intelligence Agency has no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer WMD to al-Qaida or any similar organisation, US media have reported.
Citing a military and intelligence expert, the Washington Post revealed its findings on Sunday – printing details from briefings given by David Kay, the CIA adviser who is directing the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq.
Details about the weapons investigation were also released via a report by Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The newspaper said that, after Kay’s briefing, Cordesman wrote: “[There is] no evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons of mass destruction or weapons to terrorists.”
No WMD discoveries
In an interim report in October, Kay said that no such weapons had been found in Iraq.
According to the Post, Cordesman noted that Kay said Iraq “did order nuclear equipment from 1999 on, but no evidence of new major facility to use it” while visiting several Iraqi cities from 1 to 12 November.
The article also claims there is no evidence of chemical weapons production either.
However, Cordesman wrote that Kay claims he has located biological work “under cover of a new agricultural facility” that showed “advances in developing dry storable powder forms of botulinum toxin.”
Critics have said the White House exaggerated the threat Iraq posed in order to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq.