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U.S. Lawmaker Launches New Iraq WMD Probe
The chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has initiated a new inquiry into prewar Iraq’s suspected WMD arsenal, the New York Sun reported today (see GSN, Jan. 26). Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich) believes it is premature to conclude that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein did not have active WMD programs or stockpiles prior to the U.S.-led invasion of the country, according to the Sun. “The chairman very much believes the issue of weapons of mass destruction is not settled yet and there are sufficient questions of organized looting, transfer to another country or party or things that may have been missed by the [Iraq] Survey Group,” Hoekstra spokesman Jamal Ware said yesterday. Hoekstra is concerned that Iraq’s WMD-related materials could have been transferred to another country or acquired by terrorists, Ware said. Along with his own inquiry, the congressman is asking National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to look into the matter, the Sun reported. Two U.S.-appointed weapons inspectors have found no evidence of the weapons, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Iraqi air force Gen. Georges Sada have said Iraq’s unconventional weapons were probably transferred to Syria before the war. Former U.S. Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith has said the question remains open. “People talk about the former Soviet loose nukes problem. The question is whether this is a loose WMD problem,” he said. “We have not found evidence of stockpiles. But there remain lots of open questions because we have not found evidence to confirm what (Hussein) did with all the stockpiles he had.” However, if the weapons were removed, one of the Bush administration’s justifications for war — to disarm a tyrant who could transfer weapons of mass destruction to terrorists — might have backfired and instead facilitated just such a scenario, some critics have said (Eli Lake, New York Sun, Feb. 3). Meanwhile, a newly released edition of “Lawless World” by Philippe Sands claims that British Prime Minister Tony Blair told U.S. President George W. Bush he would support military action against Iraq while a U.N. resolution authorizing an invasion was still pending, the London Evening Standard reported today. A memo from a January 2003 meeting between the leaders quotes Bush as saying that if diplomats did not approve the resolution, “military action would follow anyway.” Blair reportedly replied that he was “ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam,” the Evening Standard reported. The Security Council resolution “would provide an insurance policy against the unexpected, and international cover, including with the Arabs,” Blair reportedly told Bush (Joe Murphy, Evening Standard/This Is London, Feb. 3).
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