Western Intelligence Accuses Saddam of Hiding his WMD

Rumours that the Iraqi leadership is concealing WMD in people’s homes are being fed to Tony Blair and George Bush as evidence that the Ba’ath regime is again cheating the inspections. However, the reports are based upon nothing more than hearsay and possibly even invented charges trumped up by officials who begin to see that the inspections will reveal what the Washington administration most feared: Saddam Hussein was telling the truth.

If Iraq does not possess any WMD it will be impossible for the UNMOVIC and IAEA teams to find them. However, this does not seem to satisfy the powers that be in Washington and London, intent on starting a war. The rumours that WMD has been hidden in private houses could be a massive disinformation campaign aimed at justifying a strike on Iraq to remove the Ba’ath regime from power and substitute it by a puppet regime friendly to Washington, as in Afghanistan.

This being the case, it is the duty of the UNMOVIC team to verify the rumours and to state categorically whether or not they are true. If their aim is to carry out inspections, then they should complete the job, whether these inspections are carried out in factories (where nothing has yet been found), palaces or private homes, since the UN Resolution gives the teams the authority to act in any place at any time.

Should the UNMOVIC and IAEA teams not find any evidence to suggest that Iraq has WMD, as Baghdad has stated from the beginning, then Washington and London should either adhere to the conditions of the final report these teams present to the UN Security Council next year, or else leave the United Nations Organisation, attack Iraq and then face the wrath of the international community.

Washington and London are fast becoming pariah states, steeped in their own arrogance, walking hand-in-hand along a treacherous path which will take their peoples nowhere.

John ASHTEAD PRAVDA.Ru LONDON UNITED KINGDOM