•
how the
Joint Intelligence Committee’s (JIC) Assessments of Iraq’s
chemical,
biological,
nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, and the intent of
Saddam
Hussein’s
regime to retain, produce, use or proliferate such weapons,
evolved
between
2000 and the invasion of Iraq in March 2003;
•
the
robustness of the evidence base on which those judgements were
made;
•
other
advice given to Ministers on Iraq’s capabilities and
intent;
•
the way in
which the intelligence and Assessments were used:
{{within
Government to underpin policy decisions; and
{{in
public statements and material presented to Parliament to
underpin
the
Government position that urgent action was needed to secure
the
disarmament
of Iraq;
•
the search
for weapons, materials and evidence of prohibited programmes
after
the
conflict; and
•
the
background to and findings of the four previous Inquiries into
aspects of the
issues
covered in this Section.
2.
In doing so,
the Inquiry has drawn on the JIC Assessments addressing these
issues
produced
between 2000 and 2005, which are being published alongside this
Report.
3.
The roles of
the JIC, the Cabinet Office Assessments Staff and the
Secret
Intelligence
Service (SIS), and the priority given to collection of intelligence
on Iraq, are
set out in
Section 2.
4.
As well as
documents provided by the Government and the oral evidence it
was
given, the
Inquiry has drawn on other authoritative accounts
including:
•
reports to
the United Nations Security Council by the International
Atomic
Energy
Agency (IAEA), the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the
UN
Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC); and
•
various
reports of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) published in 2003 to
2005.
5.
Section 1.1
describes Iraq’s chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic
missile
programmes
after the 1991 Gulf Conflict and the international community’s
attempts to
disarm Iraq
– through a series of UN Security Council resolutions, a UN
inspection and
monitoring
regime and a policy of containment supported by limited military
action – and
1