The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

a presumption that, if Iraq did not have stocks of these weapons, it would quickly

produce agent, weaponise it and deploy weapons to units …”47

110.  The Butler Report also stated:

“We were told that the JIC’s conclusions were based in part on one human

intelligence report from one source, but mainly on the JIC’s own judgements. They

thus represent an insight into the views of JIC members of Iraq’s chemical and

biological weapons capabilities at that time.”48

111.  Mr Julian Miller, Chief of the Assessments Staff from September 2001 to November

2003, told the Inquiry that the Assessment had:

“… picked up a report from an established source which referred to the intention to

use weapons. I think it didn’t distinguish between chemical and biological. It implied

both were intended to be used. […]”49

Dr Blix’s interview, 25 August 2002

Dr Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, gave an interview on NBC’s Meet

the Press programme on 25 August.50

Asked whether Iraq possessed biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, Dr Blix

responded that there were “many open questions” but the inspectors did not have

proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Blix also pointed out that “an absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence”.

Other points made by Dr Blix are set out in Section 3.4.

Mr Blair’s position at the end of August 2002

112.  In August, debate in the US about whether military action would be taken against

Iraq intensified.

113.  The events and debate within the UK Government before Mr Blair’s press

conference in Sedgefield on 3 September are addressed in Section 3.4.

114.  On 26 August, in a major speech to a National Conference of the Veterans of

Foreign Wars on the threat from terrorism, the US Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney,

stated that Saddam Hussein had “made a science out of deceiving the international

47  Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [“The Butler Report”], 14 July 2004, HC 898,

paragraph 292.

48  Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [“The Butler Report”], 14 July 2004, HC 898,

paragraph 293.

49  Private hearing, 5 May 2010, page 11.

50  NBC, 25 August 2002, Meet the Press.

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