The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
their history,
and, “Drawing on very sensitive intelligence”, set out the
assessment of
current
capabilities and showed how the picture was “continuing to develop
as new
information
becomes available”.
318.
Specifically,
the Executive Summary stated that recent intelligence had
added
to the
picture of Iraq’s capabilities and indicted that Iraq:
•
attached
“great importance to the possession of weapons of mass
destruction
and that
Saddam Hussein is committed to using them if
necessary”;
•
envisaged
“the use of weapons of mass destruction in its current
military
planning
and could deploy such weapons within 45 minutes of the order
being
given for
their use”;
•
had “begun
dispersing its most sensitive weapons, equipment and
material
because
Saddam is determined not to lose the capabilities developed in the
last
four
years”;
•
was
“preparing plans to conceal evidence of its weapons of mass
destruction
from any
renewed inspections, including by dispersing incriminating
documents”;
•
had
“acquired mobile laboratories for military use, corroborating
earlier
report[ing]
about the mobile production of biological warfare
agents”;
•
had
“purchased large quantities of uranium ore, despite having no civil
nuclear
programme
that could require it”.
319.
The draft
comprised six sections:
•
Saddam
Hussein’s regime and his rise to power;
•
Saddam
Hussein’s wars;
•
Iraq’s WMD
programme – the threat in 1991;
•
The
response of the international community;
•
The history
of UN weapons inspectors;
•
Iraqi
chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile programmes: the
current
position.
320.
The section on
Iraq’s current capabilities stated:
“Intelligence
plays a central role in informing government policy towards
Iraq’s
weapons of
mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes. The reports
are
often very
sensitive … But, taken with Saddam’s record of using chemical
weapons
and the
evidence from UN weapons inspections, the intelligence builds a
compelling
picture of
Saddam’s capabilities.
“This
section sets out what we now know …”
174