4.4 | The
search for WMD
that the
search for WMD should be given time and the House and Senate
Intelligence
Committees
allowed to work through huge quantities of intelligence provided by
Mr Tenet
before any
decision was taken.
421.
In his speech
to Congress on 17 July, Mr Blair warned of the risk that
“terrorism
and states
developing weapons of mass destruction come
together”.217
He
stated:
“If we are
wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that at its least is
responsible for
inhuman
carnage and suffering.
“That is
something I am confident history will forgive.
“But if our
critics are wrong, if we are right, as I believe with every fibre
of instinct
and
conviction I have that we are, and we do not act, then we will have
hesitated in
the face of
this menace when we should have given leadership.
“That is
something history will not forgive.”
422.
At a joint
press conference with Mr Blair, President Bush was asked
whether he
agreed with
the suggestion in Mr Blair’s speech that he might be proved
wrong about
the threat
from Iraqi WMD. President Bush offered three explanations for the
absence
of a
breakthrough in the search for WMD: the “chaos” in Iraq; the effort
Saddam Hussein
had put
into concealment; and the fact that high-level officials were only
just starting to
423.
President Bush
predicted that:
“… we will
bring the weapons, and, of course, we will bring the information
forward
on the
weapons when we find them.
“And
that’ll … end all this speculation.
…
“And we
based our decisions on good, sound intelligence, and … our people
are
going to
find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence
was good
intelligence;
there’s no doubt in my mind.”
“… if I
could just correct you on one thing, I certainly did not say that I
would be
proved
wrong. On the contrary, I said with every fibre of instinct and
conviction
I believe
that we are right.
…
217
BBC
News,
17 July 2003, Text of
Blair’s speech.
218
CNN.com,
[undated], Transcript:
Bush-Blair news conference.
507