4.4 | The
search for WMD
774.
Also on
8 April, Mr Wood reported from Washington that there were
likely to be
three UK
angles to the Report of the Senate Intelligence Committee into
pre-conflict
intelligence
on Iraq:
•
the
reference to yellowcake in President Bush’s State of the Union
speech in
2003, on
which the Committee was likely to be more critical of the US
than
the UK;
•
the “45
minute claim” on which the Report would conclude that there was a
basis
in
intelligence for the public claim; and
775.
On
29 March, a senior SIS officer sought guidance from
Mr Ehrman on the
responsibilities
of the future Government of Iraq for counter-proliferation and “the
legacy
of CBRN
related capabilities”.431
The
Coalition had had a difficult year. Questions to
consider
included:
•
where
responsibility for those issues would lie in the CPA and its
successors;
•
how
policy-makers saw the UK helping Iraq solve the “CBRN riddles
remaining
from the
past”; and
•
the point
at which international organisations would be brought in to help
Iraq
and the
amount of preparatory work that would be necessary with the
US.
776.
Mr David
Landsman, Mr Dowse’s successor as the Head of FCO
Counter-
Proliferation
Department, co-ordinated Whitehall discussion.432
On
31 March, he sought
views
on:
•
how long
the ISG would be needed;
•
the legal
basis for ISG operations after the transfer of
sovereignty;
•
how the UK
would engage with Iraq on other counter-proliferation
activities;
•
what sort
of co-operation programmes and assistance should be
established; and
•
when to
bring in international agencies.
777.
A DIS official
replied on 3 April.433
He reported
that US thinking on the future of the
ISG was
fluid. The ISG’s work had not been included in Iraq’s Transitional
Administrative
Law (TAL)
(see Section 9.2) and it was not yet possible to advise on the
legal basis for
the ISG’s
work in Iraq after the transfer of sovereignty. The WMD Task Force
had told
Mr Duelfer
that it hoped it would be possible to produce a final report within
the next
430
Letter Wood
to Scarlett, 8 April 2004, ‘Iraq WMD: Activity in the Senate
Intelligence Committee’.
431
Letter SIS
[senior officer] to Ehrman, 29 March 2004,
[untitled].
432
Letter
Landsman to Howard, 31 March 2004, ‘Iraq: Implementing
Counter-Proliferation Policy
After June’.
433
Letter
[DIS] to Peters, 3 April 2004, ‘Iraq: Implementing
Counter-Proliferation Policy After June’.
575