4.4 | The
search for WMD
•
He was
“surprised” by Prime Minister Allawi’s optimism that “WMD were
there
to be
found”.
•
UNMOVIC’s
“excellent information base was ‘about an Iraq which no
longer
existed’”.
•
“[W]e
should begin to consider to what extent responsibility could
eventually go
to the
Iraqis themselves”.
•
A possible
cache in Syria was “not out of the question”, but “Syria was
‘well
covered’
and something should have come to light by now”.
817.
Mr Blair
discussed Iraq with President Bush again during a video
conference
on 6 July.
818.
The briefing
for Mr Blair advised that President Bush might raise the
Butler
and Senate
Intelligence Committee Reports, but that there was “no point in
pushing
again on
the ISG – Duelfer will not report before August and further
pressure will not
819.
The record of
the video conference between Mr Blair and President Bush
on
6 July
did not include any reference to discussion of the ISG or to the
Butler and Senate
Intelligence
Committee Reports.457
820.
During his
appearance before the Liaison Committee on 6 July,
Mr Blair was asked
about the
implications of the failure to find WMD.458
821.
In his
responses, Mr Blair made a number of points,
including:
•
He had “to
accept that we have not found them [stockpiles of WMD] and
that
we may not
find them. What I would say very strongly, however, is that to go
to
the
opposite extreme and say, therefore, that no threat existed from
Saddam
Hussein
would be a mistake. We do not know what has happened to them;
they
could have
been removed, they could have been hidden, they could have
been
destroyed.”
•
The ISG had
already indicated “quite clearly that there have been breaches”
of
UN
resolutions.
•
The purpose
of military action “was in order to enforce” the UN
resolutions.
•
It was
“absolutely clear from the evidence that has already been found …
that
he [Saddam]
had the strategic capability, the intent and that he was in
multiple
breaches”.
456
Minute
Quarrey to Prime Minister, 6 July 2004, ‘VTC with President
Bush, 6 July’.
457
Letter
Quarrey to Owen, 6 July 2004, ‘Prime Minister’s VTC with Bush,
6 July: Iraq’.
458
Liaison
Committee of the House of Commons, Session 2003-2004,
Oral
evidence taken before the
Liaison
Committee on Tuesday 6 July 2004, Qs
236-271.
583