4.4 | The search for WMD

“The Report provides chapter and verse as to why the policy of containment was not

working.”484

868. At PMQs on 13 October, Mr Blair stated:

“We know from the Iraq Survey Group that he [Saddam Hussein] indeed had the

intent and capability and retained the scientists and desire, but that he might not

have had stockpiles of actually deployable weapons. We have accepted that

and I have already apologised for any information that subsequently turned

out to be wrong.

…

“Those people who want to pray in aid the Iraq Survey Group in respect of stockpiles

of weapons must also accept the other part of what the Iraq Survey Group

said, which is that Saddam retained the intent and the capability – the teams of

scientists and so on – and was in breach of United Nations resolutions. That is what

Mr Duelfer expressly said. It was the breach of UN resolutions and their enforcement

that was and is the reason for going to war.”485

869. On 28 October, in response to a Written Parliamentary Question from

Mr Llew Smith (Labour) asking for a list of the conclusions of the ISG Comprehensive

Report with which the Foreign Secretary did not agree, Mr Denis MacShane,

Foreign Office Minister, set out three principal areas of disagreement:

“The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) Report concludes that there is no evidence to suggest

that Iraq sought to procure uranium from Africa in the 1990s. The Government

continues to believe that credible evidence exists to support the assertion made in

the September 2002 dossier. Lord Butler of Brockwell’s Review upheld that belief.

The UK was not in a position to share all the intelligence on this issue with the ISG.

“The ISG also expressed doubt that the aluminium tubes referred to in the

September dossier were evidence of a resumption of Iraq’s nuclear programmes.

Again, Lord Butler’s Review assessed this, and concluded that the Joint Intelligence

Committee were right to include reference to the tubes in the dossier and that

it properly reflected doubts about the use of the tubes in the caution of its

assessments. The Government fully accepts the findings of Lord Butler’s Review.

“The ISG also report that they found no evidence to support the claim in the dossier

that Iraq ‘is almost certainly seeking an indigenous ability to enrich uranium’ based

on gas centrifuge technology. They do, however, admit that elements of useful and